The Importance of Proper Documentation in Agile Software Development

“We need to document this”, “Let’s spend this sprint documenting the functionality.”

How many times have you heard this in your respective teams? I am sure a few times. From experience and a kind suggestion, It is an excellent idea to document all your findings/learnings and important aspects of your project as just like with any product comes a guide on how to utilize it, so why not have something for the product you work for daily? However, the question always arises, how much documentation is enough?

Software testing is integral to the software development lifecycle, ensuring that applications meet quality standards and perform as expected. Having to write test documentation on how to work within a team, or what is your definition of done, what tools your teams use, and what access our teams have to certain applications and more is all very vital information. Ultimately, it ensures efficiency, effectiveness, and success for any engineering team. This blog explores the significance of documentation in software testing teams and its impact on various aspects of the testing process.

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Types of Project Documentations

Now, we see a lot of different styles of documentation, some drawn, some written, some recorded, etc. The important aspect here is as long as a vital feature of your application or project that needs to be documented, is documented.

Documents can be any of the following:

• Mindmap
• Diagram
• Wiki page information
• Video
• Charter
• Powerpoint presentation

Agile Manifesto

Throughout my career, I have seen this one statement being misled, “Working software, over comprehensive documentation”. As a trainer, many testing trainees would also question me as to why can’t we just focus on the working application and focus on its functionality rather than documenting. I wish it was easier like that, however, it is vital to document details even in an agile team, regardless of any methodology documentation is important.

You may have to showcase something to another team one day, and having documents handy would be a great sense of relief, someone joins your team and would like to understand the product, so having a document or a diagram documented could be of big help. There are various scenarios and it’s not a discussion why one should not document things. Remember if you know something others don’t, document it.

One of the primary benefits of documentation in software testing teams is its role in knowledge transfer and retention. In a dynamic team environment, where members may come and go, comprehensive documentation serves as a repository of knowledge. Test plans, test cases, procedures, and other relevant documentation ensure that critical information is preserved and accessible to all team members. This facilitates smoother onboarding of new team members and minimizes the risk of knowledge loss due to personnel changes.

Importance of Documentation in Software Testing

Documentation in the software testing world is pretty critical. It is actually a vital component of the quality engineering process. Many testers use this as a way to capture and communicate important information about the system under testing alongside the results and any testing efforts. In a nutshell, any documentation for testing provides a structured way to communicate their findings. As mentioned above, documentation helps ensure everyone is involved and on the same page.

Documentation serves as a valuable repository of historical data and lessons learned within software testing teams. Past test results, decisions made, challenges encountered, and strategies employed are captured in documentation, providing a wealth of information for future reference and a comprehensive test analysis creating insightful reports for your team.

By reviewing historical documentation, teams can identify patterns, assess the effectiveness of past approaches, and learn from both successes and failures. This iterative process of reflection and improvement drives continuous evolution and maturation within the testing team.

There are various types of documents that a tester documents such as:

• Test plans
• Test cases
• Test scripts
• Exit reports
• Bug reports
• Test Strategy
• Test KPI’s
• Traceability matrix
• Risk registers
• Requirement/Gaps analysis

Benefits of Documentation for QA and Dev Teams

Documentation can be a mundane task, however, if this benefits even one person in your team, your hard work is paid off. Writing definitions of done’s or even ways of working for your team can take a long time and even months to get it right. I have also come across many documents where the information is presented in pictures or diagrams and fewer words, which works wonderfully for some, however, some still prefer more words. It is totally up to you and your team what is a good document for your team. Documentation provides transparency.

Reproducibility of Issues

When a defect goes into production, the entire team faces a lot of stress as to where something went wrong/unexpected. However, it is important to think about documenting this vital information, to resolve it for once and for all rather than this defect creeping back into production. Many people including testers and developers in a team rely on documentation in order to recreate the defect and understand where and how the system did not behave as expected.

So, having a document based on the reproducibility of issues can help diagnose and provide a resolution that can aid higher management in understanding what has happened.

Auditing reasons

Many of us work on tools like JIRA or Azure creating tickets which essentially is a document too, as your task details are on it. If we avoid adding the right details or even creating these tickets it is not easy to trace back to important details or even audit. An Auditor may struggle to even pass the audit. Complying with industry standards is a must not just for the Tech world but industries like healthcare, finance, aerospace, etc. Moreover, if this is done accurately your team is adhering to the correct procedures and working alongside the auditors’ recommendations.

Continuous Improvement

Post a major defect or a defect getting into production, there is always that one document that would help other areas learn called the lessons learned. This means the issue has been resolved, however, what did the team learn from it and what would they do differently next time?

By documenting improvements your team is not only foreseeing and planning ahead of time but also identifying areas of enhancements optimizing their ways of working and becoming effective and efficient with risk management strategies.

I have worked with many teams and this one team has always taken my interest when they run a risk register. This is an amazing way of understanding potential risks and making the right decisions for impacting components and how to work around them. If we manage risk well, we are also on a continuous improvement and stable path as a team.

Training and Onboarding

When we are hiring a new team member, what I have noticed is that any type of documentation is the most crucial document that helps newcomers understand the way a team works. Of course, working on a project also puts things in perspective. Any training resource in my opinion is vital documentation to help familiarize anyone with the project details, onboarding, or how to use a specific tool for instance. Also if someone has left the team, their offboarding and documentation will help the team continue smoothly and help the newcomer with the handover too.

By providing structured guidance and reference materials, documentation accelerates the learning curve for new team members, empowering them to contribute effectively to testing efforts from the outset.

Tools for documenting your thoughts

If you do not where to start, here are some applications to help your documentation become more fun and insightful:

• Mind Map applications
• Excalidraw
• Miro
• Microsoft applications – One note
• Wiki pages
• Asana
• Confluence

Wrapping Up

Documentation is indispensable to the success of software testing teams, playing a multifaceted role in facilitating knowledge transfer, reproducibility of issues, compliance and auditing, continuous improvement, risk management, communication and collaboration, training and onboarding, and historical reference.

By prioritizing documentation as an integral component of the testing process, teams can enhance their efficiency, effectiveness, and ultimately, the quality of the software they deliver. Embracing a culture of documentation empowers testing teams to navigate complexity, mitigate risks, and achieve excellence in software quality assurance.

Platforms like LambdaTest integrate seamlessly with various documentation practices, ensuring that your testing setups, environments, and results are well-organized and accessible to everyone on the team. Try now to elevate your testing experience!

Laveena Ramchandani

Laveena Ramchandani is a passionate Test Manager who has been testing for nearly 10 years and is always seeking to learn and share. She is a community leader for data science testing and testing in general. Her entry on the digital platform has enhanced many individuals to learn a new area within testing. Laveena was a finalist for The Digital Star 2022 at the everywoman in Technology awards. She has also been on various podcasts, international speaker and blogs trains new testers.

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