QA to QE Phase 4 – Growing a Culture of Quality
Phase 4 is where Quality Engineering truly becomes part of an organisation’s DNA. This phase is all about fostering a culture where quality is a shared value, owned and embraced by every individual. By promoting shared responsibility, celebrating successes, and encouraging experimentation, organisations can create a lasting Quality-First Culture.
Building this culture is something I’ve harped on about for years and even created a model. I have seen some change in how this has been adopted. In the earlier articles, I talked about the importance of building allies outside the team that can help the culture change. This is definitely the case and working closely with all stakeholders to quality will help them to get it and drive forward collectively.
Here are some of the activities which lead to this culture:
Promoting Shared Responsibility
Quality isn’t just the job of testers, everyone, from developers to operations, and leadership to product management play a part. Phase 4 focuses on embedding this mindset across teams.
Introducing quality gates in CI/CD pipelines ensures that code isn’t deployed until it meets pre-agreed quality standards. A real-world example could be developers running automated unit tests before merging changes, while operations teams monitor for performance thresholds during deployment.
Additionally, tools like SonarQube or Checkmarx can provide real-time feedback to developers on code quality, fostering accountability at the source. Regular cross-functional discussions, such as “Quality Clinics,” can also help teams collaboratively solve problems and improve processes.
Another example would simply be collaborative workshops on test design where others can have an influence on what and how the product is tested or the obvious one of Testing not being the final sign-off for go live, but infact it’s a collective discussion based on information provided.
Celebrating Successes
A quality culture flourishes when achievements are recognised and celebrated. For example, if a team introduces a new automation script that reduces regression testing time by 50%, this success should be shared in a company-wide forum or newsletter.
Hackathons can also be great opportunities for teams to demonstrate innovative solutions they’ve developed. Imagine showcasing a tool that identifies test coverage gaps or an approach that integrates security checks into testing workflows. By publicly recognising these contributions, you reinforce the value of quality and inspire others to follow suit.
It doesn’t matter how small the success, it might be that riskstorming has been used for the first time and a notable difference in the approach was achieved. It may even be a developer finding defects via their unit tests and celebrating them preventing it happening later.
Encouraging Experimentation
Innovation stems from the freedom to experiment without fear of failure. Organisations should provide teams with the space and tools to explore new ideas. For example, dedicating time for R&D sprints can allow teams to pilot technologies like AI-driven testing tools (e.g., Mabl or Testim) or adopt methodologies like Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD).
As mentioned in phase 3, consider a scenario where a team experiments with creating synthetic test data using a tool like Tonic. Even if the initial outcomes don’t align perfectly, the lessons learned can inform future improvements and innovations. The key here is to normalise a “fail fast, learn faster” philosophy.
Conclusion
Phase 4 is the heart of the Quality Engineering Transformation Model. It’s about more than just processes and tools, it’s about nurturing a mindset where quality is everyone’s responsibility (and actually meaning it, rather than it ending up being nobody’s), successes are celebrated, and curiosity leads to innovation. By embedding these values, organisations can create a culture that doesn’t just prioritise quality but thrives on it.
All that’s left is Phase 5, where we talk about how we measure and adapt.