When Should I start testing a story?

'When do you think tester should stop testing a requirement?'

A favorite question in the job interviews for many of the folks. But I've hardly heard any one asking 'When do you think Tester should start testing a requirement?'

Well, isn't that a silly question, you may say. I don't think that way, I think it's very important to know when to pick up a story to test.

Do I wait till a story is 'Dev Complete' ?

Do I wait till the story has gone through 'BA verified ' ?

Or do I wait till last responsible minute ?

I'd say, pick up a build as soon as small part of the story functionality is checked in.

Why?

Simple answer: Early bird gets all the bugs, pardon the pun :-)

On a serious note, earlier I start testing a story, more comfortable I am signing off that story in the end. But it comes with it's own set of trouble.

An intermediate build in the story development means there are chances of broken functionalities, surprise pop-ups saying 'In (insert new functionality) here ...' and other symptoms of 'dev in progress' code.

But, it also helps me in understanding the implementation of the story, things I should watch out for when the story comes to 'In QA' and to improve the general feel about the application itself.

So, I'd rather put up with testing the 'Dev In Progress' story than the story appearing magically to 'QA Ready'.

Everybody loves early feedback, just be careful not to be a pain in the neck for rest of the team.

:-)