In the software development landscape, quality has transformed dramatically. Gone are the days when quality assurance meant simply testing software at the end of development. Quality Engineering has emerged as a comprehensive approach that goes far beyond traditional testing methodologies, becoming an integral part of an organisation's DNA rather than a separate function.

The modern approach to Quality Engineering entails visible and hidden aspects of software development, creating a holistic framework that ensures the long-term sustainability and adaptability of software products.This translates to a focus on key quality attributes like performance, security, and maintainability. For example, performance testing, a core QE activity, directly impacts the user experience and aligns with SRE goals of minimising latency and maximising uptime. By prioritising these attributes, organisations can deliver high-quality software that meets user needs and business objectives.

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What is Quality Engineering?

The cost of poor software quality can be higher than you think. When organisations skimp on quality engineering, they often pay exponentially more in the long run. The Systems Sciences Institute at IBM reported that it cost 6x more to fix a bug found during implementation than to fix one identified during design. This harsh reality has been demonstrated repeatedly through high-profile software failures that have cost companies billions in market value and damaged their reputations irreparably.

While user interface and functionality often grab the spotlight in discussions when building software, the “hidden” aspects of Quality Engineering have a far more significant and long-term impact. Quality Engineering starts with clean code architecture and maintainable codebases. These aren’t just technical nice-to-haves but essential elements determining how effectively a software product can evolve.

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Why Quality Engineering matters 

If your company is doing (or planning to do) any digital transformation initiatives, investing in Quality Engineering practices is crucial. While most organisations have already embraced Quality Assurance, they often underestimate both the effort required and the potential impact of early involvement of Quality Engineering profiles and processes. Quality Engineering provides the essential framework for successful transformation, bridging the gap between legacy systems and modern applications whilst ensuring new implementations maintain data integrity and system reliability, based on the clearly defined metrics.

The QE becomes especially important when organisations adopt microservice architecture or move to cloud-based solutions. Quality engineers help design and implement testing strategies that account for the increased complexity of distributed systems. They ensure that monitoring and observability are built into new systems from the ground up, making it easier to maintain quality as systems scale. This data-driven approach aligns with the principles of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), which emphasizes the use of measurable metrics to manage and improve system reliability. SRE teams work closely with QE to define Service Level Objectives (SLOs) that quantify the acceptable levels of performance for key system attributes. By monitoring these SLOs and responding to deviations, organisations can proactively prevent outages and ensure a positive user experience.

As much as QE makes a difference on your internal processes, it’s important to understand the impact QE has on external aspects as well. For example, when QE practice is done right, customers enjoy seamless experiences, reliable functionality, and consistent performance. They experience software that works as expected, which in return builds reliability, trust and loyalty. 

Organisations that invest in Quality Engineering typically see improvements in several key metrics: shorter time to market for new features, reduced number of production incidents, lower maintenance costs, and higher customer satisfaction scores. These improvements translate directly to business value through increased revenue, reduced costs, and enhanced competitive position.

So, the question is no longer whether to invest in Quality Engineering but how to implement it most effectively for your organisation's specific needs and goals.

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The shift-left testing

The traditional approach to Quality Assurance, where testing occurred primarily at the end of development, has changed into a more sophisticated and integrated Quality Engineering process. Today, Quality Engineering begins at the very start of a project and continues throughout its entire lifecycle. This shift-left approach represents a fundamental change in how organisations think about and implement quality practices. Quality Engineers work alongside developers, architects, designers, and product managers from the earliest planning stages, contributing to architectural decisions, helping define acceptance criteria, and establishing testing strategies before a single line of code is written. Quality engineers work with product owners during the planning phase to define clear, testable acceptance criteria. They help identify potential risks and challenges before development begins, ensuring quality considerations are built into the project timeline and budget.

When working with developers, Quality Engineers come in to implement automated testing frameworks, establish continuous integration pipelines, and monitor code quality metrics. They facilitate discussions about technical debt and help teams make informed decisions about when to address it.This early involvement helps prevent issues leading to significant cost savings and more reliable software products.

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The impact on development culture at ITP

The implementation of Quality Engineering fundamentally transforms the development culture within organisations. Rather than viewing quality as the responsibility of a dedicated testing team or Quality Assurance engineer, at In The Pocket, we embrace a culture where quality becomes everyone's responsibility. Developers take ownership of unit testing, code reviews, and functional testing, product owners incorporate quality considerations & testing into their product requirements & acceptance criteria, and operations teams build quality metrics into their monitoring systems. 

We strive to empower our teams to efficiently deliver high-quality software products and services that meet and exceed our customers' expectations. We do this by providing resources, processes, tools & coaching to enable our teams to continuously improve their skills and knowledge. 

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And what about automation?

AI and ML are becoming more prominent roles in testing and quality assurance, and yes, automation has revolutionised Quality Engineering, but it's different from the silver bullet many organisations initially assumed it to be. Effective test automation requires careful planning.

The automation strategy should be carried, supported and executed by the entire team, rather than existing in isolation within a test team or automation department. This represents a fundamental shift in thinking. 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will both challenge and enhance this approach through automated white-box testing (unit and integration) at the code level. Additionally, they will transform current black-box testing approaches (system, end-to-end, UI) and tools (Selenium, Cypress) through AI-driven test frameworks that can simulate user behaviour, navigating and interacting with applications just as real users would.

At In The Pocket, we combine human expertise with cutting-edge technology to deliver more than just tested software – we build digital products that last, scale, and excel. Our commitment to Quality Engineering isn't just about staying current; it's about setting new standards in digital product development.