This reading path introduces the role of the Tester in Lean-Agile.
A key Lean-Agile principle is to aim for perfection, to improve constantly. It is everyone’s job. This informs the role of the testing: it is done early in the process and is the responsibility of the team. Every feature and every story must have one or more acceptance tests. The outcome of testing is to deliver fairly well-perfected code where defects have no serious consequences.
Testing does help to discover bugs. But more importantly, the Tester role is a full partner in the team, to help discover the causes of errors and eliminating them. This involves root-cause analysis, looking at processes, infrastructure, and the understanding of customer requirements.
Testing is central to development. The goals of testing are to ensure high-quality code at each iteration, finding bugs, discovering root-cause issues that lead to defects, and creating acceptance tests for every feature and every story.
Short deadlines and close contact with the customer ensure a constant sense of urgency without panic. Thus, the Product Owner is rarely surprised.