Agile is great. I’m a fan. As a developer, I love the fast feedback loops, quick iterations, and how perfectly it fits MVP app development. And honestly, there’s something incredibly satisfying about watching an app grow—sprint by sprint—evolving from a bare-bones prototype into something real and usable.

But Agile only works when it’s done right.

Recently, I ran into a painful example of what happens when the process skips one critical step: proper testing.

The Problem

We were working with a client on a brand-new MVP. Things were moving quickly and efficiently. We had a solid Agile development MVP setup: regular sprints, reviews, a staging environment ready to go.

The catch? The client insisted on handling most of the testing themselves to help control software development cost.

“We’ll do the testing in staging. No need to spend more time on that.”

Now, they did test. But not nearly enough. No edge cases. No stress tests. Just a quick pass through the “happy path.”

What Went Wrong

We released to production feeling mostly confident… until the bug reports started rolling in.

It turns out, several critical workflows were broken. Stuff we never thought would go wrong, did—because we hadn’t tested for it. Why? Because we assumed someone else had.

And suddenly, we were debugging live. Again.

Debugging in production is like trying to repair a roller coaster mid-ride. Every fix is urgent, risky, and happening while real users are watching.

How We Responded

We didn’t ditch Agile—we adjusted how we applied it. We reinforced our internal QA process and made sure nothing leaves staging without at least a core level of in-house validation.

The goal isn’t to slow down—it’s to avoid creating speed bumps after release.

We also had a good, open conversation with the client. Once they saw how much firefighting was involved post-launch, they understood the value of deeper testing before go-live.

What I Took Away

Agile doesn’t mean skipping steps. It means doing just enough of the right things—especially when it comes to testing.

If your MVP app skips QA to save time or cut software development cost, you’re not moving fast—you’re just heading toward the next fire drill.

Conclusion

Agile is powerful, but fragile when misunderstood.

So next time someone says, “We’ve tested it on staging, it’s fine,” you might want to ask, “Cool—but did you test for anything that could actually go wrong?”

Thanks for reading. I’m curious—how do you talk to clients about the importance of testing? Drop a comment and share your strategies or war stories. Let’s swap notes!