QA to QE Phase 3 – Implementing Practices for Quality Engineering

Follwing on from laying the groundwork and building the right capabilities, phase 3 is the pivotal stage where preparation evolves into execution. It’s the time to embed quality engineering principles into day-to-day delivery processes and create tangible impact across the organisation. This phase brings together strategies, tools, and people to drive transformation forward.

See below for a deeper dive on some of the key actions in this phase:

Shift-Left and Shift-Right Testing

Quality Engineering thrives on early and continuous involvement in the software lifecycle. By embracing shift-left testing, we integrate testability into the requirements and design stages, ensuring defects are prevented before they can even materialise. Practices like static code analysis and unit testing allow developers to build quality into their work from the outset. Having the test/QE team involved earlier, even in the early discussions makes a world of difference to how the delivery will happen. Having those conversations to identify risks and put plans in place, will make things go smoother and help prevent issues being found later on.

At the other end of the spectrum, shift-right testing focuses on learning from production environments. Observability tools and monitoring logs feed back crucial insights, enabling teams to refine their strategies and address potential weaknesses proactively. Together, shift-left and shift-right ensure quality remains a constant focus throughout the delivery pipeline.

Continuous Testing in CI/CD

Automation takes centre stage in continuous testing, enabling teams to test early, test often, and test at every stage of the development cycle. Incorporating automated functional, regression, and performance tests into CI/CD pipelines accelerates feedback loops and minimises bottlenecks.
However, it’s not just about the quantity of tests; it’s the quality that matters. Teams should prioritise creating meaningful tests with clear objectives and leverage analytics tools to track effectiveness.

Continuous testing is the engine that drives efficiency and reliability, powering fast-paced delivery without compromising on quality. This will again obviously look different for each team and context, choosing the right level of testing which will provide the right levels of ROI is crucial. If automating something doesn’t speed up the process of running the tests, question what value it provides and make the right call for your teams.

Realistic and Secure Test Data

To unlock the full potential of continuous testing, we need to address the critical aspect of test data management. This involves creating and managing realistic test data that accurately reflects production scenarios, ensuring tests are meaningful and effective. You may want to check out tools for this such as Tonic.AI, NeoSync, Delphix or others.

Equally important is the need to secure test data, especially in environments governed by stringent regulations like GDPR. Anonymisation and synthetic data generation are key practices to balance realism and compliance. By prioritising test data management, teams can eliminate inconsistencies and improve the reliability of their testing processes.

Right-Sized Test Environments

Efficient test environments are the backbone of robust testing practices. Infrastructure as Code (IaC) enables teams to provision and manage environments consistently, reducing delays and ensuring alignment with project requirements. If your systems are cloud based, this process is simpler than needed to spin up servers in the datacentres or even worse, boxes under your desk…

A mindset shift towards mocks and stubs is also essential. Not every tier of the environment requires the full system, right-sizing environments saves both time and resources while maintaining quality standards. This approach prevents overcomplication and promotes agility in testing workflows. Look at what components you actually need, specifically for the lower tiers and focus on what you need to test and what can be mocked. Ideally, in the staging environment or pre-prod, you would have majority of components in place.

Conclusion

Phase 3 is where the Quality Engineering journey gains momentum and starts delivering measurable results. By implementing practices that emphasise collaboration, automation, and innovation, organisations can transform not only their testing processes but also their culture of quality.

In the next blog, I’ll cover Phase 4 which looks at the culture of Quality.