3 Lens Quality Assistance Model

Unlike Quality Assurance, Quality Assistance is a model where product engineers own the feature lifecycle from ideation to support. In this model, software testers enable teams to improve their quality rather than participate in uplifting quality.

Companies wishing to adopt this model will need to consider the impact of shifting to this approach, as it impacts beyond quality coaches to product teams and potentially to product engineering leadership.

In this article, I use a three-lens¹ model to understand what needs amending when a company shifts to a quality assistance approach.

The three lenses are:

• Organisational lens
  These are the structures and models required for the team to exist within the organisational construct.
• Squad/team/practice lens
  On a team level/squad/guild level how to interoperate with these structures
• Quality Coach lens
  Areas directly impacting a quality coach include their role, career paths, etc.

Frame what good looks like for quality assistance through all three lenses. By doing so, you are ensuring you have considered the impact of any changes through the eyes of a quality coach and the effect on the teams and the organisation.

There's a significant amount of context to consider when adopting any approach. The following are some questions to consider. You don't have to embrace all of these, but it's worth thinking them through with engineering leadership to understand what they feel is essential.