Insert Quality Here

Ben Bittrolff [The Financial Ninja] wrote a post that got me thinking about what it takes to be a relevant tester.  In it he points to the FT article that says, and I'm paraphrasing here, that incorrect Aaa ratings that had been assigned to those big mortgage re-insurers was caused by a bug in the software, and that Moody's management knew about it for at least a year. 

To quote [the Financial Ninja], "OMG. OMG." 

What could be going on here?  Are the managers are just looking for a scapegoat (Probably)?  It's real easy to blame QA for the failings of really important software when purposely not given the resources to do the job right just to cut a corner.  Then again, maybe QA was not doing all it could to be relevant? 

 
So, what does one have to do to be a continually relevant QA resource? I don't purport to have all the answers to this yet, but my guide has been Rex Black's "Critical Testing Processes", which is quite possibly the best book out there on managing the testing process. There are three directions in which the QA leader needs to look according to Black, Upward, Outward, and Inward.

Inward -- It all starts with addressing the basic needs of the testing team, and in Black's opinion, is where the focus should be.  Do you have the right people involved in testing (skill sets & head count).  The right infrastructure in place to do the testing.  That an appropriate amount of time was alloted to backfill unit tests not written, or that needed to be expanded, then to do all of the integration, and system testing on an "good enough" sized configuration space.  Making sure that you get the right information to pass upward, and outward about the testing process, and about the state of the product.

Outward -- All the sales and marketing folk need to know about what works well, and what doesn't.  delivering this information to the sales, and marketing teams, and learning how the sale is made, and what it is that potential customers are interested in is useful for shaping the testing process. 

 Upward -- Your boss, and your boss' boss.  Sitting down with them to figure out what management's requirements of the release are to make clear what the ship, or not ship line is.  Also, to figure out what pieces of information they're interested in coming out of the testing process.

Black, of course, go into much more detail with lots of examples.  Out suggestions I'd say I'm hitting 80% of them, so there definitely room to do more over time.