Maybe getting rid of your QA team was bad (davidkcaudill.medium.com)

Article summary

The article discusses the potential consequences of eliminating a QA team, with commenters suggesting that this decision can lead to a decline in software quality. Commenters share their experiences with QA teams, highlighting the importance of skilled QA testers in identifying edge cases and providing human feedback. The discussion also touches on the challenges of training and retaining QA personnel. The role of QA in ensuring software quality and the potential risks of relying solely on automated testing are also explored.

Main themes

• importance of QA teams
• software quality
• automated testing
• QA training and retention
• customer perspective
• developer testing
• compensation and career development

What commenters say

• Skilled QA testers are essential for identifying edge cases and providing human feedback that automated tests cannot replicate.
• The elimination of QA teams can lead to a decline in software quality, as seen in the example of Microsoft.
• Good QA personnel have a deep understanding of the product and can test it from a customer's perspective, making them invaluable to the development process.
• The lack of standardization and training in the QA field can make it difficult to establish effective QA teams.
• Some argue that QA teams can be made redundant by automated testing and developer testing, while others believe that QA provides a unique perspective that is essential to software development.
• The value of QA lies in their ability to test the product from a customer's perspective and identify issues that developers may not have considered.
• The challenges of retaining good QA personnel are often due to compensation issues, with QA roles being paid less than developer roles.
• Effective QA teams can provide more value than just testing, such as supporting sales engineers and providing second-tier support.