3 Tips to Speed Up Your Agile Transformation Journey

Tags: agile, testing, devops, q
Published: 2020-03-06 11:48:48

Agile and its many benefits need no introduction. One of the main reasons to go Agile is the lure of high product quality and efficiency. The Agile process delivers features quicker because of shorter feedback loops. The entire method is designed to deliver high-quality software more quickly.

And many experts believe that testing is crucial to Agile success or speeding up your Agile journey. However, many organizations put the cart before the horse when adopting Agile. That is, they decide to ‘go Agile’ before defining what Agile is meant to do for them. This leads to frustration, disappointment and a dysfunctional Agile practice that doesn’t help the organization.

As a company that practices Agile and experiences the obstacles first-hand, we have listed a few ways you can overcome these challenges and be more Agile:

Ways to accelerate your Agile transformation journey
1) Identify goals clearly

The transition from Waterfall to Agile will not make sense unless you have specific goals and pointers for the journey. What do you want your Agile practice to achieve? Adopt the Agile practice by thinking of your organization’s local environment. Let organizational goals drive the adoption and implementation, rather than a textbook approach to the methods. Read up on some of the different Agile approaches like Scrum, Kanban etc. and pick what you find useful to customize for your teams.

Also communicate your goals across the teams with clear and defined targets. If it is ‘shift left’ , then communicate this to your entire team from developers, testers and other stakeholders. Define your agile practice around this and measure your outcome frequently.

2) Don’t get attached

Sound philosophical advice that comes in handy in the age of digital transformation. The product you conceptualized and the product you end up with will almost never be the same. You will refine, rework and change your concept as you go. The beauty(but also the danger) of Agile is that you can’t foresee or plan your changes in advance, because it is a moving goal post of working parts.

The somewhat transitory and evolutionary nature of progress in Agile stumps many project leaders and team members. Don’t get attached to your original concept or idea, and remember the mantra of ‘responding to change over following a plan.’

3) Technical agility

Culture transformation is one of the most critical aspects to agile success. But businesses also need to prepare by investing in the technical agile methods for software agility. Whether it is leveraging automation to make shift-left happen or to invest in tools that integrate with your existing project management software and enable a faster Agile adoption.

An example of this would be investing in the right toolset to support your Agile outcomes. For instance, QMetry Test Management for Jira is a test management solution designed for Agile and DevOps teams. It is integrated with Jira for agility and interoperability. With powerful test authoring, execution and organization feature right inside Jira, it supports the major automation frameworks like Selenium, Appium and QMetry Automation Studio.

So, if your goal is to Shift left, test early and often and get your Agile practice up to speed, QMetry Test Management for Jira might is tailor-made for you. Its comprehensive coverage and shorter release cycles make it the ideal Agile testing tool. Sign up now for a free trial.