Quality to Whom?

[ originally at jlottosen.wordpress.com, July 2023 ]

The expert says the 5 bigger pieces should be in the build – though the customer is OK.

Quality is many things to many different people. In this blog post, I will cover some of the perspectives you can encounter in an enterprise setting. Enterprise settings differ from the usual software development shops in that the enterprise corporations have regulations and audits to comply with, and IT features merely support the delivery of something else being produced. By the way, even software development companies will eventually need to have similar roles as the company grows.

The Other “QA”

Especially in a Life Science and Healthcare setting “QA” is not your usual software testers. Quality Assurance and Quality Control (QA/QC) is an independent job role, that focuses on if we have followed the process. Companies with actual factories often have a range of standard operation procedures defined in their “Quality Management System” (QMS). A QMS might be required by law or similarly required to operate in a market. The quality control and quality assurance activity is to compare if these processes have been followed. Examples:

• Work items are prepared in the right template, with the approved content
• Work items are approved appropriately
• Approval gates are followed

Work items are usually documents, includingtest plans and test cases. Their measure of quality is the better adherence to the QMS the better. Similarly for auditing and regulatory compliance – the more aligned the organization is with a given standard/law/contract – the better. There is a quest for “objective” evidence in the sense that screenshots and the like are captured before something is considered “done“. Their model of Quality is similar to the classic V-model of testing – it’s about what is set forth in a specification, nothing more, nothing less.

Don’t Overthink Test Cases

Work items are usually documents, including test plans and test cases. Their measure of quality is the better adherence to the QMS the better. Similarly for auditing and regulatory compliance – the more aligned the organization is with a given standard/law/contract – the better. There is a quest for “objective” evidence in the sense that screenshots and the like are captured before something is considered “done“. Their model of Quality is similar to the classic V-model of testing – it’s about what is set forth in a specification, nothing more, nothing less.

More Than a Functional/Non-Functional Split

The Testing Quality Model

Software testing, though, has moved on its own in the last 10 years. Driven primarily by the essence that “quality is a relationship“.

• Quality is something that matters, to someone how matters, at some time
• Quality is the absence of unnecessary friction (StooCrock)

It’s probably best illustrated and articulated by Dan Ashby: “Testing is an investigatory activity (exploration) that has the effect of uncovering more information“. Good testing compared to QA above is to explore what the customer really wanted – and what trade-offs she has.

You don’t have to be a boss to be a leader