So far in my three big topics I have already talked about how to find out how good you are actually testing your software right now. I have also talked about approving of the software developed in larger or smaller organizations. 

What I want to add now is steps to improve and add to your testing setup to write high quality software.

The path to improvement is long and can be at times tedious. The reason why quality is lacking is usually not that nobody is interested in working software. The reasons are spread out amongst the following but are not limited to:

• No time
• No money for tooling
• Missing skill set
• Missing transparency regarding status quo (see also my post on measuring status quo)
• Lack of planning for testing activities

I will address each of these points and give my opinion on how to work it out. Whether you are a developer, a tester, a product owner, a Scrum Master or on the business side – you can all help out to improve testing

We have no Time for Testing!

Developer	Raise the issue that you are writing insufficiently tested software and make risks transparent. Help to document the time required for thoroughly tested software
Tester	State how many test cases you would require to feel confident about quality and what time would be needed – show how little you can do with your limited capacity. Also find time wasting activities that can be alleviated once they are known to all
Product Owner	Channel the problems that the teams is giving to you. Work on obtaining more resources and involve the rest of the organization
Scrum Master	Channel the problems that the teams is giving to you
Business Specialist	Understand the challenges (not on a technical level). Be the dev teams ally to work on gaining more resources or wasting less time on not relevant activities

We need money for Tools!

Developer	Raise the issue when funds are required. Help to make transparent how much money will be saved by spending on e.g. a new tool
Tester	Raise the issue when funds are required. Help to make transparent how much money will be saved by spending on e.g. a new tool. Also count in how much more time you could spend doing more testing with better tooling
Product Owner	Channel the problems that the teams is giving to you. Work on obtaining more resources and involve the rest of the organization
Scrum Master	Channel the problems that the teams is giving to you
Business Specialist	Understand the challenges (not on a technical level). Be the dev teams ally to work on gaining more resources or wasting less time on not relevant activities

We lack the right skills!

Developer	Raise the issue with superiors. Make sure to get training or support
Tester	Raise the issue with superiors. Make sure to get training or support
Product Owner	Raise the issue with superiors. Make sure to get training or support
Scrum Master
Business Specialist

We lack transparency vis-a-vis our quality!

Developer	Help continuous reporting integrated in dev process (e.g. CI / CD)
Tester	Add to continuous reporting with explorative testing and in depth knowledge of the required functionality, e.g. edge cases
Product Owner	Ensure continuous reporting is taking place. Metrics should make sense and actually show quality
Scrum Master	Ensure continuous reporting is taking place. Metrics should make sense and actually show quality. Stop PO from being to nosy and focus on the real deal
Business Specialist	Trust the team – even when it is difficult. They most likely are doing their best

We don’t plan testing activities sufficiently!

Developer	Raise the issue how much time is needed for testing. Testing is part of the development effort and therefore needs to be planned
Tester	Raise the issue how much time is needed for testing. Testing is part of the development effort and therefore needs to be planned
Product Owner	Listen to the team – plan less functionality and more quality. Each sprint and product backlog should contain testing activities
Scrum Master	Make sure testing is sufficiently accounted for during planning. No feature can go untested. Also think about integrating testing in the Definition of Done
Business Specialist	Understand that quality requires time and money. Be an advocate of working software instead of many flaky features