Discussion on Empowering Teams for Autonomous Quality Excellence🚀 by Anton Necheukhin | Testμ 2024

es, that’s accurate! Anton emphasized that by decentralizing QA, developers took on more responsibility for white box testing, such as unit and component testing. QA professionals with high domain knowledge were more focused on cross-functional areas like integration, performance, and UX testing. This not only allowed for more expert-driven testing but also empowered developers to take ownership of quality. Regarding UX testing, Anton mentioned that beta testing can indeed fall under UX, particularly when assessing the product’s usability and user satisfaction in real-world scenarios.

Thank You Anton for the very fruitful session

Answer:- While the session didn’t cover ETL testing in depth, Anton discussed the importance of integration testing in decentralized QA environments. For ETL testing specifically, it can benefit from automation tools and frameworks designed to handle data transformations. In terms of plugins, he recommended exploring tools that integrate seamlessly with your CI/CD pipeline and that allow for data validation and consistency checks. Miro has leaned toward using open-source plugins that allow automation and integration testing at scale, but the focus is more on the collaborative testing approach rather than specific tools.

Dear @LambdaTest here is your answer,

Anton acknowledged that this is a common challenge in many organizations. He recommended starting by building a culture of ownership and accountability. One effective strategy is to incentivize teams to deliver high-quality products by tying quality metrics to team goals. Additionally, Anton highlighted the importance of clear communication around the value of stable test environments and the long-term benefits for teams themselves. Creating a transparent feedback loop and ensuring that everyone has visibility into the quality and stability of their dependencies can help teams take more responsibility for their technical products.

Here is your answer:-

QA should not be confined to a single department but rather integrated across all teams within the R&D hierarchy. By decentralizing QA, Miro ensured that every team, from development to product, had ownership of quality. This distributed approach fosters accountability and a shared responsibility for maintaining quality throughout the development cycle.

Answer:- While Miro has decentralized the QA process, certain rituals remain consistent. These include frequent communication between teams, regular quality reviews, and ongoing education on new testing tools and techniques. Additionally, retrospectives play a vital role in reflecting on QA outcomes and iterating on processes to continuously improve.

Amazing session by Anton, Thank you @LambdaTest

Here is your answer to the Question

Autonomy is key, human oversight remains critical. Leadership guides the strategic direction, ensures alignment with company goals, and maintains a balance between automation and manual testing efforts. Even with the use of AI and automation, human intervention is necessary to handle complex, nuanced cases and to oversee the integration of new technologies into the testing workflows.

Dear LambdaTest Here is the Answer that I think, Hope this works

Answer:- Miro maintains a lean but highly skilled team of SDETs (Software Development Engineers in Test). While he didn’t specify an exact number, the focus is on quality over quantity. SDETs play a crucial role in developing robust test automation frameworks and ensuring that the transition to autonomous QA is smooth and efficient.

As per the session of Anton I think that:-

The future of QA is a hybrid model, where AI and automation handle repetitive tasks, and human testers focus on high-level, exploratory testing. While AI and automation will continue to grow in importance, human oversight will remain essential for ensuring quality in complex, dynamic scenarios. Over the next year, we can expect more teams to leverage AI and automation, but human-led testing will continue to play a key role.

Thank you for the Insightful and great session As a Tester I think,

To ensure that decentralized QA processes are effectively implemented and followed by teams, consider these key strategies:

  1. Clear Communication: Establish transparent communication channels to clarify expectations and share best practices across teams. Regular meetings and updates can foster alignment and collaboration.
  2. Training and Support: Provide comprehensive training to equip teams with the necessary skills and knowledge. Ongoing support from QA experts can help teams troubleshoot challenges and refine their processes.
  3. Empowerment and Ownership: Encourage teams to take ownership of quality by involving them in decision-making processes. Empowering them to define their quality standards can increase accountability and motivation.
  4. Metrics and Feedback: Implement metrics to measure quality outcomes and team performance. Regularly review these metrics and gather feedback to identify areas for improvement and celebrate successes.
  5. Iterative Improvement: Foster a culture of continuous improvement where teams are encouraged to experiment and iterate on their processes. This helps in adapting to changes and refining quality practices over time.
  6. Tooling and Resources: Provide access to the right tools and resources that facilitate QA activities, such as automated testing tools, documentation platforms, and collaboration software. Ensuring teams have the right support can enhance their efficiency.

From my point of view as a QA, Managing feature flags effectively involves several best practices:

  1. Define Clear Purpose: Establish the reasons for using feature flags—whether for testing, gradual rollouts, or A/B testing. This clarity helps guide their implementation.
  2. Standardize Naming Conventions: Use consistent and descriptive naming for feature flags to make it easy for team members to understand their purpose and status.
  3. Implement Robust Tracking: Use a feature flag management tool to track the status of each flag (e.g., enabled, disabled, under testing). This visibility helps in managing releases and troubleshooting issues.
  4. Set Expiry Dates: Define timelines for how long a feature flag will remain active. This encourages teams to remove obsolete flags, reducing technical debt.
  5. Monitor Performance: Track the performance and user feedback associated with each feature flag. This data helps assess the impact of the feature on user experience and informs future decisions.
  6. Automate Rollbacks: Ensure that you can easily toggle flags on or off without requiring new deployments. This flexibility allows for quick rollbacks if issues arise.
  7. Document and Communicate: Maintain documentation for each feature flag, including its purpose, status, and any relevant details. Communicate changes and status updates with all stakeholders to keep everyone aligned.
  8. Review Regularly: Schedule regular reviews of active feature flags to decide which ones to keep, remove, or merge into the main codebase, ensuring a clean and manageable code environment.

Answer:- Yes, you can use pytest as part of the ‘Empowering Teams for Autonomous Quality Excellence’ session. Pytest is a highly versatile testing framework that can be integrated into various automation workflows. During the session, pytest can be leveraged to demonstrate how autonomous teams can build scalable, efficient, and reusable test suites, helping enhance overall quality excellence in QA practices. Its features like easy integration, plugins, and fixtures make it a great fit for autonomous quality-driven environments.