🐞 QA Stands For Quality p.1 - What QA Really Is
The purpose, the mindset and the misconceptions in QA
Hey friends 👋
Welcome to the next issue of this QA series, where I share the information that helped me become a QA and that I picked up over the years to climb from a Trainee QA to managing an entire department, and that I used to teach as a course on how to become a QA from scratch.
First things first, I won’t sugarcoat it: QA isn’t glamorous, and it’s definitely not easy. It’s about thinking smarter, asking better questions, and helping your team make great products that actually work.
Whether you’re just starting out or already deep in the trenches of software testing, this series is here to help you see QA the way I do — as a mix of logic, storytelling, and human insight.
Alright, let’s get into it.
🧭 Purpose
There is a common misconception (or at least there was some time ago) that QAs only break things and cause issues. They definitely are not. QA is all about understanding why things break, how they break, and what it means when they do.
Real QA is similar to detective work — gathering clues, piecing together the story, and explaining what happened so the team can fix it.
Understanding the purpose of QA changes your approach from “finding errors” to understanding systems. It makes your testing intentional, your feedback more valuable, and your collaboration smoother.
💡 Pro Tip: As you explore a new feature or system, even in your day-to-day, focus on why something behaves the way it does. Try to map cause and effect — which parts interact, which depend on each other, and where risk might live beneath the surface.
