Traditional testing practices typically follow the Waterfall or V-model, where requirements are defined, designs are agreed, and software is developed, tested and implemented in a series of phases that follow an often lengthy path. Agile is different, with a stronger focus on iterative development and frequent implementations, often doing away with much of the up-front design and documentation.
This is something of a paradigm shift for testers experienced in traditional techniques. Within Agile projects, end-users and developers work much more closely together, and testers need to work closely with both in order to understand and test the software in terms of the high-level business scenarios.
In this excellent article for TEST Magazine, Peter Varhol explains how independent testing is still a vital ingredient in Agile software development, and shows how testers are perfectly positioned to codify and clarify user stories, and verify and validate that they have been implemented as expected.
Read the article in full over at TEST Magazine.
