The purpose of the Quality Assurance Team in software development

by Gene Michael Stover

creatd 2009 November 14
updated 2011-03-09

I sometimes hear that the purpose of the Quality Assurance Team is to break things. That's wrong.

I often heard that the purpose of the Quality Assurance Team is to ensure that only high-quality product reaches the customer. That's effectively correct, but it's such a soulless answer.

So here's my analogy to explain the purpose of the Quality Assurance Team to a software development project.

My analogy

An application exists in a space described by its features & bugs. The space is multi-dimensional & too complex for a human to imagine, but for the moment, imagine a map of a landscape with hills, grass, mountains, forests... standard stuff.
The application exists on that map.
By providing us with Requirements, the users specify a location on that map. That's where the application wants to be.
By creating & modifying code, the programmers have the power to move the application around the map.
By measuring the application, QA tells you where the application is on the map.
By taking all this into consideration & thinking ahead, the secretary tells the programmers which direction to move the application & tells the users when the application will arrive.

Details, details

Users rarely give us requirements directly. So where I say that users give us requirements, we really get those requirements from their representatives: UI designers, architectures, visionaries.
Where I say "measuring the application", we usually say "testing" in polite conversation.
Where I say "secretary", we usually say project manager these days. Pitty, that. "Project manager" is a non-descriptive term for a roll that isn't management. Before the job title "secretary" was devaluated, it used to be respectable; the job sure is respectable. I wish we'd return to that. If not secretary, then "executive officer" or ExO, cuz it sounds like so much more fun.

End.