Understanding The Role Of QA In Software Development

The Three Core Methodologies for Directors of QA 1. Testing is an Opportunity, Not a Metric Too many teams approach testing as a percentage to achieve rather than a system to understand. A function is called inside a test, coverage goes up, and leadership assumes the system is stable. In reality, if testing is not designed to interrogate the software—pushing its limits, exploring its failure points, and ensuring rational behavior—then it is nothing more than an illusion of safety. The best testers do not simply react to defects; they design testing strategies that shape the system itself. They recognize that all testing—unit, integration, and end-to-end—is just exercising the same code. The farther you get from the source, the harder testing becomes. The best QA leaders push for deeper, more effective testing at the earliest layers so that quality is built into the system rather than patched on later. 2. Quality is a Customer-Facing Role Quality assurance is not just about finding defects—it is about delivering confidence. That means QA leaders must be deeply connected to customers. Too often, QA is isolated from the real-world impact of their work, focusing on test cases rather than outcomes. The best QA teams actively engage with users, product teams, and customer success teams to understand: - What actually matters to customers? - Where do users experience pain? - Which failures would erode trust in our product? QA leaders should be part of customer calls, reviewing support tickets, and understanding how real users interact with the software. Without this direct connection, testing becomes disconnected from reality, focusing on low-priority issues while critical customer pain points remain unaddressed. 3. Quality Gets a Seat at the Table For too long, QA has been treated as a secondary function—brought in at the end of the process to “approve” a release rather than being involved in its creation. This approach is fundamentally flawed. The best QA leaders insist on being part of the conversation from day one. They are involved in design discussions, influencing architecture, and shaping processes to prevent defects rather than just detecting them. When QA has a seat at the table: - Testing strategies are built into development rather than added as an afterthought. - Quality is proactive, not reactive. - Teams shift from firefighting production issues to preventing them in the first place. Quality is not a function that simply exists to serve engineering—it is a business-critical discipline that impacts customer trust, retention, and revenue. When QA is involved in strategy discussions, the entire company benefits from a culture of quality rather than just a process of testing. When QA is seen as an opportunity to shape the system, a direct line to customer experience, and an integral part of leadership discussions, it becomes one of the most valuable functions in the company. #QualityEngineering #QA #SoftwareTesting

Remember when QA was that team at the end of the development process that everyone dreaded? They were the ones who would inevitably find problems right before release, causing delays and frustration. Well, those days are long gone. In today’s episode of Product Driven, I sat down with Jay Aigner, founder and CEO of JDA QA. Jay shared fascinating insights about how QA has transformed from being a final checkpoint into a crucial driver of product success. Quality Assurance used to be treated like the last inspection point on an assembly line. Developers would build features, throw them over the wall, and hope for the best. "Would I trust that I want to hand off software to a client that's only been tested by the development team? I would say probably not," Jay explained during our conversation. This perspective highlights a crucial point: effective QA requires a dedicated focus that goes beyond what developers can provide. The most successful product teams today are integrating QA from day one. Your QA team should be among your most knowledgeable product experts. At Stackify, I saw firsthand how QA teams often understand the product better than anyone else in the organization. "Having somebody who's representing the customer and has seen the platform and probably knows it better than just about anybody else, it would be a wasted resource not to use them as early as possible," Jay points out. This deep product knowledge allows QA teams to spot potential issues before they become problems. Early involvement is the key to maximizing QA's value. Modern QA isn't about finding bugs – it's about preventing them. This shift requires breaking down traditional organizational barriers. In my experience working with development teams worldwide, I've found that the best results come when QA is treated as an equal partner in the product development process. They should be in planning meetings, contributing to feature discussions, and helping shape the product roadmap. Communication is the foundation of effective QA integration. While automation tools have revolutionized testing, they haven't eliminated the need for manual QA. In fact, they've made human expertise even more valuable. "Never in a million years," Jay responded when I asked if manual testing was going away. "Human context is really important and intent." The key is finding the right balance between automated efficiency and human insight. Technology enhances QA capabilities but doesn't replace human judgment. When QA is properly integrated into your product development process, the results are dramatic. You'll see: Faster development cycles Fewer post-release issues More confident deployments Better alignment with customer needs Reduced development costs Success comes from treating QA as a strategic partner rather than a tactical resource. When was the last time you evaluated the role of QA in your development process?

QA is too often disconnected from the impact of its work. And that’s a problem. When QA does its job well, the business thrives: faster releases, better features, happier customers, more revenue. But QA teams rarely get to see that success firsthand. They’re often too far removed from the outcomes they make possible. Sales, support, marketing, and customer success teams are on the front lines. They hear directly from customers: both the praise for flawless features and the frustration when something goes wrong. QA, meanwhile, often operates in the shadows, with little visibility into the customer experience their work directly shapes. And when things go wrong? QA becomes the easy target for blame. But when things go right? The credit rarely comes back to QA. This disconnect isn’t just frustrating for QA teams: it’s BAD FOR THE BUSINESS. A QA team that doesn’t see the real-world impact of its work can’t optimize for what matters most. And without understanding how their efforts tie to business outcomes, QA risks being treated as another cost center instead of a growth driver. So, how do we fix this? 1 - Close the loop: QA teams need direct access to customer feedback. Listen to support calls. Join debriefs with sales and customer success. If possible, talk to customers directly. Seeing how QA impacts real users is a game changer. 2 - Highlight the wins: QA needs to do more than test and deliver. It needs to quantify its value: how many defects were prevented and the financial impact of it, how much faster releases are, how customer satisfaction improves with great QA. 3 - Educate the business: Take every opportunity to showcase how QA drives outcomes. Help stakeholders see QA not as a cost, but as an enabler of speed, quality, and growth. QA WORK IS CRITICAL, but it’s undervalued because it’s invisible. If we want QA to get the recognition it deserves, we need to break the silo and connect QA directly to the impact it creates. Any other ideas for bringing QA closer to its impact?

No one likes being the first to discover a bug, especially when it’s your paying customer. For B2B SaaS founders, a broken feature doesn’t just mean a delay; it’s a dent in your reputation. And it usually leads to a support ticket... or worse, a cancellation. That’s why our QA process doesn’t kick in after development. It starts on day 1, right alongside feature planning and backlog grooming. Here’s what that looks like in practice: ✔️ QA is involved in the kickoff and ticket breakdown ✔️ Strategic QA presence in planning and refinement. This drives clarity, reduces rework, and ensures development starts on a solid foundation, which leads to faster delivery and fewer bugs in production ✔️ Manual regression happens before every release ✔️ Nothing hits staging without a clean QA pass It's not "bug hunting." It’s quality engineering, designed to give your team confidence and your users a smooth experience. According to the World Quality Report, companies that integrate QA from the start see a 30–40% improvement in velocity and satisfaction... We’ve seen that play out firsthand. If you're scaling fast and want every release to reflect that momentum, QA can’t be an afterthought.