🐞 QA Stands For Quality p.2 - The Role
Where do we stand, how we collaborate and how our day-to-day looks like
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.
Today, we’re zooming out to see where QA fits in the bigger picture of software development. Because the truth is, QA isn’t just part of the process — it’s the thread that holds the whole thing together.
Alright, let’s get into it.
⏰ The Earlier The Better
Let’s be honest: in many teams, QA is still treated like a finishing step. Code’s done? Ship it to QA. But that mindset misses the point. QA isn’t there to “clean up” after development — it’s there to inform development.
QA is like the early-warning radar of a project. When you bring QA in early, they help you spot blind spots, catch assumptions, and highlight risks before they turn into fire drills. That’s not just useful — it’s essential.
The earlier QA joins a project, the cheaper mistakes become. Fixing an issue in design costs minutes. Fixing it after release costs months.
