Switch to agile testing by bringing test design, execution, and feedback into each small delivery increment—not by moving the same end-of-project test phase into a sprint. Start with a bounded pilot, clarify acceptance examples early, involve testers throughout development, automate repeatable checks selectively, and use what the pilot reveals to decide what to change next.
What changes when testing becomes agile?
Agile testing is collaborative quality work carried out as a product evolves in small increments. Testers remain specialists, but their expertise is available during refinement and development rather than arriving only after implementation. Developers contribute tests and help investigate failures; product stakeholders clarify expected behavior and priorities.
This does not mean QA disappears or that every organization must abolish specialist testing teams. The goal is to avoid making a separate test group a late-stage queue while preserving the skills, independence, and evidence your product requires. ISO/IEC TR 29119-6:2021 provides guidance for applying the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 testing series in agile life cycles, including for organizations moving from traditional or waterfall approaches to agile: ISO’s standard page.
How to make the transition
1. Set a goal and record constraints
Choose a concrete problem the transition should address, such as slow feedback, defects found late, handoffs that stall delivery, or uncertainty about release readiness. Record constraints that shape the solution: regulatory evidence, hardware or vendor dependencies, fixed release windows, shared test environments, and team capacity. Do not assume that adopting agile automatically improves speed or quality; outcomes depend on the context and the practices adopted.
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2. Map how a change is tested today
Follow a representative change from request through release. Note when test design, environment setup, test-data preparation, specialist review, and defect retesting happen. Mark waiting time and rework as well as active work. Delays can arise from dependencies or unavailable environments, not only from testers. PMI’s transition guidance discusses how an understaffed independent test group can become a bottleneck: PMI’s transition strategies.
3. Pick a bounded pilot
Choose a piece of work with a genuine user or stakeholder feedback loop and manageable dependencies. Agree which working practices the pilot will try, who needs to participate, and what evidence will help you decide whether to expand, adapt, or stop it. Keep required predictive controls explicit rather than dropping them by default. PMI’s Agile Practice Guide, Second Edition addresses choosing fit-for-purpose predictive, agile, or hybrid life cycles; agile is not a universal prescription.
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4. Bring testing into refinement and development
Before implementation, have testers, developers, and product stakeholders discuss expected behavior, examples, risks, and what must be true for the change to be accepted. Make acceptance examples specific enough to guide implementation and checking. Test as the increment is built instead of treating testing as a handoff after development. SAFe describes agile testing as collaborative work in small increments, with testing and automation brought in early wherever possible: SAFe’s agile testing guidance.
5. Automate repeatable checks selectively
Automate checks when they provide useful, repeatable feedback and the team can maintain them. Decide which checks belong at different levels of the product and keep exploratory, risk-focused testing in the plan. A passing automated suite does not prove that a product has no defects. The sources support early automation in principle, but do not establish a universal tool stack or target percentage.
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6. Review the pilot and adjust
Inspect a small set of signals in context: elapsed time from change to useful feedback, waiting between development and testing, rework, escaped problems, stability of automated checks, and whether stakeholders can review working increments. Use the findings to identify a specific next adjustment. Avoid rewarding teams for maximizing test counts or automation percentages; those numbers alone do not establish useful coverage or product quality.
How should roles work in an agile testing team?
- Testers: contribute risk-based thinking, test design, exploratory testing, feedback on acceptance examples, and coaching in quality practices.
- Developers: contribute tests, test changes during implementation, and help diagnose failures.
- Product stakeholders: clarify expected behavior, priorities, and whether an increment meets the need.
The allocation depends on product risk and team structure. Integrating testing into delivery does not require removing specialist roles or centralized expertise. A specialist group can still support teams; the transition question is how to make its skills available without creating avoidable waits.
Choose a team-level, hybrid, or broader transition
Compare approaches against the needs and constraints of the product rather than assuming a single model fits every team. PMI’s guidance covers predictive, agile, and hybrid life cycles, while ISO’s technical report maps testing guidance for agile projects and lifecycle transitions. Neither says that one approach is best in every case.
| Decision axis | Question to ask |
|---|---|
| Feedback | How quickly can a change receive useful test and stakeholder feedback? |
| Risk and integration | Where are integration risks exposed, and when are defects likely to be discovered? |
| Change and reprioritization | Can work be reprioritized when new information arrives? |
| Governance | What documentation, traceability, approval, or regulatory evidence is required? |
| Skills | Are specialist testing skills available when teams need them? |
| Automation | Are automated checks stable and maintainable, or are they adding rework? |
| Dependencies | How do shared environments, hardware, vendors, and release windows affect feedback? |
Common transition problems and how to respond
- Testing still starts at the end of an increment: invite testing expertise into refinement and agree examples and risks before implementation.
- A specialist group becomes a queue: map the waits and explore how testers can work alongside delivery teams while retaining appropriate specialist support.
- Automation is growing but feedback is not improving: review whether checks are useful, reliable, and maintained; do not treat a higher automation percentage as the goal.
- Agile practices conflict with required controls: identify the evidence and approvals that must remain, then select a hybrid or other fit-for-purpose approach rather than silently dropping obligations.
- The pilot has dependencies it cannot control: record them and choose a more bounded pilot or adapt the feedback plan before scaling.
Reference for testing in agile life cycles
ISO identifies ISO/IEC TR 29119-6:2021 as guidance for applying ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 in agile life cycles. The IEC record lists edition 1.0, published 2021-07-15, at its publication page. ISO says the guidance is intended for roles including testers, test managers, business analysts, product owners, Scrum Masters, and developers, and that its mappings can benefit organizations moving from traditional or waterfall to agile. It is guidance, not a requirement that every organization adopt the same framework.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Does switching to agile testing mean removing QA specialists?
No. It means making testing a shared part of delivery while keeping specialist skills available and integrating them into the team’s work.
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ISO/IEC TR 29119-6:2021 provides guidance for applying the ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 testing series in agile life cycles.
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