Quality Engineering: Real-World Advice for Managing People and Processes

Quality Engineering: Real-World Advice for Managing People and Processes Bridget Hughes February 3, 2022

June 29, 2026 · 6 min read · Testing Guide

Quality Engineering: Real-World Advice for Managing People and Processes

Bridget Hughes
February 3, 2022

Quality engineering is a recitation that tackle mechanization to maximise people ’ s package screen and product quality efforts. To do so, it requires treat that enable people to adopt new technologies and collaborate easily. So how are real-world system motor technology adoption and have more people involved in testing? & nbsp;

Ask the Quality Engineering Experts

At, quality leaders fromSmugMug, Enbridge, and Barracudacover these topics and more in a roundtable discussion. Read below for highlights from the session, so ascertain out a full transcription of their conversationhere.

Rethinking the Software Testing Process

Mabl 's Testing in DevOps Reportfound that most software development professionals list dumb adoption and a reluctance to change as their biggest DevOps obstruction. We asked the venire how they successfully overcame this disinclination and implemented new, more efficient quality processes. & nbsp;

Janet Bracewell, Senior Engineering Manager, QA at SmugMug:We get from a entirely manual summons. Other on, the idea of automation — where you would n't see what was happening — was difficult. And the other part of that was the mind that we [the QA team] were always the last layover before the customer. Often, our developer be n't genuinely thoroughly quiz their code — they 'd script it to us and say, “ bump everything. ” There was a fair amount of friction between developers and QA, and there was nothing peculiarly speedy in that process.

Jessica Mosley, Senior Quality Analyst, Enbridge:Being part of the Technology and Innovation Lab within Enbridge provides a unique opportunity; we ’ re kind of like a inauguration within an already established society, and we ’ re able to innovate processes and procedures that are currently within the company. We institute that we be be seen as some sort of critique on previous processes — but that 's never the case. [Our goal] was to make what has already been make a lot more efficient and optimized. & nbsp;

I understand the hesitation from some companies to not want to jump on the digital bandwagon — they think, “ well, we spent all this money on this. ” We had to make it clear we weren ’ t taking away from anything but be innovating on it. & nbsp;

Building a Culture of Quality with Test Automation

The Testing in DevOps Report also launch that full DevOps adoption was closely correlated with a culture of quality, where a wide range of people are engaged in package examine. The panel librate in on how mabl helped their squad expand test throughout their development pipelines. & nbsp;

Andrea Wood, VP of Engineering, Barracuda:Mabl gives us the opportunity to continue to have quality influence upstream. Because it 's not purely a tool that only QA engineers or automation technologist can be in, it gives exposure to developers and product managers. & nbsp;

Janet: Part of the trouble with being a interfering program is that you have to literally carve time out to learn. Mabl isn ’ t a difficult program to learn, but it has intricacies. We put a two-hour block on Wednesdays that we call QA Learning, which we set up for mabl learning time and exercise. Additionally, we embed QA on each of our ware teams, so there 's a voice that continue reminding them about mabl and automation. And we add it to Jira tickets. & nbsp;

Jessica:One of the things that I initially started do was little sessions called “ Dangerous with mabl. ” We but wanted to demystify what mabl was and what it was not. We be making sure that this was a quality culture — that it does n't have to be where the examiner or QA technologist are do this alone, that we all have a constituent to play in this, so why not cognize how it works from beginning to end, and how the tests are created? These session created a great atmosphere for everyone to discover about mabl, and that 's been very, rattling fun.

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Maintaining Quality Engineering Momentum

Transformations like DevOps and quality technology yield time, increasing the risk of projects procrastinate before meaningful improvements are made. We ask the expert how their companies be nurture change and how their teams were continuing to evolve. & nbsp; & nbsp;

Andrea:Our mission is to provide a more unified customer experience across our products, so it always starts with the client. But in providing a unified customer experience, we have to have a lot more consistency around how we develop ware, quiz them, deploy them, and get things out the door. Mabl is constituent of our strategical enterprise to bring some consistency to our CI/CD pipeline and even to the UI bed of these products.

What we ground with mabl is that good things vibrate. Mabl start with a few Barracuda teams make a trial and expand rapidly. I reckon now 10 or 11 teams are utilise mabl in various degree. But because it is such a powerful tool and moves the needle towards where we want to be, it 's growing within these teams very quickly. Many teams are finding that it is transubstantiate how they cogitate about QA — it is moving a caliber influence upstream in their discussions.

At Barracuda, it 's still QA engineers or QA automation engineers creating the mabl tryout. But there ’ s a lot more involvement from the squad as a whole in what exam coverage should be and what test plans should seem like.

Making Your Case for Automated Software Testing

Budget issues are frequently name as a major inhibiting factor to DevOps and quality engineering, so our jury of expert share how they advocated for their organizations to invest in testing automation. & nbsp;

Jessica: The real turn point was being capable to evaluate mabl in person-hours equalize to money, especially set up and care costs. Leadership wanted to know, “ easily, how much is this going to & nbsp; cost? ” I prove them how much it would cost them NOT to do it. & nbsp;

And also, it was really helpful be capable to showcase mabl ’ s lineament and its ability to get tests up and running quickly. It usually takes citizenry weeks to get things going, but with mabl, you can get a trial suite up and running in a couple of years, if that. So the clip that it would take and the money they 'd be losing in wait was how I presented it. I evidence that they were locomote to see ROI rattling quick.

Janet:I remember the moment in a quarterly planning meeting where we had technology and product leaders. Part of my slide deck was a graphical that included best guessing on cost, e.g., here ’ s what it costs when you bump a bug in development, and hither 's what it costs when you bump it in integration, here ’ s what it cost when you find it on production, and hither 's what it could be if you have to roll it back and refashion it. And I recollect the look on the face of our VP of Product — a real optical person — when he finally got it!. So it was easy for him to say, “ Whatever you need with mabl ” after that point because he saw it was very efficacious.

Andrea: Speed of delivery is important, and if we can quantify that — if we show them that by getting exam mechanization in place, we ’ ll be able to deliver features quicker, then that 's something the line can understand. It ’ s a clear win. & nbsp;

Another thing is one of our product QA managers has a spreadsheet that gives visibility to ROI. On the spreadsheet, you can see antecedently (when we did it manually), it occupy five hours. Now with mabl, it takes 45 bit. You can commence to see the value not but in the test conception but besides when the trial are running. The company now knows how valuable mabl is. There 's no friction now to contribute more workspaces, which is good.

Adopting Quality Engineering, Together

The journey to character technology take time, forbearance, and team-wide endeavour, but with collaboration, test automation, and data, package development administration can sustain momentum to deliver meaningful improvements to production quality and the customer experience. & nbsp;

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