2019-2020 Testing Subteam Retrospective

Overview

The testing subteam accomplished the following in the previous year

• Regression Testing for the 2.7.0, 2.7.1, & 2.8.0 releases

• Tested 48 specific JIRA issues

• We continue to await additional testing requests for future releases and features.

What Went Well

The testing subteam is a fairly small group, but we managed to accomplish all of the requested testing within the timeframes assigned for each group of features or release.

Communication within the group is fairly limited since the testing assignments tend to be straightforward and self contained, though on the rare occasion that a member needed help or was unexpectedly unable to complete a specific segment of the testing, the rest of the group pitched in to make sure we met the deadline.

What Could Be Improved

The testing team is fairly small and requests can come with little notice and little turnaround time, making it a challenge to complete the testing while balancing other commitments. Any additional notice or time that could be allotted to the testing portion of a release schedule or feature development would be much appreciated. We do understand that limited staffing on the development end made for additional challenges this year.

JIRA tickets can be somewhat opaque when a user unfamiliar with the issue or feature request starts testing. It’d be nice to standardize the ticket format in some way so that there is a concise statement explaining the feature or describing the issue and then a brief roadmap for testing or a best practices outline for the feature. This might also be an opportunity to create an FAQ page for the testing team so that new users have a reference to turn to - essentially a “best practices for testing” guide.