Swimming with the Salmon: Lessons in Moving Quality Upstream
Having difficulties getting your organization to recognize the value of QA? Is your “salmon team” losing to currents that impede continuous improvement and strategic planning? Colleen Kirtland and Harish Krishnankutty share their two-year uphill struggle to elevate QA to the position of trusted business partner. Move QA upstream before testing begins by aligning requirements to a business capability model (BCM). Translate the BCM model into key implementation assets with story maps. Before delivering test execution, swim like salmon to frame testing services by connecting day-to-day operational metrics to higher level business value metrics. Partner with your product and/or development teams to inject measurable quality gates upstream in the delivery lifecycle. Learn about the evolution of merging service level management (e.g., ITIL processes) with upstream QA, test, and solution delivery. Create a fun, vibrant team culture of uphill swimmers who advocate formal quality standards. Fight to fund and sustain a multi-year quality strategy while still meeting customer demands.