In Agile software development, speed and flexibility are critical — but so is quality. While Agile focuses on delivering incremental value quickly, it can be challenging to ensure that quality assurance (QA) keeps pace with rapid development cycles. Without a structured QA approach, teams risk releasing buggy features, frustrating users, and undermining business goals.
That’s why Agile teams need a QA checklist — a clear, actionable guide that ensures quality is embedded throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC). In this blog, we’ll break down a comprehensive QA checklist for Agile software teams, covering everything from planning and development to testing and release.
Why a QA Checklist Matters in Agile
A QA checklist ensures that quality is not an afterthought but a continuous responsibility shared by the entire team. It:
- Aligns developers, testers, and product owners on quality standards.
- Reduces the risk of defects escaping into production.
- Ensures consistency across sprints and releases.
- Provides a framework for continuous improvement.
Instead of relying solely on testers, Agile QA involves the whole team — making quality a shared goal.
The Agile QA Checklist: Phase by Phase
Let’s break down the QA checklist into phases that map with Agile workflows.
1. Sprint Planning and Requirement Analysis
Quality starts before a single line of code is written.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Ensure requirements are clear, testable, and measurable.
- ✅ Collaborate with the product owner to refine user stories with acceptance criteria.
- ✅ Apply the INVEST principle (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable).
- ✅ Create a Definition of Ready (DoR) for stories — no story enters a sprint unless it meets readiness criteria.
- ✅ Involve QA early to identify potential risks, dependencies, and ambiguities.
Example: Instead of vague requirements like “Improve login speed,” refine it to “The login API should respond within 2 seconds under 1000 concurrent users.”
2. Design and Architecture
A solid foundation reduces technical debt and makes testing easier.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Conduct design reviews with QA involvement to ensure testability.
- ✅ Check for scalability, security, and maintainability in architecture decisions.
- ✅ Ensure API contracts and mock services are available for early testing.
- ✅ Define test data strategies during design (e.g., anonymized production data for performance testing).
- ✅ Document system diagrams to make dependencies transparent.
Agile QA isn’t just about testing the code — it’s about building testability into the design itself.
3. Development Phase
Developers and testers should collaborate closely during development to prevent defects.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Enforce coding standards and style guidelines.
- ✅ Implement peer reviews / code reviews to catch defects early.
- ✅ Ensure unit tests are written for every function or method.
- ✅ Track unit test coverage (aim for at least 70-80% coverage, depending on project needs).
- ✅ Integrate static code analysis tools (like SonarQube) to identify code smells and vulnerabilities.
- ✅ QA should pair with developers to design test cases and automation scripts in parallel.
This collaboration embodies the shift-left testing principle — catching issues early reduces downstream costs.
4. Test Planning
Testing in Agile is continuous and iterative, not a one-time phase.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Define a test strategy aligned with sprint goals.
- ✅ Identify which tests will be manual vs. automated.
- ✅ Prioritize risk-based testing — focus first on areas with high business impact.
- ✅ Prepare test data and environments in advance to avoid delays.
- ✅ Select and configure testing tools (e.g., Selenium, Cypress, JMeter, Appium).
- ✅ Document a Definition of Done (DoD) that includes testing completion criteria.
Test planning ensures the sprint’s output meets business and technical expectations.
5. Functional Testing
Agile emphasizes delivering working features every sprint. Functional testing validates whether features meet requirements.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Write test cases directly from user stories and acceptance criteria.
- ✅ Perform unit, integration, and system tests.
- ✅ Execute end-to-end workflows across multiple features.
- ✅ Use automation for repetitive functional tests like regression suites.
- ✅ Track defects in a shared backlog tool (like Jira) with clear severity and priority.
This ensures the delivered increment is not just functional but aligned with user expectations.
Learn more: Common Pitfalls in Agile ALM and How to Avoid Them
6. Non-Functional Testing
Agile QA isn’t limited to features — it also ensures performance, usability, and security.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Conduct performance testing (load, stress, scalability).
- ✅ Run security scans (SQL injection, XSS, authentication flaws).
- ✅ Test for cross-browser and cross-device compatibility.
- ✅ Validate usability and accessibility (WCAG compliance).
- ✅ Include API testing to ensure backend reliability.
Non-functional testing often gets deprioritized in Agile. This checklist keeps it on track.
7. Regression Testing
In Agile, frequent releases make regression testing critical.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Maintain an up-to-date automated regression suite.
- ✅ Run regression tests in every sprint before release.
- ✅ Validate critical business workflows after every change.
- ✅ Track defect leakage (bugs found in production) to measure regression quality.
Automation is the key enabler here — manual regression would slow down Agile delivery.
8. Automation and CI/CD Integration
Agile and DevOps thrive on automation.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Automate unit, integration, and regression tests.
- ✅ Integrate automated tests into CI/CD pipelines (e.g., Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI).
- ✅ Run smoke tests automatically after each build.
- ✅ Ensure test failures trigger immediate notifications.
- ✅ Regularly update test scripts to reflect UI and API changes.
This ensures QA is continuous, fast, and reliable.
9. Sprint Review and Release
Before delivering features to end-users, QA validates readiness.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Ensure all stories meet the Definition of Done (DoD).
- ✅ Validate that acceptance criteria are satisfied.
- ✅ Verify no critical or high-priority defects remain unresolved.
- ✅ Provide clear QA sign-off on release readiness.
- ✅ Prepare release notes highlighting tested features, known issues, and mitigations.
A structured QA review ensures Agile teams release with confidence, not uncertainty.
10. Post-Release Monitoring and Maintenance
QA doesn’t end with release. Agile embraces continuous feedback from production.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Monitor logs and error reports for anomalies.
- ✅ Track customer-reported defects and prioritize them in backlogs.
- ✅ Conduct post-release regression tests after hotfixes or patches.
- ✅ Measure KPIs like defect leakage, MTTD (Mean Time to Detect), and MTTR (Mean Time to Repair).
- ✅ Gather user feedback for usability improvements.
This ensures teams learn from real-world use and feed insights back into the Agile cycle.
Bonus: Cultural and Process Checklist
Agile QA is as much about mindset as it is about tools.
Checklist Items:
- ✅ Encourage a “quality is everyone’s responsibility” culture.
- ✅ Involve testers in daily stand-ups and backlog grooming.
- ✅ Embrace shift-left and shift-right testing approaches.
- ✅ Invest in QA upskilling — automation, performance, and security.
- ✅ Conduct regular retrospectives to refine QA processes.
A culture of shared ownership ensures QA is woven into Agile DNA.
Conclusion: Building Quality into Agile
In Agile software development, QA is not a separate gate but a continuous, integrated process. A structured QA checklist helps teams:
- Build testability into design and development.
- Ensure both functional and non-functional quality.
- Balance manual and automated testing effectively.
- Deliver features faster without compromising reliability.
By following this QA checklist, Agile teams can release software with confidence — ensuring higher customer satisfaction, lower defect leakage, and faster innovation cycles.
At MicroGenesis, we partner with organizations to embed QA into Agile workflows, leveraging automation, CI/CD integration, agile ALM consulting, and industry best practices to ensure your software is not just delivered fast, but delivered right.
Quality isn’t a phase — it’s a commitment that Agile teams uphold in every sprint.