When Should an Organisation Bring in a Quality Leader?

I originally posted this in October 2024 on LinkedIn, here.

As organisations grow, complexity increases, teams scale up, products diversify, and market demands push for quicker delivery. But in the rush to release, quality often gets pushed aside. Too often, testing is seen as a bottleneck or an added cost that delays getting to market, rather than an essential part of delivering a product that customers will love.

When quality isn’t prioritised early, the cost of fixing issues later skyrockets, not just in terms of money but in lost trust and damaged reputation. So, when is the right time to bring in a quality leader?

It’s not when things are already breaking. The earlier you bring someone in to embed quality practices across your teams, the faster and more sustainably you can move. Tight feedback loops, continuous testing, and quick learning cycles speed up time to market by catching issues early before they become roadblocks. Quality is everyone’s responsibility and having a leader who ensures everyone, from developers to business teams, takes ownership is key.

I’m sure you’ve seen organisations giving you an ROI calculator for testing – the fact of the matter is that as with anything in software development, if it isn’t done well, it will be costly. Software development is a team sport, the focus of teams, understanding of our product, our customers and associated risks are all something that we should all be invested in to ensure that we are building the right thing.

What Profile Should Organisations Look for?

When looking for someone to lead quality, you want someone who understands that testing is not just about ticking boxes or running through checklists. It’s about empowering teams to take pride in the product they’re building, to see quality as something that helps them deliver faster, with fewer issues downstream.

The right person will:

• Advocate for tight feedback loops that catch defects early, allowing for quicker course corrections
• Understand and drive DORA metrics to measure and improve delivery performance
• Shift the perception of quality from a cost centre to a value driver by embedding testing in the process from the start
• Create a culture where every team member takes pride in the quality of the product and understands their role in achieving it

Bringing in someone who champions this approach will help align your teams around quality as an accelerator, not a bottleneck. And the real power lies in transforming quality into something that is owned by every individual—developers, product owners, testers, and business leaders alike.

Many organisations want to bake in automation from the offset and so will look for an Automator as their first person with a quality hat. That’s not a bad thing to be doing, but if you find yourself buried in automating test cases (because let’s face it, so many orgs implement Jira, gherkins and the like at the beginning, because that’s just what we do, right?), then how can you implement a holistic quality strategy for the whole team?

What Are the Key Initial Activities?

Once a quality leader is in place, their first job should be to establish processes that accelerate development, not slow it down. This is done by focusing on building tight feedback loops—getting rapid feedback from tests, customers, and production systems to help teams adapt and improve quickly.

In the first 90 days, the focus should be on:

– Implementing continuous testing throughout the development pipeline, ensuring quality checks happen early and often, not just at the end

– Encouraging collaboration between teams to build quality into the product from the outset, rather than catching issues when it’s already too late

– Leveraging DORA metrics (like deployment frequency, lead time for changes, and mean time to recovery) to measure and improve the speed and stability of delivery

– Embedding a mindset where quality is everyone’s responsibility, from developers to business teams, so that quality becomes a source of pride, not just a gatekeeping function

By embedding these activities into the organisation, you not only reduce time to market but also ensure that what’s delivered meets customer expectations. Continuous testing isn’t a blocker, it’s a way to move faster with confidence.

When I joined start-ups and scale-ups, the first thing I did was seek an understanding of the context. Asking questions about the why, the how and the what (hello Simon Sinek) enables me to paint a picture, play it back to the team and then apply the relevant models, heuristics and approaches for us, together. Each organisation is different, and that’s a good thing. Collaborative activities, such as team charters, ensembling, RiskStorming and UX events can really help build a common understanding.

Once we understand our context, we can establish common strategies, philosophies and tooling choices that are appropriate, informed and fit what we need.

Changing the Perception: Testing as an Accelerator, Not a Bottleneck

One of the biggest misconceptions about testing is that it slows things down. The truth? When testing is integrated from the start, it becomes an enabler of speed. Early feedback reduces costly rework later, and DORA metrics can help quantify how effective your team is at delivering value quickly and reliably.

I’ve seen this play out time and again, when quality is treated as everyone’s responsibility and when teams take pride in delivering a high-quality product, the result isn’t slower progress. It’s faster, more predictable, and ultimately more successful. Quality isn’t a blocker, it’s an accelerator when done right.

By adopting a continuous testing mindset, teams can iterate quickly, respond to market changes faster and ultimately bring products to market with more confidence. And this benefits the entire organisation, not just the quality team.

Thomas Edison said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work..”

In my 20+ years in testing, I can say that I have seen some brilliant moments when it feels like all the stars have aligned, but also many examples of where things just don’t work.

Where there is passion and focus, others will want to join that journey. Wherever I work, I am fully bought-in and endeavour to bring others on in the journey with me.

If you’re looking to establish a quality-driven culture, one that prioritises rapid feedback, continuous learning, and shared responsibility, I’d love to help your organisation take that step. Let’s connect and talk about how we can make quality the driver of success for your business.

Conclusion: Quality as a Shared Responsibility

The journey of building a quality function within an organisation should always centre on the idea that quality is everyone’s responsibility. Testing should not be seen as a final gate that slows things down; instead, it should be integrated from day one, with every team member understanding their role in ensuring the highest standards are met.

Through continuous testing, tight feedback loops, and a culture where teams take pride in their work, organisations can accelerate delivery without compromising on quality. A great quality leader ensures this mindset becomes the foundation of everything the organisation does.

There have been Quality Shifts in organisations that have been truly an honour to introduce, from RiskStorming and ensembling to simply adapting how we run ceremonies to fit our context. Ultimately, what you should be looking for when establishing a quality function, is not what everyone else is doing, but what is right for you. Don’t settle and follow, build with quality based on your image and values. There are so many amazing quality minds out there.