Quality engineering (QE) is my thing nowadays; it’s what I help teams to do, in a servant-leader capacity. I’m not a fan of the term “manager” (although it’s my official title) as it has connotations with a command-and-control “do what I say” approach… it does for me, anyway. I prefer showing a better way and they understand the value, supporting them via coaching. It’s so much easier when people choose the way you evangelise, rather than feel they’re being forced.
We’re going no QA!
I did away with specific testing roles (QA) when I joined M&S. It was not entirely my idea; the incumbent senior test engineer suggested it to me and I fully supported it, immediately. Our engineering teams are collectively accountable for the quality of their delivery. This is a game changer. We now have teams of test-focussed engineers, which works far better than offloading responsibility for testing onto someone else.
Automation and shifting-left with testing are key.
Engineers are best placed to do this. Knowing what to automate, when and how is incredibly important, so we promote the Test Automation Pyramid over the inverted Ice Cream Cone that tends to happen without leadership and supervision. Pair-programming and TDD are practiced to varying degrees, depending on the maturity of each team. BDD is coming next.
Treat your environments like cattle, not like pets.
Total autonomy is a goal for teams delivering software into production, via their own CI/CD pipelines, using a DevOps approach. No more long-lived SIT environments; instead we spin-up virtualized environments on-demand and destroy them when done.
Complete trust is required for teams to perform their best.
Let’s not forget that teams are made of two or more people. People are the magic sauce in creating a tasty, satisfying, high-performing dish of a team. There are many ways to build trust and it usually takes a fair amount of time.
DWYSYWD – Do What You Say You Will Do
This is my mantra in life, not just my profession. It’s not as easy as it sounds as you need to treat everything as a promise you must not renege on. The words you say or write matter, so choose them carefully. Think DWYSYWD at all times. As a side note, it’s an acronym that’s also a palindrome. I like things like that.
QA is dead, long live QE
If you’re a QA who wants to stay ahead of the game, be at the leading edge, and even have a role that employers are offering in future, I strongly suggest you read “Who Moved My Cheese” if you haven’t already, and start the change. I believe the future will be full of QEs, andQAs will be a thing of the past.
Don’t be scared of this change, embrace it!
