Building Quality from the Ground Up: A Project Manager's Blueprint for Success
Oldane Graham, Msc, PMP, ACP, PSM-1
Project Manager | Agilist | TSLA & PLTR Investor
Quality assurance (QA) is often misunderstood as merely the final checkpoint before a product is released. However, quality is a shared responsibility across the entire development team. Many organizations sacrifice quality for speed, only to pay a significantly higher cost in the long run—sometimes up to ten times more—due to defects and technical debt. While rapid development can necessitate a "band-aid" approach, having a systematic strategy ensures that issues are tracked and resolved efficiently.
Software development inherently involves bugs and issues. Success is not measured by having zero bugs but by implementing a structured approach to minimize their impact on users. As a project manager (PM), embedding quality into team culture from the outset significantly increases the likelihood of delivering a stable and well-functioning product.
The Project Manager’s Role in QA
A Project Manager plays a key role in ensuring quality is embedded throughout the project lifecycle. Their responsibilities include:
A PM, under the guidance of QA, decides which type of testing to leverage for the project and at which phase to ensure optimal coverage and efficiency.
Selecting the Right Testing Approach
A PM, under the guidance of QA, decides which type of testing to leverage for the project and at which phase to ensure optimal coverage and efficiency.
Embedding Quality Throughout the Development Lifecycle
Planning for Quality Before Coding Begins
Quality assurance should be integrated into the development process before a single line of code is written. QA professionals play a crucial role in refining the acceptance criteria, defining constraints, and ensuring that user stories are well-understood. This early involvement allows QA to prepare relevant test scripts and establish testing strategies that align with project goals. By setting clear expectations and collaborating closely with developers, QA can help prevent defects rather than merely detecting them later.
Example Test Script
A simple test script for validating a login functionality might look like this:
Test Case: Login Functionality
1. Open the application.
2. Enter valid credentials (username: test_user, password: Test@123).
3. Click the "Login" button.
4. Verify the user is redirected to the dashboard.
5. Log out and attempt login with incorrect credentials.
6. Verify the error message appears.
By ensuring well-documented test cases, teams can maintain consistency in testing efforts and catch issues early.
Implementing Testing Strategies Across Development Phases
Testing should not be an afterthought; rather, it must be embedded at every stage of the development process. Various testing methodologies serve different purposes, including smoke testing to verify basic functionality, regression testing to ensure that new changes do not break existing features, and API testing to validate interactions between software components. By selecting the appropriate testing methods for each project, teams can proactively identify and resolve issues before they escalate.
Incorporating quality assurance into the workflow also means ensuring that QA serves as the final checkpoint before deployment. This involves unit testing during development, integrated system testing, and pre-release validation to catch any last-minute issues. Ensuring a structured QA process enhances product stability and improves the user experience.
Automated Login Test Using Selenium
from selenium import webdriver
from selenium.webdriver.common.by import By
from selenium.webdriver.common.keys import Keys
import time
# Initialize the WebDriver
driver = webdriver.Chrome()
driver.get("https://example.com/login")
# Locate username and password fields and enter credentials
driver.find_element(By.ID, "username").send_keys("test_user")
driver.find_element(By.ID, "password").send_keys("Test@123")
driver.find_element(By.ID, "login").click()
# Wait for the page to load
time.sleep(3)
# Validate successful login
assert "Dashboard" in driver.title
# Close the browser
driver.quit()
Bug Title: Payment Gateway Timeout on Checkout
Issue Type: Bug Priority: High Status: Open Assignee: [Developer's Name] Reporter: [QA Tester’s Name] Environment: Production
Description: Users are unable to complete purchases due to a timeout error at the payment gateway. The issue occurs intermittently but affects a significant number of users attempting to place orders.
Steps to Reproduce:
Expected Result: The payment should be successfully processed, and the user should receive an order confirmation.
Actual Result: The system times out, and the payment is not processed. The user remains on the checkout screen with no confirmation message.
Attachments:
Labels: Checkout Payment High Priority Bug
Comments:
QA Activities in the Development Workflow
Within the development workflow, there is a dedicated column for QA activities that ensures testing is part of the definition of done. This approach guarantees that all product iterations undergo thorough testing and approval before moving forward. By embedding QA within the development process, teams can systematically validate each feature, ensuring continuous quality improvement throughout the development lifecycle.
Establishing a Structured QA Process
To effectively manage quality assurance, teams must allocate dedicated time within their project roadmaps. One strategy is to incorporate dedicated sprints for comprehensive testing before major releases. Below is an example of a roadmap for QA activities within a project:
Example QA Roadmap
Testathon
Testathons are like hackathons but with a sole focus on testing. They ensure thorough end-to-end testing of the application, engaging the entire development team. Ideally, a dedicated sprint or two should be allocated to allow the team to conduct in-depth testing across the platform before UAT.
Key aspects of a successful testathon include:
This process helps uncover hidden defects and prepares the team for UAT.
UAT Approach
This phase of the project is situated between the team completing their testathon and ahead of any major release into the production environment. We encourage maximizing the participation of the customer or end user to the platform or application being developed. This allows the team to identify gaps in scope or business logic that may have been missed during development, as well as detect any bugs that slipped through the team’s quality checks.
Conclusion
Prioritizing quality assurance from the start reduces rework, enhances user experience, and builds client trust. Clients understand that no application is entirely bug-free, but a proactive approach—where the PM acknowledges potential issues and has a structured resolution plan—builds confidence in the product. By embedding QA into the project culture, project managers ensure a high-quality, scalable, and resilient software development process.
This is a very good article, with very valid points. There are so many aspects in the QA branch of project management that guarantees a project's success.