How can a team of 65 developers build and rapidly ship a high-quality product with only six QA engineers? At Atlassian, we’ve introduced the Quality Assistance model that changes the developer QA mindset, and engages developers in exploratory testing so software is developed right the first time. After all, the cheapest time to fix a bug is before it's written. Join us as we walk through the theory, history, and practice of the model, while busting some of the myths about developers and QA. Reject the tradeoff of time, scope, and quality, and finally have your cake and eat it too.

1. #atlassian

2. Quality at Speed
PENNY WYATT • SENIOR QA TEAM LEAD • ATLASSIAN • @pennozewyatt

3. More QA ≠ More Quality"

4. More QA ≠ More Quality"

5. Today’s Topics"
• Why?
• Quality at Speed
• How?
• Quality Assistance

6. Quality at Speed

7. Speed
Scope
Quality

8. Waterfall"
Development
Time
Release
Bugfix
Testing

9. Development
Time
Bugfix
Release
Testing
Waterfall"

10. Development / Bugfix
Time
Release
Testing
Agile"

11. Development
Time
Release
Testing
Agile"
Bugfix

12. Development
Time
Release
Testing
Agile"
Bugfix

13. Rejecting the Tradeoff"
• Build it, test it, fix it, ship it
• Why are devs and testers different people?

14. If Devs Could Test"
Development
Release
Time

15. “But Devs Can’t Test!”"
• Testing is a skill and a mindset
• Many devs have neither
• Many of them think they have both!

16. “But Devs Can’t Test!”"

17. The Enemy Within"

18. Half an Engineer"

19. Missing: Quality Mindset"
Users would
never do that!
Edge case!
We can fix that
later... maybe
The spec didn’t
mention that.

20. Missing: Testing Skills"
Automation
solves
everything.
Manual
testing is
obsolete
Works on my
machine.
My part
works fine.

21. Missing: Knowledge"
That’s
configurable?
I’m not a
security expert
I only learn from
my own mistakes
All databases
behave the
same way

22. Development
Testing
Side-by-Side"
Bugfix
Time
Release

23. Is there hope?"

24. Development
Release
Time
Reintegrated"

25. Quality Assistance

26. Quality Assistance"
• Short-term – Protect our customers
• Long-term – Educate our developers

27. Skeptical?"

28. Measuring Progress"
100%
30%
Story Rejection Rate
15%
7%
4%
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
2009
2011
2012
2013
2014

29. Shifting a Culture"

30. Stage 0 of 6 – No QA"
• Automation only
• Functional correctness
Coding
Done

31. Stage 1 of 6 – QA Testing"
• QA does exploratory testing
Coding
Testing
Done

32. Stage 2 of 6 – DoTing"
• DoT = Developer On Test
• Devs test each other’s stories
Coding
DoTing
Testing
Done
Release
Testing

33. Stage 3 of 6 –Demos and Notes"
• DoTs test all stories
• QA demo once story is done
• QA writes testing notes
Coding
DoTing
Demo
Done

34. Stage 4 of 6 – QA Kickoffs"
• Prevention > Detection
• QA kickoff before story is started
Coding
DoTing
Kickoff
Demo
Done

35. Stage 5 of 6 – Private Kickoffs"
• Devs do their own kickoffs
• QA reviews testing notes
Review
Coding
DoTing
Kickoff
Demo
Done

36. Stage 6 of 6 – No More DoTing"
• DoTing creates bugs!
• Still unofficial safety nets
Review
Coding/
Testing
Kickoff
Demo
Done

37. Current Process"
• All testing done by devs
• Two QA input points on each story
Review
Kickoff
Coding/
Demo
Done
Testing

39. Reintegration"

40. Reintegration"

41. Key takeaways:
• Software quality comes from people, not code.
• Improvement comes from questioning
assumptions.
• Constantly experiment.
• Have fun!
#atlassian

42. Thank you!
PENNY WYATT • SENIOR QA TEAM LEAD • ATLASSIAN • @pennozewyatt