How can the business be more involved in the quality of the software project?

The business consists of everyone who works for the company from the CEO on down. In the context of software testing and agile development, we often shorthand “the business” as a Product Owner, Project Manager, or Business Analyst. I think of these folks as subject matter experts, or SME’s. 

Often the SME is an expert in what the business does, how the customer uses the product, and all of the technical rules that need to be applied. They may write these rules down as requirements and distribute them to the developers who code the product, or sometimes it’s just passed down in a phone call. The developer codes it to the best of their understanding, then it gets integrated into the rest of the system and a QA eventually checks to see if everything works as they believe it should work.

Unfortunately, testers are often flying by the seat of their pants and guessing how things are supposed to work. There is a lot of back and forth with the developer. Sometimes he may get a few minutes of the SME’s time to help him understand the product. Many large organizations rely on these “rock star” QA engineers to understand the products better than anyone else and evaluate them as a customer would. 

The product and the customers’ needs could potentially get out of alignment if we are just relying on a QA engineer to make an assessment and report back. A better approach is to have your SMEs more involved in testing. Testing is often a highly technical exercise. 

I propose that we bridge the gap between these folks with different areas of expertise by improving the process, communication, and tools. There are things I can do to help your organization translate the business requirements into repeatable tests. Subscribe for the checklist or contact me directly.

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