7.3QA in Kanban

Testing as a Column, Not a Phase

In Kanban, testing is a column on the board. If items pile up in the Testing column, the team has a bottleneck. The solution is not "hire more QA" -- it is for the team to swarm and help.

What "swarming" looks like:

• Developers write automated tests for their features
• Developers investigate failed tests and fix root causes
• PO helps verify business logic during exploratory testing
• The team focuses on finishing existing work before starting new work

Continuous Testing

Without sprint boundaries, testing must be continuous. There is no "end of sprint regression" -- tests run on every change, and quality is validated continuously.

Implications for QA:

• CI pipeline must be fast and reliable (no stabilization period)
• Automated regression must be comprehensive (no manual regression sprint)
• Test environments must always be ready
• Monitoring replaces periodic testing (production quality is measured continuously)