How is testing done in agile sprints?

I have often heard that agile projects do not require testers. Is this true? Would you compromise on quality in the name of agile?

Like any other development life cycle, agile also needs quality and testing. Agile engagements involve testers from the start of the sprint, that is, from the requirement analysis stage, in a process known as user story grooming.

In sprint planning, the team selects the story points depending on various factors, including availability of resources and user story complexity. All the members of the sprint team (cross-functional teams) are involved in this process (developers, business analysts, testers, configuration teams, build teams, the scrum master, and the production owner).

Once the user stories destined for the sprint are finalized, they are analyzed. Then, developers work on the design while testers write the test cases and share these with business analysts for review. At the end of each sprint, the team discloses the user stories selected during the sprint to the product owner and gets a go or no-go ruling. Once the demo is complete, the team gathers for the retrospective. Take a look at the following diagram:

The benefits of this approach include:

• Productive, collaborative, and high-performing teams
• Predictability and project control featuring transparency and flexibility
• Superior prioritization and risk management for business success
• High-value revenue with low upfront and ongoing costs
• High-quality products delivered with minimum time to market
• Increased possibility of stakeholder engagement and high customer satisfaction