Why are our testers smiling?

Someone said last week...

"HL, you say that EnvisionConnect has zero known defects after the first week of each 30-business-day sprint, but how do we know that this means EC doesn't have defects? Maybe, it means your testers just aren't finding them."

Of course, my first reaction was to become defensive of my Quality Assurance Team, but instead I reminded them that our customers are also testing as they do their day-to-day work.

Then, I grew a bit paranoid and started spending more time with QA to evaluate whether we have processes there which warrant improvement. It has been an interesting endeavor, and you will hear more of my findings in the weeks ahead.

But today I read a quote from Catherine Powell, and I saw some cross-over with the perspective of many scrumming QA'ers...

"Pragmatic QA is about doing what works. Shipping product well is paramount. How you do it is less important. Just get it done.

• If you have to change your process, do it.
• If you have to alter your test plan to account for new information, do it.
• If you have to push back your test schedule to allow for the last minute "forgot it" feature, do it.
• If you have to restart testing of an area because you just found a big bug, just let people know and reset expectations.

Oh, and do it all cheerfully."

Indeed!