Improvement Areas for Agile Test Processes

In the past decade agile testing has been recognized as a field and has progressedsignificantly. Studies show that improved test processes can increase the quality ofsoftware, reduce the number of bugs and reduce the cost. The aim of this study is topresent a recommendation referring to tools from agile and sequential developmentmethods that can improve the test process within the different types of projects. Theexpectation is to contribute to the projects by making the test process more efficient andto increase the awareness of risks.Dialogs, interviews and a focus group are combined with a literature study to analyze thetest processes at the consulting firm Combitech AB. Together with the theoreticalframework that presents basic information and terminology about test and test processes,and the basic information about agile development models, an analysis is performed.The final result of this thesis is eleven improvement areas with recommendations todeveloping teams. The recommendations aim to improve the test process for the teamsworking in agile processes. Together the recommendations involve different importantareas of test and its process, like education and knowledge, retrospective anddocumentation, awareness and visualization, and the purpose of test.The conclusion of this study is that there is no common test process that isimplementable for all different projects, but there are improvement areas that affectthem all. It is also shown that a team with united definition and attitude towards testwill work more efficient, and with an increased awareness the team will become better inpreventing risks. It is difficult to measure a process and its progress, and the informationfrom a measurement is hard to interpret, but there are reflections that can be made tofacilitate for the team. The improvement areas that would help Combitech the most are- Educate where education is needed- Be aware of the alternatives- Visualize test- Decide your metric