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When does the testing takes place?

Last post 12:29 pm June 12, 2019 by Thomas Owens
2 replies
11:30 am June 12, 2019

Dear Community,

iam wondering when exactly the testing takes place during the sprint. Of course the Increment should be releasable and meet the DoD and therefore tested.

But there are two aspects arising in my mind:

1) What if the testing outweights the actual development work and therefore hinders the progress of building the increment. More specific: Is there are limit for testing like it is for Product Backlog refinement?

2) When does the testing takes place? For sure it must be during the sprint, but is there a specific time frame? Or can the development decide when and how much testing is necessary? (This would be in line with the scrum guide where the development team is described as self organizing.)

 

KR, Jan 


12:19 pm June 12, 2019

What if the testing outweights the actual development work and therefore hinders the progress of building the increment.

Shouldn't testing be seen as part of development work, given that it is necessary to achieve Done standard and is performed by the Development Team?

When does the testing takes place?

Test Driven Development is one of the practices supported by the Scrum Framework. What does that indicate about when testing might reasonably take place?


12:29 pm June 12, 2019

Testing takes place throughout the Sprint. As work is completed, it can be integrated and tested.

I would agree with your assessment that, as a self-organizing and cross-functional team, the Development Team will decide the level of testing that is necessary. The Definition of Done may provide additional guidance around the required testing for work to be considered done. Keep in mind that the Definition of Done applies to the Product Increment, not necessarily individual Product Backlog Items:

When a Product Backlog item or an Increment is described as "Done", everyone must understand what "Done" means. Although this may vary significantly per Scrum Team, members must have a shared understanding of what it means for work to be complete, to ensure transparency. This is the definition of "Done" for the Scrum Team and is used to assess when work is complete on the product Increment.

If you have contractual, legal, or regulatory constraints around testing, it needs to be incorporated into the value stream and/or the Definition of Done to ensure that what the team delivers is suitable for consumption by whoever is downstream.

At the end of each Sprint, the team is to produce a Product Increment that meets the Definition of Done.


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