How do you ensure software quality in cross-functional teams?

1 Define quality criteria

Before you start developing your software, you need to define what quality means for your project. Quality criteria are the specific requirements, expectations, and standards that your software must meet to satisfy your stakeholders, customers, and users. Quality criteria can include functional, non-functional, and user experience aspects, such as performance, reliability, security, usability, and accessibility. You can use tools such as user stories, acceptance criteria, quality attributes, and SMART goals to define your quality criteria. Make sure that your quality criteria are clear, measurable, and agreed upon by all team members and stakeholders.

2 Establish quality processes

Once you have defined your quality criteria, you need to establish how you will ensure that your software meets them. Quality processes are the methods, techniques, and tools that you will use to plan, monitor, control, and improve your software quality. Quality processes can include quality assurance, quality control, testing, code reviews, peer feedback, documentation, and continuous improvement. You can use frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, or DevOps to guide your quality processes. Make sure that your quality processes are consistent, transparent, and aligned with your project goals and values.

3 Communicate quality expectations

Communication is key to ensuring software quality in cross-functional teams. You need to communicate your quality expectations to all team members and stakeholders, and make sure that they understand and share them. Communication can include verbal, written, and visual methods, such as meetings, emails, reports, dashboards, and diagrams. You can use tools such as Slack, Trello, Jira, or GitHub to facilitate your communication. Make sure that your communication is frequent, clear, and respectful.

4 Collaborate on quality solutions

Collaboration is another essential factor for ensuring software quality in cross-functional teams. You need to collaborate with your team members and stakeholders to find the best solutions for your software quality challenges. Collaboration can include brainstorming, problem-solving, decision-making, and feedback sessions. You can use techniques such as pair programming, mob programming, design thinking, or agile retrospectives to enhance your collaboration. Make sure that your collaboration is inclusive, constructive, and adaptive.

6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?