The Problem With QA
In many companies there’s a big confusion about the role of the product manager and the role of QA. Who makes sure that things work? Who checks out specifications?
If QA starts “verifying” that a story works then QA is doing the job of product. QA simply does not know how a product feature should “look” like to be successful. Only product manager knows…
Feature Assurance As Solution
For me the solution is simple. There are two “Assurances” at play:
- QA (Quality Assurance): This is done by the engineers (!) to make sure the code works as expected (tests, automated tests etc)
- FA (Feature Assurance): This is done by the product manager. Once an engineer finished a feature the product manager who created the story checks out the features whether it really works as expected from a product angle.
Conclusion
QA and FA are very different beast. You need both.
If there is third “QA department” that does your FA then you are doing it wrong.
