When is it the appropriate time for QA? Who is responsible for quality when working in such a small team?

Who is responsible for quality? Everyone. With that being said its important for the PM or whoever is driving the project to ensure it doesnt become a case of Everyone's responsibility becomes Nobody's responsibility. So how do you ensure that? There isnt a one size fits all but some things to consider Is there a clear agreed upon code complete date? If yes its important to make sure everyone is aligned on this and understands the expectation that beyond this date the team switches from building ...Read More

From a Product Manager's perspective, Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Engineering (QE) should be integrated throughout the entire product development lifecycle, commencing not merely at the conclusion but also in the discovery, design, and development phases to proactively identify and address issues. Discovery: Integrate user feedback to validate the product's intended effectiveness. Design: Ensure clarity in user journey flows, encompassing both intended "happy paths" and various alternativ ...Read More

I've worked with some teams that have dedicated QA people and others with none. If QA falls solely on 1 person, this can also become a challenge where engineering is not checking along the way becuase the attitude is "Oh, QA will catch it" and this can create inefficiencies in your process. There's a saying, "if everyone is responsible, no one is." This sometimes happens regarding QA. Ultimately, I hold the product manager accountable for quality of the resulting product. If something isn't work ...Read More

Work in the open. Create a culture on your team that encourages sharing unfinished work and working live together. This will drive the highest quality bar for your team. If you wait until the end of development to QA too many problems will be compounded. Some rituals I use to encourage a high quality b ar throughout the entire product development lifecycle: Fresh Eyes - Once a week anyone in the Product Squad can demo unfinished work for the purpose of getting feedback mid-build. The phrase and ...Read More

QA should always be an ongoing effort and be treated as a team effort. There might be spikes in QA efforts based on the complexity of the project but it should never be treated as 1 person responsibility.  Engineering is the first line of defense with unit testing.  Having a test environment where integrated end-to-end testing can be done is crucial for any development team.  PM + Design + EM should periodically be in the test environment testing an integrated experience. For complex products, t ...Read More