2020-2021 Retrospective

Owned by Joshua Shaw
Last updated: Jun 17, 2021 by Rachel Searcy
2 min read

Overview

The testing subteam accomplished the following in the previous year

  • Regression Testing for the 2.8.1 & 3.0.0 releases

  • Tested or are currently watching 101 specific JIRA issues

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

What Went Well

As in previous years, we managed to accomplish all of the requested testing within the timeframes assigned for each group of features or release. There were a few occasions when some team members were unavailable, but everyone pitched in to make sure we got the testing done on time.

What Could Be Improved

The 3.0.0 release testing was not as structured as it was for previous releases. There was no specific suite of tests for the new agent module, other than the related JIRA issues, which made testing a bit haphazard. It might be useful to create something along the lines of a testing changelog if/when other modules are updated to provide the testing team with more guidance.

As noted last year, 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. Potential solutions might be include either increasing the size of the sub-team to distribute the work across more people, or to see if members of other TAC/UAC sub-teams would be willing to act as "alternate" testers in the event that one or more members of the testing team are unavailable to turn around the testing in the given timeframe.

JIRA tickets may lack documentation and background information which can make understanding the issue being tested a challenge. The Dev Pri team documents a fair bit on individual tickets as part of their process, which team members have occasionally used when trying to understand specific tickets/issues. It might make sense to request that they record this information directly in JIRA so that it's more visible to the testing team. If that’s not feasible, it would be a helpful resource to flag for testers if they are unclear about a ticket's purpose.

New members may not be familiar with the testing process and may need some additional guidance. We should institute a brief, optional on-boarding meeting either at the beginning of the term or during the first testing burst of the year to make some of the testing procedures more explicit and ensure members are comfortable and familiar with the testing process.

Leadership Next Year

Lead: Joshua Shaw (UAC)

Vice-Lead: Rachel Searcy (TAC)