How does "Shift-Left Testing" improve the software development lifecycle?

All answers to this question.

It’s a mindset shift. QA should be seen as a "quality coach" throughout the cycle, not just a "gatekeeper" at the very end.

   Answered 2024-05-09 by Jessica Brown

• Spot on, Jessica. When QA is involved early, the requirements become much clearer for everyone, which naturally leads to better code quality from day one.

     Commented 2024-05-10 by Christopher Evans

How do you convince developers to write Unit Tests as part of this shift, especially when they are under tight deadlines?

   Answered 2024-05-10 by David Clark

• David, it’s all about the metrics. Show them the data on how much time they waste on "hotfixes" compared to the 20 minutes it takes to write a unit test. Once they see that their "velocity" actually increases because they aren't constantly context-switching to fix old bugs, they usually get on board with the change.

     Commented 2024-05-12 by Thomas Wright

Shift-left is about moving testing activities earlier in the timeline. In a 2024 project, we started "Three Amigos" sessions where a Developer, a BA, and a QA person reviewed requirements together. By asking "How will we test this?" before coding started, we identified 40% of our logic flaws in the documentation phase. This saved us hundreds of hours in rework. You aren't slowing devs down; you're clearing the path so they don't have to fix "dumb" bugs two weeks later when they've already moved on to new features.

   Answered 2024-11-12 by Patricia Williams