Test Manager in Agile Projects

Do you still need test management in an agile project? Is a test manager necessary in agile testing? I get asked these questions again and again. My answer is quite clear: it depends. It depends on which tasks you need from this role in the team and consider to be helpful. And who can take on these tasks in the team.

The ISTQB defines the test manager as “The person responsible for the project management of test activities and test resources and for the evaluation of a test object.”

In a professional project environment - whether traditional or agile - there are quality assurance tasks. In the traditional approach, a test manager with a focus on test planning and control fulfills many of these tasks. In an agile team, everyone is responsible for quality. These tasks also exist here, although not necessarily in the person of the test manager.

Sometimes, however, these tasks in agile projects accumulate with individuals. That’s okay as long as it doesn’t create knowledge silos. In my experience, a sensible distribution among several team members and a shared view of the activities is more optimal.

Agile test management tasks

What is it actually about? Here are a few examples of quality assurance tasks that the test manager would have taken on in a traditional project:

Release and iteration planning

• Estimation of test effort and feasibility (e.g. via Planning Poker)
• Grouping of content that is close to each other and therefore efficiently testable in one / a few releases or iterations

Structure/expansion of the product backlog, prioritization of backlog items

• Review of the backlog items for unambiguity, consistency, completeness and especially testability
• View from the customer and end user perspective
• Are there acceptance criteria that are formulated clearly, unambiguously and without contradictions? Important: Are these verifiable (and, if relevant for the test, testable)?
• When estimating the effort involved, the test manager role can ensure that test aspects are also taken into account here.

Setting up the development environment for development, continuous integration, testing and pre-production

• Setting up the process for continuous integration (with testing)
• Integration of the test stages from unit tests (for test-driven design) to system and acceptance tests, as well as the transparent presentation of their results in reports, dashboards, etc.
• Definition of the process from test to pre-production

Selection / definition of the development procedure

• Creation of a suitable test strategy

Forming a team / finalizing the team structure

• Ensuring that experienced testers and test management expertise are on board
• Ensure and, if necessary, expand test expertise in the team
• Define collaboration - how does collaboration between development and testing work? Are there separate developer tasks and tester tasks? Or does testing always come automatically after development?
• Is it transparent when development is finished and when testing can begin?
• How do testers organize their own tester tasks? Do you use the same task board as the team or your own?
• Determine how defects are communicated (taskboard/tool)

Definition of the working environment

• Provide test rooms and equipment
• Organize test environment

Tool selection

• Proof of concept of tools
• Create procedure/concept for test automation at system and acceptance test level
• Define the test management

Automation

• Push automation of unit, integration and acceptance tests
• Ensure that test automation framework is available and usable

Joint development of the Definition of Done

• Focus on quality, testability and measurability
• Are predefined framework conditions covered in DoD (e.g. legal regulations)?

In agile software development, many of these tasks are already covered by developers, product owners, scrum masters or other roles. For the others, it is up to the team to decide whether and who should take on these tasks. How this can look in detail is described in my book “Agile Testing - The agile path to quality”.

Is the test manager now unemployed?

All tasks are now distributed within the team. Is the test manager now obsolete? Quite the opposite! Their knowledge and experience are invaluable. When your own company switches to agile software development, the legitimate question arises: What happens now as a test manager? In recent years, I have coached many test managers who were faced with this question. Some of them have gone into agile projects as testers and have driven testing activities forward there. I have accompanied others on their way to becoming agile quality coaches. They have created a new understanding of their role and now support projects within the company. There they support developers and other team members:

• How you can integrate quality tasks into your daily routine
• They serve as sparring partners for software testing and quality issues
• How quality is established as an attitude in the team
• You provide support with infrastructure, test data and test strategy
• …

The future of the test manager

The need for precisely tailored software tests is increasing due to the interaction and complexity of systems. The knowledge of today’s test managers is indispensable and will become even more important in the future. What can efficient tests look like? Which tests have which priority? In my opinion, the classic image of the test manager has had its day. We won’t often find managers who write hundreds of pages of test concepts and spend the whole day poring over Gantt charts. What does the agile test manager look like? He is a team companion who uses his know-how to accompany development and test teams and enables them to find their agile quality path.