QA is Dead. Long Live QA: The Evolving Role of Quality Assurance in Modern Software Development

Where Have All the Testing & QA Folks Gone?

If you do a quick Google search, it becomes apparent that the death of Quality Assurance (QA) has come and gone. As someone who has worked in companies with no dedicated QA team for several years now, I’d say the mainstream is finally catching up to this trend. The notion that the role of Quality Assurance (QA) is dead can be attributed to several recent trends and changes in the software development industry in recent years, including:

• Shift-Left Testing: The greater adoption of agile methodologies and DevOps has led to a shift-left approach in testing, where testing activities are performed earlier in the development process. This approach integrates testing into the development process, meaning that developers are now more involved in testing throughout the entire lifecycle.
• Automation and AI: Like every industry and role, the rise of automation testing tools and AI has changed the nature of QA roles. Tasks that were traditionally manual, like regression testing, are increasingly automated.
• Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): CI/CD pipelines enable rapid software development, testing, and deployment. In this environment, the traditional QA role as a gatekeeper is less relevant because the process is designed to catch and resolve issues continuously.
• Quality Engineering (QE): The focus is shifting from QA to Quality Engineering, which involves a broader scope that includes not just finding defects but also preventing them, improving processes, and ensuring overall product quality throughout the software lifecycle. This shift represents a more proactive approach to quality rather than reactive testing.

Plus, nowadays, in DevOps culture, the lines between development, operations, and QA are all blurred. Everyone is responsible for quality, leading to the integration of QA responsibilities into development and operations roles. This integration can make the traditional QA role seem less distinct.

It’s clear that while the traditional view of QA as a separate phase or role might have changed, the importance of ensuring software quality is as critical as ever. The role is not dead but has transformed into a more integrated, technical, and proactive discipline within the broader context of software development.

This transformation has already had enormous ramifications for QA teams but has ultimately increased the importance of quality in the software development lifecycle.

How QA Has Transformed

Historically, the QA process unfolded in the following sequence:

1. Design Phase: Project managers, architects, and developers would outline product requirements and design the foundational architecture.
2. Development Stage: Developers would then code according to these stipulated requirements and architectural designs.
3. Testing Process: After coding, the QA team would take over to develop test plans and execute both manual and automated tests across various scenarios, subsequently reporting any issues to the developers.
4. Bug Fixing Cycle: Developers would address these reported bugs, make the necessary corrections, and resend the revised code to the QA team.
5. Retesting Steps: QA professionals would confirm the efficacy of the bug fixes, possibly conducting additional regression tests to ensure robustness.
6. Release Preparation: With QA clearance, the software would be finalized and prepared for production deployment.

How QA & Testing Have Shifted

QA teams used to be the arbiters of quality in an organization. That responsibility has now shifted left to the developer. This shift isn't just a minor adjustment; it's a fundamental reworking of the approach to software quality. Developers are now the first line of quality control, which is made possible through iterative development and the right tool stack (ahem, Blackbird API Development). Agile methodologies mean teams now work in short sprints, delivering functional software more frequently. This allows for continuous testing and feedback, catching issues earlier in the process. It also means that quality is no longer a final checkpoint but an ongoing consideration throughout the development cycle.

But, that iterative development isn’t possible without the right tool stack. Automated testing frameworks, CI/CD pipelines, and code quality tools have allowed developers to take on more quality control responsibilities without risking burnout. These tools allow for instant feedback on code quality, automated testing on every commit, and integration of quality checks into the development workflow. Using our new development tool, Blackbird, for instance, QA is infused at every step of the API lifecycle, including:

• API Mocking: Developers can create dynamic, sharable mocks in minutes. This eliminates the need to manually write and maintain mock code, allowing for quick validation and iteration.
• Code Generation: AI-powered code generation can now handle much of the boilerplate code for client- and server-side APIs. This frees up developers to focus on the unique aspects of their API implementation.
• Testing and Debugging: Blackbird API Development tool provides publicly available URLs for testing, allowing developers to run their code in production-like environments. These integrate directly with IDEs, enabling developers to set breakpoints and debug efficiently, minimizing the likelihood of errors making it to production.
• Deployment: Perhaps my favorite feature is that Blackbird provides hosted, containerized target environments. These allow for easy progressive and repeated testing without the need for constant reconfiguration. By running code locally with live traffic from a production-like environment, developers can catch bugs earlier in the process, keeping them in their internal development loop before they bring in the infrastructure team to deploy to staging. This keeps things moving quickly, keeps the developers in their development state of mind, and allows for vetted code to be sent to prod in better shape. Most importantly, it will enable the developer to be the QA.

These advancements mean that developers can now handle many aspects of quality and testing previously siloed or requiring extensive back-and-forth with other teams. They can design, mock, generate code, test, debug, and even deploy APIs in test environments, all within their development workflow.

This shift doesn't eliminate the need for specialized QA knowledge. Instead, it integrates quality considerations throughout the development process, with developers taking on more responsibility for ensuring the quality of their APIs from the outset.

Ok, But Where Are the QA Folks Going?

There’s still a need for the QAs of the world- whether it be more strategic or more technical, they are taking opportunities to move up or down the stack.

More Technical Roles

One opportunity is down the stack, moving into more technical roles. QA professionals can leverage their quality-focused mindset to become automation specialists or DevOps engineers. Their expertise in thorough testing can be crucial in developing robust, reliable automated test suites. The concept that “flaky tests are worse than no tests” becomes even more critical when the tests are all that stop an organization from shipping low-quality code.

More Strategic Roles

Another opportunity for QAs is to be higher up the stack and in a more strategic role. Testing is now a vital part of the development lifecycle, and it needs thought to be put into it. QA professionals can evolve into quality strategists, focusing on designing comprehensive testing strategies that cover the entire software lifecycle. They can lead initiatives to implement new testing methodologies beyond traditional functional testing, such as mocking, chaos engineering, or A/B testing. Additionally, their broad perspective on quality can help organizations optimize their development processes, ensuring that quality considerations are integrated at every stage, from initial design to post-deployment monitoring.

The QA Future

Dedicated QA teams may have dissolved, but the mindset of quality engineering will always be needed, even as it shifts from a specific role to being infused in every developer throughout the lifecycle. The death of QA ultimately isn't about its demise but its integration into every aspect of software development. The challenge for organizations will be fostering a culture where quality is everyone's responsibility while still valuing and leveraging the specialized skills that QA professionals bring.

QA may be dead, but the evolution of the function now lies in the hands of developers and their tools, like Blackbird, which make that integration piece easier and the quality aspect accounted for. See for yourself.