To achieve this, the QA team should actively participate in all sprint ceremonies, such as grooming, planning, and retrospectives. For instance, during a grooming session, the QA team can provide insights on potential edge cases, ensuring that everyone has a comprehensive understanding of the user stories.

Additionally, implementing clear definitions for both readiness and done for every user story is crucial. This means defining specific criteria that must be met before development and testing can commence. For example, a user story might only be considered "ready" if it has detailed acceptance criteria and "done" once all tests pass successfully, and the feature is deployed to a staging environment.

By gathering all test cases in a single test case management system, the team can better manage, track, and prioritize them. For example, using a tool like TestRail or Zephyr allows the team to organize test cases by feature, track their execution status, and generate reports on test coverage.

Regularly reviewing and prioritizing test cases ensures that they remain relevant and comprehensive. For instance, a weekly review meeting can be scheduled to go over existing test cases, update them as necessary, and prioritize them based on their criticality and impact on the product.

While it’s important to select tools that best meet the project’s needs, the familiarity of the team with these tools should also be considered to minimize disruption and maintain productivity. For example, if the team already has competencies and experience with a given tool, it may be the most appropriate choice, even if newer alternatives exist.

The right tools can streamline workflows and integrate smoothly into existing processes, reducing the learning curve and allowing the team to focus on quality improvements rather than learning new systems from scratch. However, if a switch to new tools is deemed necessary, it should be accompanied by adequate training and support to ensure a smooth transition.

However, it's crucial to choose the most appropriate toolset for automation, keeping in mind the team's familiarity and comfort with the tools. While it's important to select tools that provide the best functionality, opting for ones the team is already acquainted with can reduce the learning curve and maintain productivity. For example, if the team is proficient with Selenium for web testing, it may be more effective to continue using it rather than switching to a new tool like Cypress.

Begin automating test cases based on priority, focusing first on the most critical and frequently used functionalities. For instance, if the login functionality is critical, automate tests related to it before moving on to less critical features.

If tests are not confirming functionality, it's essential to analyze why they are failing. This could involve investigating whether the test cases are incorrect or need to be re-written. For example, if a test fails because it expects an outdated UI element, updating the test to reflect the current design would be necessary.

Regularly reviewing and refining test cases and testing processes ensures they remain effective. This can be achieved by setting up a process for regular test failure analysis, where the team reviews failed tests and identifies areas for improvement.

Prioritize the automation of urgent bugs to ensure quick regression testing and prevention of recurring issues. For example, if a critical bug is discovered in the shopping cart functionality, automating a test to verify the fix can prevent it from reoccurring.

To support the existing team, consider hiring temporary resources to increase automation coverage. For instance, onboarding contract automation engineers can help expedite the automation of critical areas.

Continue refining the existing QA and development processes, while simultaneously automating old functionalities. For example, while the team improves the current sprint processes, they can also work on automating tests for older features that are still in use.

Creating a dual-track improvement plan allows the team to focus on both current processes and legacy automation. This ensures balanced progress and comprehensive coverage.

Ensure that negative test scenarios are incorporated at appropriate levels (unit, integration, or end-to-end) to validate the product's robustness. For instance, testing a login feature with incorrect credentials ensures the system handles errors gracefully.

As automation coverage increases, expand the scope of regression tests to cover more functionalities. This ensures that new changes do not inadvertently break existing features. Periodically review and expand the regression test suite to keep up with the evolving product.

With increased automation coverage, more frequent test executions might be necessary to catch issues early. If the team notices an increase in automation failures, consider increasing the frequency of test executions. For example, running automated tests after every code commit can help identify issues sooner.

Implementing a robust mechanism to handle and fix failing tests promptly is also essential. A dedicated team or individual should be responsible for monitoring test failures and ensuring they are addressed quickly.