The world is changing very rapidly so is the working structure of organizations and businesses. Project management has changed its way and has become more advanced and smarter in approach. It has indeed emerged as a new face of organizational management in recent years.

It is different from the traditional approach of project management and is known as agile project management Traditional project management approaches often followed a sequential process that was linear in nature while agile methodologies focuses on flexibility, collaboration, and iterative development.

Some key aspects that highlight how agile project management has transformed organizational management:

• Improved Collaboration and Communication
• Flexibility
• Adaptability
• Customer-Centric
• Reduced Risk
• Increased Transparency

But it is not a one-time process. It is more of a continuous process that should ensure quality results. Agile projects should deliver quality.

Quality is of utmost importance in agile projects. 

Some key reasons why quality is crucial in agile projects:

• Customer Satisfaction- Agile projects are inculcated in an organization with the objective of prioritizing delivering customer value and meeting customer expectations. By focusing on quality, team members of the organization guarantee that the end result meets or exceeds the customer's requirements prompting higher consumer satisfaction.
• Early and Continuous Feedback- Agile projects focus on regular feedback. By maintaining high-quality standards, the project team can gather meaningful feedback at each sprint. This helps them to address issues, make necessary improvements, and adapt to changing requirements effectively.
• Sustainable Development- Quality is fundamental for sustainable products and maintaining technical excellence. The aim behind agile projects is easy to maintain, extend, and adapt to changing needs. By abiding by quality principles, they guarantee the long-term viability and maintainability of the product.
• Team Collaboration and Accountability- Quality is considered to be the shared responsibility in agile projects. All the members of the team collaborate closely to define, execute, and approve quality measures and acceptance criteria. By cultivating a culture of responsibility, agile methodologies encourage individuals to take responsibility for work and give importance to the quality of the project in all aspects.
• Faster Detection and Resolution of Issues- Agile project structure is such that work is delivered in small increments or iterations. By keeping up with quality throughout the project, issues or imperfections can be distinguished and addressed promptly, preventing them from accumulating and causing significant problems later on. This reduces the overall impact on project timelines and budgets.

In order to be sure about the quality of the outputs of agile projects it is important to conduct testing. This gives agile testing an important place in agile project management.

What is agile testing?

It is an approach to software testing that line up with the standards and values of agile software development. It emphasizes joint effort, adaptability, and iterative advancement to deliver high-quality software. It is typically used in agile methodologies such as Scrum, Kanban, or Extreme Programming (XP).

In the traditional approach of software development, testing is often a separate phase that occurs after the development is complete. In contrary to this, agile testing, and testing activities are coordinated all through the software development cycle.

Testers work closely with developers, business investigators, and different stakeholders to guarantee that testing is a continuous and integral part of the software development lifecycle.

Principles of agile testing

• Continuous testing- Testing exercises start as soon as possible in the development cycle and go on all through the project. This helps in distinguishing and resolving issues early, reducing the cost and effort required to fix them later.
• Test Automation- Agile testing underlines the utilization of robotized tests to help regular and quick cycles. This automation through robotized testing helps in executing tests effectively, distinguishing relapses, and giving quick feedback to the development team.
• Collaboration- Testers collaborate closely with the development team, product owners, and other stakeholders to understand requirements, provide feedback, and ensure a shared understanding of the expected behavior of the software.
• Embracing Change- Agile testing perceives that necessities and needs can change during the development cycle. Testers adapt to changes and change test plans, experiments, and systems strategies accordingly.
• Focus on Customer Value- Agile testing is also conducted with the aim to deliver value to the customer. It focuses on testing the most critical features and functionalities first, ensuring that the software meets the customer's needs and expectations.

Agile testing practices

These practices aim to deliver high-quality software through iterative development and continuous testing. Some of them are

• ATDD- Acceptance Test-Driven Development- It involves defining acceptance criteria and creating automated acceptance tests based on those criteria. ATDD guarantees that the created programming meets the expected business esteem. These tests act as a common understanding between the development team and stakeholders, and they guide the development cycle.
• CI- Continuous Integration- CI distinguishes and resolves issues early in the development process. It includes coordinating code changes from multiple developers into a shared repository frequently.
• Test Metrics and Feedback- It includes tracking and analyzing test metrics to assess the quality of the software and the effectiveness of the testing process. A few such metrics are; test coverage, defect density, and test execution. It helps in software's stability and helps identify areas for improvement.
• TDD- Test-Driven Development- It is formularized before the code. The development process involves writing a failing test, implementing the code to make the test pass, and then refactoring the code. This practice helps ensure that the code meets the specified requirements and improves test coverage.
• Cross-functional Collaboration- It focuses and gives importance to collaboration between developers, testers, and other stakeholders. Collaboration fosters shared ownership of quality and promotes effective communication and problem-solving.

The particular practices adopted may vary depending on the organization, project, and team preferences. The key is to coordinate testing flawlessly into the agile development process, enabling frequent feedback and continuous improvement.

By adopting Agile testing practices, development teams can upgrade joint effort, further develop programming quality, and speed up feedback loops. It can ensure delivering valuable software in a more efficient and responsive manner.

This shows agile testing is an important element of agile projects to ensure the quality of the project. As quality plays a critical role in agile project management as it directly impacts customer satisfaction. It also supports sustainable development and mitigates risks.