Quality Coach Team Operating Model

Where do quality coaches fit within an organisational structure? Do they permanently sit within a product team or float across multiple teams? Exactly where do quality coaches reside?

Over the years, I've worked with two models and heard of blended versions of these models. The first is a quality coach permanently embedded in a team. Here, a quality coach's main objective is to work closely with one team and support other teams within a tribe. The quality coach may or may not report to an engineering manager.

The other option is to have quality coaches sit within an enabling team of quality coaches. The quality coaches have their strategy, backlog, and roadmap. The enabling team's function is to support multiple product teams and tribes by offering quality coaching services. A hub-and-spoke model is a popular and helpful model for this type of team.