When quality starts to decline or releases are delayed, testing often becomes the center of the debate. Many of the challenges teams face are, in fact, signs of low test strategy maturity: unclear ownership, late involvement in the development process, or a narrow understanding of testing’s role.
In this post, we explore five common patterns that often reflect an immature test strategy or culture. We look at what’s really behind these symptoms and the changes that can help you build more sustainable and robust testing practices.
Your Test Strategy Feels Like a Bottleneck
What the team or the organization perceives
Releases are consistently delayed because testing can’t keep up with development or defects are often found late.
What’s really happening
Testing becomes a bottleneck when it’s treated as a separate phase instead of being integrated into the development process. This often results in testing starting too late in the loop. Even worse, it can reveal that mini-waterfalls are hidden within what is supposed to be an agile approach, leading to delays and increased pressure on the team. In response, testing efforts may be cut to meet deadlines, which increases the risk of poor coverage and undetected critical defects. These issues can impact the business directly, and users may end up facing a frustrating or unreliable experience.
It’s time to…
Rethink your testing approach and your overall development process.
What you should focus on
Testing should be integrated from the early stages of the development cycle. Shifting toward continuous testing practices, such as incorporating automated checks and prioritizing a culture focused on building quality from the start, helps eliminate bottlenecks and keep releases on track. When developers and testers work side by side, the focus shifts from detecting bugs to preventing them. This collaborative approach fosters a culture of built-in quality and makes the entire process smoother and more sustainable.
Unclear Testing Ownership
What the team or the organization perceives
Team members aren’t sure who’s responsible for what in testing and quality is often seen as the tester’s job only.
What’s really happening
The lack of shared ownership of testing and quality across the entire team leads to inefficiencies. When testing and quality are viewed as the sole responsibility of testers, it can lead to situations where developers assume the testers will “catch everything later”. This disconnect means quality isn’t a shared responsibility across the entire team, and testing often happens too late in the process rather than being integrated during development. As a result, bugs accumulate and the team ends up racing to fix them just before the release, which introduces risks and may compromise the system’s maturity.
It’s time to…
Adopt shared ownership of testing and quality across the entire team.
What you should focus on
Testing and quality need to be everyone’s responsibility. Developers and testers must collaborate from the very start of the development cycle, defining test strategies and practices where each role can apply their expertise. By adopting practices such as test-driven development (TDD) and pair testing, teams can ensure that quality is built into the product as it’s being developed. This shared ownership leads to better results, faster feedback, and reliable releases.
Over-Reliance on Manual Testing
What the team or the organization perceives
What’s really happening
Over-reliance on manual testing often indicates that the foundations of a solid test automation strategy are missing. Without automated checks across different layers (unit, API, and UI), teams struggle to keep up with regression testing, shorten feedback loops, and scale their efforts effectively. The lack of automation means that regressions in new versions may go undetected until late in the process, making them harder to fix and increasing the risk of issues reaching production.
It’s time to…
Shift from an overloaded, manual-only testing approach to a balanced approach that integrates automated testing.
What you should focus on
Automation should be an essential part of your test strategy. Teams should focus on implementing automated tests across all layers. By embracing automation, teams can speed up feedback loops, reduce manual effort, and identify changes earlier in the process. With a well-defined automation strategy, the team can focus more on quality attributes that are relevant to their context and less on repetitive tasks, leading to more efficient and reliable releases.
Weak Test Automation
What the team or the organization perceives
What’s really happening
Weak automation is often the result of a lack of strategy and proper design. Automated UI tests often fail to follow good practices, such as the Page Object Model design pattern, making them harder to maintain and scale. Additionally, many teams focus automation efforts just on the UI layer, leaving unit and service test automation unaddressed.
It’s time to…
Rethink your test automation strategy and strengthen its foundations.
What you should focus on
Test automation should be well designed, integrated into the development process, and not just the testers’ responsibility. A solid test automation strategy includes coverage across all layers (unit, API, and UI) and is embraced by the whole team. It relies on a shared approach, thoughtful design, good test data, and continuous feedback to ensure stability, maintainability, and long-term value. With a well-designed test suite and the right tools in place, teams can achieve faster feedback, better coverage, and more reliable releases.
Performance Issues Surface Too Late
What the team or the organization perceives
What’s really happening
Performance testing is often overlooked or treated as a one-time task, usually postponed until the final stages of development or skipped altogether. Without continuous performance checks, issues related to load, scalability, or responsiveness go unnoticed until the system is under real user stress. When performance isn’t tested under realistic conditions or integrated into CI/CD pipelines, the team lacks early feedback and ends up reacting to problems rather than preventing them.
It’s time to…
Make performance testing a continuous and integrated part of your quality strategy.
What you should focus on
Performance testing should be proactive and embedded into the development and delivery cycle. Teams should define performance expectations early, identify critical flows, and simulate realistic load scenarios as part of their regular testing practices. By making performance a shared concern, not just a late-stage check, teams can identify regressions earlier and deliver more reliable applications.
Evaluate Your Test Strategy Maturity and Define the Next Steps
Recognizing these signs is the first step toward assessing the maturity of your test strategy and quality practices.
Frequently Asked Questions About Test Strategy Maturity
What is test strategy maturity?
What are the most common signs of an immature test strategy?
What is the relationship between automation and test strategy maturity?
What should a team focus on to improve test strategy maturity?
How can test strategy maturity be evaluated in a team or organization?
What are the benefits of a mature test strategy?
Take Your Test Strategy to the Next Level
Connect with our experts to discover how QAdrive’s Quality Maturity Assessment can help your team build a stronger, more effective test strategy.
