Introduction & Project Overview
What is the project?
The project involved testing an agricultural data application developed by another team. The client lacked enough dedicated QA professionals with the required skillset, leading to time and quality challenges. Our team was brought in to bridge this gap by delivering comprehensive testing services.
Purpose of the platform and its importance:
The platform played a key role in processing and managing agricultural data, ensuring accurate and timely reporting to stakeholders, including manufacturers, regulatory bodies, and internal decision-makers. It supported data-driven agricultural operations such as fertilizer, insecticide, and pesticide production planning, as well as compliance tracking.
Your role and responsibility in testing:
- Delivered a high-quality product by performing multiple testing types — functional, regression, performance, and integration testing.
- Automated around 70% of the functionality, covering both UI and API automation.
- Detected and logged most of the bugs during the early development phases, enabling quicker fixes and higher quality.
- Conducted performance testing including load and stress tests to ensure the application’s stability under heavy usage.
Testing Scope and Activities
Types of testing performed:
- Functional Testing: Validated individual features and workflows.
- Regression Testing: Ensured new changes did not break existing functionality.
- Integration Testing: Verified interactions between main application and third-party applications/systems.
- Performance Testing: Measured system responsiveness and stability under normal and peak loads.
- Load Testing: Tested behaviour under expected user load.
- Stress Testing: Tested system limits by simulating extreme conditions.
Third-party integration testing process:
Tested data exchange and API calls with external systems that provided retailer data. Validated the correctness of API responses, error handling, and ensured accurate data synchronization across systems.
Test Case Design and Execution Approach:
- Test cases were derived from user stories and acceptance criteria documented in Xray (integrated with Jira).
- Peer reviews were conducted regularly with developers, product owners, and QA team members to ensure high test coverage and logical test flow.
- Test case demo walkthroughs were held before every major release to ensure clarity and alignment.
Defect Tracking and Management:
- Jira was used to log and manage defects.
- Each defect included clear reproduction steps, screenshots, severity levels, and linkage to the associated user stories or test cases.
- Traceability was maintained using Xray integration for seamless defect-test-case mapping.
Tools and Technologies Used:
Category | Tools/Technologies |
Test Case Management | Xray (integrated with Jira) |
Defect Tracking | Jira |
Test Automation | Playwright (UI), REST API Testing, Selenium |
Programming Language | .NET |
Performance Testing | Playwright (for headless performance metrics), custom scripts for load testing, and integration with CI for trend analysis |
Collaboration & Communication:
Cross-Functional Coordination:
- Actively contributed to grooming and sprint planning sessions, ensuring QA perspectives were integrated from the outset.
- Proactively asked domain-specific and edge-case questions during grooming to pre-empt ambiguity and enhance requirement clarity.
- Leveraged Confluence as a centralized source of truth for test strategies, documentation, and decision logs.
- Led test case demo walkthroughs with developers, product owners, and business analysts to align on coverage and scenarios before execution.
- Fostered real-time collaboration through daily stand-ups, Teams channels, and impromptu bug triage discussions—promoting a fast feedback loop.
Transparent Reporting & Metrics-Driven QA:
- Maintained end-to-end defect traceability by linking bugs in Jira to relevant epics, stories, and test cases in Xray.
- Generated and presented defect matrix reports to highlight severity trends, priority-wise distribution, and sprint leakage.
- Tracked and shared automation coverage dashboards, mapping business-critical flows and regression suites.
- Delivered weekly QA reports summarizing test execution status, defect trends, automation progress, and release readiness—empowering data-driven decision-making by stakeholders.
Challenges Faced & Solutions:
Unstable Environment:
Frequent deployments caused environment instability, delaying test execution.Solution:
Automated smoke tests and synced regularly with DevOps for quick issue resolution.Late Ticket Handover:
User stories arrived late, reducing testing and automation time.Solution:
Adopted shift-left testing by involving QA early in grooming and sprint planning.Incomplete Requirements:
Ambiguous or high-level requirements led to test case gaps.Solution:
Maintained constant PO communication and documented detailed conditions in Confluence.Mid-Sprint Requirement Changes:
Changing requirements caused test case rework.Solution:
Used modular, reusable test cases with living documentation.Manual Regression Load:
Regression testing was time-consuming and delayed releases.Solution:
Automated ~70% of regression suites to speed up cycles and improve reliability.Limited Mobile Devices:
Few physical devices restricted mobile compatibility testing.Solution:
Leveraged cross-browser and cross-device testing with BrowserStack for broad OS and device coverage.Test Data Issues:
Lack of consistent data blocked and delayed tests.Solution:
Created automated data generators and shared repositories for reusable test data.Release Coordination Gaps:
Poor communication led to missed last-minute changes.Solution:
Implemented release checklists and pre-release sync meetings between QA and Dev.
Impact & Results:
Improvements in Quality, Performance, and Reliability:
- Early QA involvement identified 70% of critical defects early.
- Performance testing optimized backend systems.
- Regression automation improved release confidence.
Benefits of Automation and Integration Testing:
- 70% automation coverage achieved.
- Reduced manual effort by 40%.
- Integration testing ensured seamless external API communication.
Meeting Project Timelines and Quality Thresholds:
- QA deliverables met within sprint timelines.
- Reduced defect leakage to Production.
- Transparent communication maintained trust with stakeholders.
Learnings & Recommendations:
Key Learnings:
- Early collaboration is essential.
- Flexibility is crucial in dynamic environments.
- Enhanced technical and process knowledge in automation, performance testing, and agile practices.
Recommendations:
- Establish a dedicated QA environment.
- Plan test data management from project initiation.
- Integrate automation with CI/CD.
- Broaden cross-browser and cross-device test coverage.
