In my previous article, “Quality as a Team Responsibility,” I touched upon how the addition of Shoulder Checks in the agile development process helps improve the overall quality of the product in the end. I presented the following diagram to show how Shoulder Checks fit into the process.
This article will cover User Story Kick Offs as an additional step in the agile development process that may help larger teams align on more complex features, and in turn increase quality output as a team.
What is a User Story Kick Off?
The software Quality Assurance role (QA) has traditionally been seen as a person who finds bugs and tries to break things. While these tasks are still a big part of the QA’s role, there has been a shift towards a more holistic approach where QAs advocate for the overall quality of delivery — both product and process.
As a QA, I have found that incorporating “shoulder checks” (some call it “desk checks”) into the agile software development lifecycle seem to significantly help with quality output. This also shifts the responsibility of quality control to the entire team. …
Kelly Chin
Senior QA at Propel Ventures
