Start and Stop Boundary for a Quality Analyst

Overview to the SCRUM Process

Scrum is like a subset to the agile process framework and it is very lightweight methodology that is used widely.

Scrum is the process where the customers remain happy by getting the product in the small modules, it also helps to keep the customers aware that the process may slow down by the frequent changes in requirements.
Team and the client be in touch and time to time demo given by team to the client as the releases are shorts.

On the other way before the actual start of the sprint, all the tasks of the sprints are finalized which results in no rework required. Because rework leads to delay or failure.
But now there is the biggest challenge for QA is that he/she having maximum 3-4 days to deliver a bug-free release, because the releases are short and sprint is mostly of a 15 days cycle, therefore it requires a lot of efforts and smart work.


QA's activities

QA is a very important player in the team. Because the BAs, Scrum Master, customer and everyone else is fuzzy about the look & feel, quality and the performance of the product or application.

In Scrum,  the duration of the sprint is short and QA has to apply a lot of efforts in a smart manner, hence it is very important that the QA should require to be involved right from the beginning phase ‘Planning’. Many times QA plays the role of product owner, in the absence of the PO. Thus he helps the BA by creating their test cases/ scenarios and through the acceptance criteria.
QA also provides the right approach to the developers while they are facing trouble with the business rule or functionality.

In the scrum, the healthy relations and the team bonding plays a very crucial role.
QA is not only appreciated for the numbers of bugs he discovers but also judged about how he interacts with the team, motivating the team and helping the team even at difficult times.

Conclusion
Apart from the testing of the tasks, writing the test cases/ test plans /release documents he also tries to be involved more. Because the sprint duration is short and the everyone is chasing the common goal “ to deliver a functioning bug-free software or product by helping each other”.
Therefore the involvement of the QA is under almost every activity done in the sprint, hence we can say there is no start and stop boundary for the QA activities.
In Scrum process, the QA has much more responsibilities as compare with the traditional waterfall model where the QA activities are limited to testing the features in end.