Lately I’ve been fielding this question quite a bit at work and frankly its getting a bit exhausting to answer. I’ve become the automated test czar and thus all support, maintenance, and failings of our currently frameworks, harnesses, and tools are filtered in my direction. OK, I’m joking a bit here but at times I can feel the burning stare of colleagues eyes when they’re talking about the state of testing and the quality issues that nip us from time to time. You may be on the other side of the boat, but when theres a leak on my side don’t forget we’re still in the same boat together.
I’m going to blatantly steal a blurb from Alan Page’s blog, Angry Weasel. Lisa Crispin is credited with pointing me in the articles direction.
Many years ago when I would ask the question, “who owns quality,” the answer would nearly always be “The test team owns quality.” Today, when I ask this question, the answer is customarily “Everyone owns quality.” While this may be a better answer to some, W. Mark Manduke of SEI has written:
“When quality is declared to be everyone’s responsibility, no one is truly designated to be responsible for it, and quality issues fade into the chaos of the crisis du jour.” He concluded that “…when management truly commits to a quality culture, everyone will, indeed, be responsible for quality.”
– (STQE Magazine. Nov/Dec 2003 (Vol. 5, Issue 6))