QA strategy & consulting
Decide on quality before you measure it: organization, processes, governance.
01 — The problem
Your leadership asks “where does quality stand?” Nobody can answer with anything other than a count of executed tests — which says nothing about the risk actually covered. Teams test, sometimes a lot, but without explicit trade-offs: no one knows what isn’t tested, or why. Release decisions rest on the gut feeling of one or two people, and that gut feeling can’t be passed on.
02 — What we do
- 01
Assess actual maturity, not stated maturity
We compare what is written in the processes with what actually happens in the squads. The gap between the two is almost always the real issue.
- 02
Define an explicit test strategy
Which risks we cover, at which level of the test pyramid, and which ones we knowingly accept not to cover. A strategy that doesn’t say what it chooses not to do is not a strategy.
- 03
Structure QA roles and mandate
Who can block a release, on what criterion, and who decides in case of disagreement. Without a clear mandate, QA becomes one opinion among many.
- 04
Set up quality gates that inform
A gate that blocks without explaining what needs fixing is a toll booth, not a control. We design actionable criteria, with a documented way out.
- 05
Build metrics that hold up over time
Few metrics, comparable month after month, and directly tied to a decision. A dashboard nobody looks at is a cost, not a tool.
- 06
Support the teams, not just management
Coaching for testers and developers, because a strategy that doesn’t reach the people doing the work remains a document.
03 — How we proceed
- 01
Understand the context
3 to 5 days
Product, regulatory constraints, organization, history. What has already been tried, and why it didn’t stick.
- 02
Observe what actually happens
1 to 2 weeks
Interviews, attending team rituals, reviewing existing artifacts. We look at what is done, not at what is supposed to be done.
- 03
Formalize and decide
1 week
Written strategy, roles, gates, metrics. Every trade-off is discussed with the people who will have to live with it.
- 04
Hand over
Variable
Presentation of findings to the teams and to leadership, then support for implementation over the first few weeks.
04 — What you receive
Named deliverables, not promises. You know what you will receive before we start.
Documented test strategy
Scope, levels, risks covered and risks accepted.
Map of roles and mandate
Who decides what, and on what criterion.
Set of quality gates
Criteria, thresholds and a remediation path for each one.
Quality dashboard
Five to eight metrics, each with its definition and its source.
05 — Technical ecosystem
Tools do not make quality. We master them so that we can choose the right one, not to use them as a selling point.
- Jira
- Xray
- TestRail
- Confluence
- SonarQube
- Grafana
Talk about your QA organization
A first 45-minute conversation, with no commitment.