Question

What is Agile Model? Advantages of Agile Model?

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Agile development model is also a type of Incremental model. Software is developed in incremental, rapid cycles. This results in small incremental releases with each release building on previous functionality. Each release is thoroughly tested to ensure software quality is maintained. It is used for time critical applications.  Extreme Programming (XP) is currently one of the most well known agile development life cycle model.

Diagram of Agile model:

Agile model in Software testing

Advantages of Agile model:

Customer satisfaction by rapid, continuous delivery of useful software.
People and interactions are emphasized rather than process and tools. Customers, developers and testers constantly interact with each other.
Working software is delivered frequently (weeks rather than months).
Face-to-face conversation is the best form of communication.
Close, daily cooperation between business people and developers.
Continuous attention to technical excellence and good design.
Regular adaptation to changing circumstances.
Even late changes in requirements are welcomed
Disadvantages of Agile model:


In case of some software deliverables, especially the large ones, it is difficult to assess the effort required at the beginning of the software development life cycle.
There is lack of emphasis on necessary designing and documentation.
The project can easily get taken off track if the customer representative is not clear what final outcome that they want.
Only senior programmers are capable of taking the kind of decisions required during the development process. Hence it has no place for newbie programmers, unless combined with experienced resources.
When to use Agile model:

When new changes are needed to be implemented. The freedom agile gives to change is very important. New changes can be implemented at very little cost because of the frequency of new increments that are produced.
To implement a new feature the developers need to lose only the work of a few days, or even only hours, to roll back and implement it.
Unlike the waterfall model in agile model very limited planning is required to get started with the project. Agile assumes that the end users’ needs are ever changing in a dynamic business and IT world. Changes can be discussed and features can be newly effected or removed based on feedback. This effectively gives the customer the finished system they want or need.
Both system developers and stakeholders alike, find they also get more freedom of time and options than if the software was developed in a more rigid sequential way. Having options gives them the ability to leave important decisions until more or better data or even entire hosting programs are available; meaning the project can continue to move forward without fear of reaching a sudden standstill.

Answer 1

Unlike the WaterFall method , Agile Testing can begin at the start of the project with continuous integration between development and testing. Agile Testing is not sequential (in the sense its executed only after coding phase) but continuous.

Agile team works as single team towards a common objective of achieving Quality .Agile Testing has shorter time frames called iterations (say from One to Four weeks ). This methodology is also called release or delivery driven approach since it gives better prediction on the workable products in short duration of time.

 
Methodologies of Agile Testing
There are various methodologies present in agile testing and those are listed below:

Scrum
SCRUM is an agile development method which concentrates particularly on how to manage tasks within a team based development environment. Basically, Scrum is derived from activity that occurs during rugby match. Scrum believes in empowering the development team and advocates working in small teams (say- 7 to 9 members). It consists of three roles and their responsibilities are explained as follows:

Scrum Master
Master is responsible for setting up the team, sprint meeting and removes obstacles to progress
Product owner
The Product Owner creates product backlog, prioritizes the backlog and is responsiblefor the delivery of the functionality at each iteration
Scrum Team
Team manages its own work and organizes the work to complete the sprint or cycle

Product Backlog
This is repository where requirements are tracked with details on the no of requirements to be completed for each release. It should be maintained and prioritized by scrum master and it should be distributed to the scrum team. Team can also request for new requirement addition or modification or deletion

Process flow of Scrum:
Process flow of scrum testing is as follows:

Each iteration of a scrum is known as Sprint
Product backlog is a list where all details are entered to get end product
During each Sprint, top items of Product backlog are selected and turned into Sprint backlog
Team works on the defined sprint backlog
Team checks for the daily work
At the end of sprint, team delivers product functionality