In agile, no matter which methodology you are following, the focus is on shipping speed, small teams and risk mitigation. The team integration of Agile Testers opened a wide new field of opportunities to remove the traditional ‘show stopper’ stigma from testing professionals. Team responsibility and accountability for frequent product delivery at high quality standards needs engagement from every team member.
Developers start testing themselves more and more. Product Owners do as well have a vital interest in shipping a reliable product. This gives the Agile Tester more time to focus on his unique capability of almost smelling the hidden bug. Deep product and business logic knowledge combined with the habit of taking alternative views on the product help him to locate unexpected malfunctions.
Testing on a high traffic website with hourly rollouts is for sure a challenge and cannot be done with extensive planning or high documentation needs. And why should this be the task of an Agile Tester anyway? He excels in bug detection not in writing books which nobody needs or wants. When speed is one of the frameworks main characteristics, product quality and reliability needs to be taken serious. Mastering this is no easy thing for a tester and needs his full attention.
Procedures provide a false sense of security that is why the Agile Tester needs to leave them behind. He needs to build his very own personal approach to reveal shortcomings in the product. There are no rules carved in stone, there are no best practices and they would only hinder the Agile Tester to excel in his job.