Forward Thinking: Insights and Innovations in Testing and Project Management

“The organisations that experience more change are those organisations that don’t plan far enough ahead.” – Tiffany English

Planning Isn’t the Enemy of Agility

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, testing and quality assurance teams are under more pressure than ever to deliver quickly, pivot often, and keep up with ever-changing business priorities. Amid this, the call to “be agile” is constant, but often misunderstood. While agility is meant to empower teams to adapt, it’s frequently misused and foundational planning often skipped. While listening to Tiffany English at the recent WOBI meetup, it reminded me that unmanaged change isn’t agility, it’s chaos. By looking further ahead, development and testing teams can anticipate and reduce the impact of change, making agile processes more predictable, stable, and ultimately more effective.

The Agile Misunderstanding: Flexibility vs. Structure

Agile methodologies, when practised well, offer tremendous value: faster feedback, closer collaboration, and the ability to respond to change with confidence. But somewhere along the way, “agile” became synonymous with “no planning.” We’ve seen organisations abandon test strategies, exit criteria, and even defined roles under the guise of staying lean and nimble. This isn’t agility; it’s fragility. At a recent Sydney Testers meetup, N Prasad Sripathi highlighted that in a sprint environment, tests that aren’t developed within the sprint risk being pushed into the backlog indefinitely. Without upfront planning, many critical tests never resurface, further reinforcing the need for structured foresight even in fast-paced, iterative environments.

True agile teams still embrace structure: sprint goals, backlog refinement, and clear definitions of done. Quality assurance needs to be more intentionally integrated into sprint planning to help maintain stability and a shared understanding of the definition of done. A flexible, well-scoped test strategy doesn’t constrain agility, it supports it by providing direction when changes arise.

When QA Is Left Behind: The Hidden Costs of Under-Planning

Organisations that don’t integrate QA planning often experience a familiar pattern: testing teams play catch-up while development charges ahead. The symptoms include:

• Unclear or missing automation goals
• Environment or data issues discovered mid-sprint
• Late-stage defect spikes and release delays

These aren’t signs that agile is failing, they’re signs that planning was missing. We’ve seen first-hand how projects suffer when quality is reactive rather than proactive. In contrast, teams with even lightweight strategies adapt faster and recover from unexpected changes with less disruption.

The Role of Planning in Agile Testing

Planning in agile doesn’t mean predicting every outcome. It means preparing for what’s likely and building the capacity to handle what’s not. Agile test strategies should evolve over time, but they need a starting point, especially for high-risk areas, integration points, and automation priorities.

Consider these planning elements that work well in agile environments:

• Test strategies aligned with product goals
• Risk-based planning for smarter prioritisation
• Automation roadmaps that grow with the product
• Exit criteria/Definition of Done that balance flexibility with accountability

Instead of planning less, agile teams should focus on planning smarter. Teams should adopt strategies that adapt without being thrown off course by every change request.

Insights from Test Maturity Assessments: What Mature Teams Do Differently

Test maturity plays a critical role in how well teams navigate agile environments. As organisations progress in maturity, they build the capability to introduce just enough structure to absorb change without losing momentum. Rather than seeing planning as a constraint, mature teams use it as a stabilising force, embedding practices that allow for adaptability while still keeping testing aligned with business and development goals.

According to the TMMi framework:

• Level 2 organisations begin to track progress and establish basic testing activities, but often find it difficult to respond consistently to change.
• Level 3 organisations start building quality into their identity by embedding defined roles, strategies, and shared ownership across teams, making testing a repeatable and visible part of delivery.
• Level 4 organisations adopt forward planning, using metrics and trend analysis to anticipate change and plan future testing needs with greater confidence.
• Level 5 organisations demonstrate consistent self-improvement by regularly evaluating and refining their tools, techniques, and processes, often experimenting with the latest innovations to stay ahead of disruption.

Mature testing teams don’t aim to lock everything down. They build guardrails.

Debunking the Myth: Planning Isn’t Waterfall Thinking

Let’s put this one to rest: planning is not waterfall. Waterfall is a linear approach. Agile is iterative approach. But neither of these approaches negate the value of planning. 

Agile without strategy is like steering a ship with no compass. You’ll move, and you may be quick to react, but not necessarily toward value. Pulling back to the quote from Tiffany English, by having a company goal and direction that is focused years in advance, each sprint will steer towards the same goal with much less deviation than adjusting to the whim of the day. This overarching direction will also lead to less tech debt and give the employees throughout the organisation much more stability even within an agile team. Development and Test planning gives teams the means to make informed trade-offs and to say “yes” or “not yet” with confidence. It supports learning by defining the boundaries in which innovation and iteration can thrive.

Practical Recommendations: Building Agility Through Foresight

If you’re a QA lead or test architect wondering how to balance structure with speed, here are five actionable ways to support agile delivery through long-term thinking:

1. Develop a lightweight, evolving test strategy
   • Revisit it quarterly or with major product shifts
2. Build and maintain a living risk model
   • Use retrospectives to adjust test scope based on real project risk
3. Align automation goals with product direction
   • Don’t automate everything, automate what matters, automate now knowing what isn’t never will be
4. Define and communicate clear exit criteria per release or sprint
   • Ensure shared understanding across QA, Dev, and Product
5. Start with simple, useful measurements
   • Track defect leakage, automation ROI, or rework caused by missed requirements

Conclusion

Change is inevitable, but chaos is optional. Organisations that invest in foresight and strategy will make their agile teams more prepared and deliver less deviation. Agile teams that embed long-term thinking into their testing practices reduce waste, improve reliability, and increase confidence in every release. Tiffany English’s insight rings true: when you don’t look ahead, change happens to you. When you do, change becomes something you’re ready for.