Transforming Software Testing: A Journey from Basics to Specialized Excellence

Charting the Course: A New Paradigm in QA

The software landscape is ever-evolving, and in its flow, the role of Quality Assurance (QA) has burgeoned from a mere checkpoint to a strategic cornerstone. It’s a narrative of transformation, where roles within software testing are no longer confined to generic titles but are sculpted into specialized beacons of expertise.

The Genesis: More Than Just Testing

The inception of our journey was marked by a recognition that our QA team, a mosaic of potential, was marooned on an island of outdated structures. This epiphany was our call to action – a call to sculpt a robust career pathway for every tester.

The Blueprint: Values that Mold Careers

We leaned on our core tenets of curiosity, creativity, and collaboration to lay the foundation for roles that would not just exist but thrive. These values were not mere words; they were the crucibles that shaped the roles we envisaged.

The Spectrum: From Junior Pioneers to Architectural Maestros

We delineated our career paths into clear strata, each reflecting a distinct echelon of expertise:

  • Entry-Level Pioneers: Where the journey begins, our QA Interns and Testers are the bedrock, honing their skills, learning the ropes, and imbibing the essence of quality.
  • The Intermediate Vanguard: QA Engineers, the intermediaries, who with a balanced blend of skill and innovation, take on more intricate aspects of testing, curating quality with each test case.
  • The Senior Strategists: Senior QA Engineers, the specialized craftsmen, wielding tools of automation and analytics, architecting the frameworks that uphold our standards.
  • Leadership and Visionaries: QA Leads and Managers, the navigators of our QA odyssey, charting the course, steering through complexities, and anchoring the team to its goals.
  • The Specialized Elite: Performance and Security Experts, the guardians of our software’s integrity, ensuring each product can withstand the tides of demand and the shadows of cyberspace.

The Revelation: Roles That Resonate

Each role now resonates with a defined purpose, echoing our values and encapsulating the skills and responsibilities pertinent to that stage of growth. This clear delineation has not only catalyzed professional growth but has also enhanced the quality of our products.

The Vanguard: SMEs as Beacons of Mastery

Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) in Test Analysis, Performance, and Security have emerged as the vanguards of their domains. These roles are not just titles but are sanctuaries of expertise, each SME a beacon guiding their peers towards excellence.

The Odyssey: A Cultural Metamorphosis

The rollout of these roles was not just a structural change; it was a cultural metamorphosis. A once rigid hierarchy gave way to a dynamic ecosystem where each role is a stepping stone to a zenith of specialized prowess.

The Harvest: A Resounding Triumph

This transformation has been a resounding triumph, with our QA team not just meeting but redefining industry benchmarks. The clarity in career progression has unfurled potential into performance, and ambition into achievement.

The Continuum: A Pledge to Perpetual Evolution

Our journey doesn’t plateau here. We pledge to perpetually evolve, iterating on our structures and roles, ensuring our team is not just current but cutting-edge, not just testers but trailblazers.

An Invitation: Let’s Converse and Collaborate

Are you on a similar voyage? Are you considering charting such waters? I am eager to share insights, and strategies, and perhaps, learn from your narratives too. Let’s collaborate to elevate QA beyond its traditional bastions, nurturing careers that transcend expectations.

Why we went Agile in First Place

Why we haven’t been properly Agile even though we do Scrum, Kanban, SAFe or any other framework at team or organizational level

After another gap, I am finally able to write. It has been a strange period on the personal, country, and then worlds’ level.

When they started talking about going Agile and championing the benefits of it, on a beautiful resort in 2001. They although coming from having different principals, frameworks, experiences, and concepts. They agreed on something.

The agreement is well known, we call it the Agile Manifesto. They put forward some commonality and one of the most important aspects that were agreed upon was “Responding to change over following a plan”.

What we understood and have been actively preaching are

  • Must follow a framework
  • It only applies to Team

Usually, that framework is always either Scrum or Kanban or something in between. Sometimes we are so hell-bent on following the framework we lose focus on the bigger picture. We say okay framework says this but you are not following it so you are not Agile even ignoring the fact that person or team is delivering great outcome (value to client) and responding to all kinds of changes efficiently and being market-leader.

Then going to the next step, when we talk about scaling it up, we again get stuck in trying to find a scalability framework. Altogether ignoring the cultural, organizational, people, functional and other aspects. In a 2018 publication “Agile at Scale” of “Harvard Business Review” talks about the same thing.

So, what now?

While searching for answers, I came across a concept “Disciplined Agile”. I admit I am still learning the ropes of it and will only be able to go deep once I have a proper handle on it. But on the surface, it feels more organic, natural, and less restrictive.

Disciplined agile encourages you to focus on Mindset. It encourages you to establish your own way of working, which it calls “WOW”, and to help you on the path instead of rules and regulations it shares with you guidelines that can help keep on track on the journey. It talks about experimenting, empathy towards customers, finding why we started what we started in first place, talk about leveraging all the assets on your disposal and having a system in place to help grow not become the system.

But having all said and done, there must be a framework that DA follows? Shouldn’t it be? As that is always the catch, BE AGILE they say and then They give you SCRUM or KANBAN, or LESS, or NEXUS, or Scrum at Scale.

GOOD NEWS!!!!

No DA does not want you to be FRAMEWORK driven. It champions the following mantra

True business agility comes from freedom, not frameworks. Disciplined Agile helps you learn about your options and guides you to your best next step.”

Project Management Institute

What DA does instead if provide you with a Toolkit. That tool kit has 4 important layers, Foundation, Disciplined DevOps, Value Streams, and Disciplined Agile Enterprise.

Rights to this IMAGE are reserved by Project Management Institute , its used here for education purposes only.

I will talk more about DA Toolkit in next blog.

I encourage you all to explore this, as having the freedom to deliver the best value to your client in your own way should be the actual Agility. Doesn’t it make sense after all?

Important Announcement: if you are facing any issue regarding Agility, Agile Adaption in your team or organization, Test Management, project management, and/or Application Life-cycle Management, please contact at askabk@abkhalid.com. For Test & Project Management Consultancy, please reach out at abkhalid@gmail.com.

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