The field of quality assurance is evolving. We have long reduced this role to validation at the end of the chain or to writing scripts, but that era is over.
I am a quality engineer, and the reason I am starting this blog today is to move away from the beaten path of traditional QA and document a different approach.
My vision: quality serving delivery
We often read that quality is “everyone’s business,” or that one must “aim for zero defects.” This looks nice on a slide, but the operational reality is different.
Over the years and projects, I have forged a simple conviction: quality should not be a hindrance, but an accelerator for development.
If your test suite takes 2 hours to run, its operational utility is drastically reduced. It no longer adapts to a rapid agile development cycle, but instead constrains the team to monolithic deployments. The result: feedback arrives too late, context is lost, and delivery is slowed down.
Here, I want to champion a “lean” approach to engineering:
- Protecting trust: A test that fails randomly (flaky) is worse than no test at all, as it erodes the team’s confidence in the CI. There are only three viable options: fix it, delete it, or isolate it (quarantine) immediately to avoid blocking the flow.
- Automating strategically: The goal is not to automate 100% of manual tests, but to build robust safety nets that allow for refactoring and evolving the software serenely.
- Technology as a lever: Using modern tools to reduce the friction between development and production deployment.
What we will discuss
This blog will serve as public documentation for topics I deal with daily:
- Test architecture: how to structure an automation project so that it remains maintainable in the long term?
- Intrinsic quality: why strict typing and static analysis are essential foundations, long before writing the first E2E test.
- Culture: how to shift from a team that endures quality to a team that uses it to deliver faster.
You will not find grand academic theories here, but concrete experience feedback, working code, and a vision oriented towards efficiency.
I look forward to exchanging with you.
Jean-Michel