We welcome another insightful leader Deepak Chinnam (Head of Cross-Platform Services at WPP), into this fascinating series around ‘Future Strategies in Engineering Quality’ in Partnership with a1qa.
In part 1 of this series, Deepak discusses software quality and what it is for different companies as well as how narrow-focused Quality Assurance (QA) specialists make the project more effective than cross-functional QA engineers. According to Deepak, when you go to a product company, the software of quality means is completely different to a services company. This is because the mindset changes depending on whom you speak to. Organisations need to ensure that they are constantly thinking about the end-user experience. The software quality is very much linked to how the end-user can use the system. One of the key aspects is understanding the end-user experience and using that to drive your software point and identify that balance. If you can find the common thread, ask yourself, is it working as it is intended for the people that you are delivering that software?
Deepak then goes on to discuss how narrow-focused QA specialists make the project more effective than cross-functional QA engineers. Deepak splits this in two, the people who are defining the what and the people who are the how. So the people who define the what, or the people who have that cross-functional knowledge need to consider how the project will fit into the bigger delivery, the bigger services that your project, company or programme are delivering. For that, organisations need to understand the wider picture. For example, if you are working on system A, you need to understand how it links to systems B and C. Even though the system that you are working on is not having a direct interface with the users, how it feeds into the systems that are going into the user interface and driving that experience back into the system can only be done by the cross-functional people. This is because these people are the only people that understand the wider business and can bring something different to the table that no one else can.
The second part of this looks at what the architects want. For it to work they have to use a particular tool to go and automate which should be code-less, this is where a specialist is needed. The focus is that they are building teams that will have most of their cross-functional people in the early phases and the others who are architecting the quality journey. Many organisations know they want automation but they don’t know where or how to start. Therefore they need to onboard those people that have the ability to dig deeper and therefore the project needs to have both the what and the how.
a1qa is a next-gen software testing provider offering a full range of QA services for 19+ years. The clients of a1qa ― global enterprises, including the Fortune 500 companies ― obtain business and operational benefits while reaching the desired outcomes with professional QA. a1qa has successfully delivered 1,500+ projects across various industries: eHealth, eCommerce, telecom, BFSI, M&E, IT and software development, real estate, utilities, and energy, among others.
