QA Activities

Project Phase

full support

medium support

low support

Potential risk / comments

stand-up meetings

Foundation and Setup

x

x (partly)

x (partly)

QA Analyst has not enough knowledge about the project
QA Analyst feels he is not part of the team

UAT intro with the customer

Foundation and Setup

x

x

Customer is not clear about UAT expectations, especially when he has little experience with IT projects

SA, CE discussions - scope and solutions

Foundation and Setup

x

QA Analyst is missing some information about the project, more time will be needed during Feature Sprints

Integration and data testing

Foundation and Setup

x

x

x

Data issues would be find later, probably by the customer, this really should be on every project

document integration and data testing

Foundation and Setup

x

documentation will not be available for later discussions with the customer

X-Ray preparation

Foundation and Setup

x

X-Ray is a test management tool, without using it sharing QA documentation and results with the customer will be harder. Later it can lead to harder communication with the customer about what was tested and with what results.

test plan and test strategy preparation

Foundation and Setup

x

x

can lead to testing just particular functionalities without having the bigger picture

stand-up meetings

Feature Sprint

x

x (partly)

x (partly)

QA Analyst has not enough knowledge about the project
QA Analyst feels he is not part of the team

SA, CE discussions - user stories and AC discussions

Feature Sprint

x

QA Analyst is missing some information about the features, some useful tests could be missing because of this

create test cases

Feature Sprint

x

x (no X-Ray)

high level - not to be shared with the customer, positive scenarios orientation

missing test documentation can be an issue for later communication with the customer and later for our Support team

X-Ray usage

Feature Sprint

x

X-Ray is a test management tool, without using it sharing QA documentation and results with the customer will be harder. Later it can lead to harder communication with the customer about what was tested and with what results.

testing according to test cases - positive cases

Feature Sprint

x

x

x

with QA Analyst this is a must - without QA Analyst, all testing will be done by the customer, with QA Analyst we can expect bugs from the customer will be more business or data specific

testing according to test cases - negative cases, exceptions

Feature Sprint

x

x (partly)

more bugs will be found by the customer later, also functional once - it can easily lead to disappointed customer and project delay

report bugs as sub-tasks

Feature Sprint

x

x

x

this is a must - without QA Analyst it will be done just by the customer

Pfx project team communication

Feature Sprint

x

x

x

this is a must - without QA Analyst, the communication is fully up to CE, SA, PM

communication with the customer about UAT preparation and testing related issues

Feature Sprint

x

x

there will be no QA support for the customer, of course PM can give the customer documentation prepared by QA team, but there will be no one in the team to discuss QA related things with the customer
this can lead to the situation the customer is not ready for UAT and we discover it too late

investigate bugs from customer

Feature Sprint

x

everything reported by the customer will be handled directly by CE or SA
it will lead to higher involvement of CE, SA to the communication with the customer

sw demo for the customer (prepare and deliver)

Feature Sprint

x

demo for the customer will be just from technical point of view - done by CE
it will lead to higher involvement of CE to the communication with the customer 

regression testing

Feature Sprint

x

x

x

this is a must - without QA Analyst it will be done by the customer

smoke testing before customer testing

Feature Sprint

x

x

customer can discover the application is not ready for testing because it was not properly deployed - it is pretty rare, but the damage of our relationship with the customer can be even higher

SPOC

Feature Sprint

x

customer will have to communicate directly with SA, CE, it can leads to delays and misunderstandings because the customer will communicate with several different people

stand-up meetings

UAT

x

x

x (partly)

QA Analyst has not enough knowledge about the current status of the project and what the customer is solving now

SPOC

UAT

x

customer will have to communicate directly with SA, CE, it can leads to delays and misunderstandings because the customer will communicate with several different people

Customer support (UAT testing)

UAT

x

If the customer is not experienced enough with IT projects and software testing, this could be a serious problem for us. Missing support can lead to problems with acceptance from the customer, reported bugs during last days of UAT, … . I need to remind if we find during UAT that the customer is not ready for UAT phase, it's too late to add QA Analyst to the project and "save" the project timeline. 

Smoke testing

UAT

x

x

customer can discover the application is not ready for testing because it was not properly deployed - it is pretty rare, but the damage of our relationship with the customer can be even higher

bug investigation and retesting

UAT

x

x

x

what the customer is reporting can be often hard to understand for our CEs, so it is very useful when QA Analyst can help with investigation of what the problem is and help our team to speed things up

expected ratio for all project phases

50% CE

full support

35-40% CE

medium support

25% CE

low support

example of hours a day for Feature Sprints

4

full support

3

medium support

2

low support