The QA Manager is dead. Long live...

About a year ago, I had an idea. It was an idea for a role that should have existed in our company.

A role that would fit my skills, and make me more useful and valuable to the business, as well as raise the profile of our company in the wider technology community. We know we’re good at what we do. We know we’re cutting edge. We know we’re innovators. It’s high time other people knew it too.

My idea involved taking the QA Manager role, and reinventing it. I didn’t want to just be responsible for the day-to-day management of software testing - the folks we take on generally know what they’re doing, and don’t need someone standing over them the whole time, although I still wanted to be a point of reference and guidance, and be first line support for the QA team.

I also wanted to be responsible for showing our QA team that there’s a world outside their delivery team. I thought it was important to regularly share blog posts and industry articles to get the team thinking more about what they do and how they do it, and to encourage them to create and share their own work in this way.

I wanted to point out interesting conferences and webinars, and drive engagement with other teams, other areas of the business, and even other companies to share ideas, strategies, and seek solutions.

I also wanted to act as an advocate to other areas of the business, and to other companies. Telling the business about the value of proper testing and QA in software development, getting guest speakers in for our teams, and putting myself out there to speak at other companies, as well as meetups and conferences.

I’ve spent the last year pitching the role to everyone who might be affected, refining it and tailoring it for our business, and doing the groundwork to establish myself in that position. All the while, I’ve been waiting nervously to see if both the role, and the new organisational structure created to accommodate the role, would be approved by both Technology Leadership, and by HR.

This week, I was promoted into the exact role I conceived. Although I was a little unsure at first, I quite like the title we eventually decided on.