Module 1 · Understanding QA
QA in the development workflow
Where testing happens from requirements to release, and how acceptance criteria make features testable.
About 9 min reading and 10 min practice (estimates)
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Read
Learning objectives
- Describe where QA contributes in a typical iterative workflow.
- Read a user story and its acceptance criteria critically.
- Explain what testing earlier ("shift-left") means in practice.
Explanation
Most teams work in short iterations: an idea becomes a user story, the story is refined and estimated, developers build it, it is tested, and it is released — often several times a month. QA adds value at every step, not just in the "testing" column.
| Stage | What QA does |
|---|---|
| Refinement | Asks questions, finds unclear or missing rules, helps write acceptance criteria. |
| Development | Prepares test ideas and data; pairs with developers on unit and API checks. |
| Testing | Runs planned and exploratory tests in a test environment; reports bugs. |
| Release | Runs a short smoke test; summarises results and remaining risk. |
| After release | Watches for production issues and turns them into new tests. |
Acceptance criteria are the testable conditions a story must meet. A common format is Given / When / Then: a starting situation, an action, and an observable result. "Shift-left" simply means finding problems earlier — a question asked during refinement is far cheaper than a bug found after release.
Teams usually have several environments: developers' machines, a shared test or staging environment that resembles production, and production itself. Test in the environment that matches the question you are asking, and never experiment on production data without explicit permission.
Example: a user story with acceptance criteria
Story: As a shopper, I want to save items for later,
so that I can buy them on another visit.
Acceptance criteria
1. Given an item in my cart,
When I choose "Save for later",
Then the item moves from the cart to "Saved items".
2. Given a saved item,
When I choose "Move to cart",
Then it returns to the cart with quantity 1.Reading it as a tester raises questions: Do saved items survive signing out? What happens to the quantity if I saved 3 units? Is there a limit on saved items? What if the item goes out of stock? Each answer becomes a clearer criterion or a test.
Common mistakes
- Accepting vague criteria such as "works correctly" or "is fast".
- Waiting until a feature is finished before reading its story.
- Testing in the wrong environment, then reporting results that don't apply to the release.
Try
Practise what you just read. Answers are checked here; nothing is graded publicly or counts toward Bug Arena.
Exercise
Read this story: "As a shopper, I can apply one promotion code at checkout to get a discount." Write at least four questions you would ask before testing starts.
Write your answer first, then compare it with the sample solution. It stays on this page only and isn't sent anywhere.
Review
Check yourself — you should now be able to:
- Describe where QA contributes in a typical iterative workflow.
- Read a user story and its acceptance criteria critically.
- Explain what testing earlier ("shift-left") means in practice.
Practise in QA Lab
References
Continue
When you’re ready, mark the lesson complete in the Try step and move on.
Marked as read when you reach the end of the lesson.