Chief Quality Officer

I’ve got some bad news for you. Despite the “Quality Assurance” in your job title, you simply cannot assure quality. It can’t be done - at least not by you.

Now, don’t get me wrong - I’m sure you’re exceptionally good at what you do, and I don’t doubt your skills when it comes to testing software (or managing the test process, if that’s what you do). I would never dream of suggesting that your attempts at assuring quality will fail because you’re not good enough.

The real problem I’m talking about is that “assuring” quality is an impossible task. “Assuring” means “making sure of.” It means guaranteeing. But in reality, you can’t. Don’t believe me? Well, let me ask you this …

On any given project, can you:

• Guarantee that upper management gives the project proper funding?
• Guarantee that project management accurately estimates project task times?
• Guarantee that marketing doesn’t bloat the scope of work by promising new features?
• Guarantee that the customer provides clear, specific business requirements?
• Guarantee your programmers/designers don’t get pulled sidetracked by other projects?
• Guarantee that the test team has all the resources it needs (hardware, software, people)?
• Guarantee that the test team receives stable builds on time?
• Guarantee that code freeze is enforced when it needs to be?
• Guarantee that absolutely nobody quits, gets sick, or changes roles?
• Guarantee that stupid decisions - or impasses - aren’t caused by office politics?
• Guarantee that everyone agrees in their definition of “quality” itself?

The cold, hard truth is that a sizable chunk of what it takes to make any software project a success is totally out of control of anyone in the “Quality Assurance” group. Unless upper management grants you special, CEO-level authority, you can’t enforce the job roles of other departments. And so the concept of assuring quality is a goal that is doomed to fail even before the project begins.

But don’t lose heart. Sure, your very job title itself creates a paradox that dooms you to an unrealistic expectation of what you can deliver. But you’ll be okay? Why? Because of Rule #1 of the Chief Quality Officer:

CQO Rule #1:
You can’t assure quality … but you can sure as hell influence it.

Over the course of the next few articles I’ll be explaining exactly what it is I mean by that by discussing the three roles of the Chief Quality Officer (and why no matter what your QA position, you should consider yourself one of these CQOs). As you read the articles, you’ll get a better understanding of how you can take the elusive goal of shipping top quality products and make it fun again. Or at least more tolerable.

Till then, focus on adding massive value, wherever you are.

- Dave Navarro