Bridging the Gap: Working Effectively with Customer Test Teams in Agile Development

Agile delivery depends on fast feedback and close collaboration. However, things can get complicated when a project involves an external or customer-led test team.

We have repeatedly seen this issue whilst working with clients to improve quality. The UAT phase lags behind a release window, resulting in:

• Delays waiting for test feedback

• Conflicting test schedules

• Duplicated effort across teams

• Confusing communication or mismatched expectations

  
  

In a fast-moving agile environment, these issues can slow you down and derail your progress.

Has a bug been raised on a story delivered to UAT six weeks ago? The landscape has most probably shifted since then.

We have seen instances where a bug has been raised against functionality that has been completely refactored, resulting in wasted time on triage and a bad experience for the external team.

The Problem Isn't the People — It's the Integration

Customer test teams often work in a different cadence, with other tools, priorities, and access levels. That's understandable. However, unless we take deliberate steps to integrate them into the agile process, problems will persist.

Here's where things often go wrong:

1. Slow response times - When internal teams wait days for test feedback or UAT results, they lose momentum. By the time feedback arrives, the team has moved on.

2. Poor communication - Unclear handovers, missed messages, or assumptions about what's being tested can all lead to gaps — or worse, duplicated work.

3. Mismatched plans - Test plans created in isolation often don't align with the sprint's current state. This results in tests that are out-of-date or miss what's changing.

4. Duplicated effort - Internal and external testers sometimes write or run the same tests without knowing, wasting effort that could have been shared or reused.

The Solution: Integration, Communication, and Shared Ownership

If customer test teams are part of the release process, they need to feel like part of the delivery team, not just a checkpoint at the end.

1. Better Integration

• Invite customer test reps to sprint planning or backlog grooming

• If possible, get a customer rep IN the team, working with internal testers to give faster feedback

• Share the same issue tracker or test management tools

• Expose environments and test data consistently across teams

  
  

2. Better Communication

• Establish agreed test scopes and responsibilities

• Use daily stand-ups or weekly syncs to flag risks and changes

• Make test progress visible across teams (e.g. shared dashboards)

  
  

3. Joined-Up Testing

• Align test plans with the sprint backlog

• Reuse test assets where possible (especially for automated tests)

• Share results early and often — don't wait for handovers

  
  

Turning Parallel Effort into Shared Value

Customer test teams can bring value, domain knowledge, and real-world usage insight. They also represent the people who pay the bills. The traditional watchword of testing—independence—still applies.

But in agile, independence shouldn't mean isolation.

With a bit of structure and transparency, customer testers can become a natural extension of the delivery team. And when that happens, testing becomes faster, wiser, and more meaningful for everyone involved.

Get in Touch

If working with customer test teams slows things down or makes things more complicated than they need to be, we can help. At PSTS, we've worked with all kinds of delivery setups and know what it takes to get testing and communication flowing smoothly.

Send us a message at ps-testing.co.uk—there's no pressure—just a chat about what's working (and what's not).