Quality Insight: New Year - New QuuuuA

Winter is hard. It is cold. I’m tired. The sun is gone and the days are gray. In my opinion, It is not the time to execute goals on the first day of January.

What I love to do in January is to reflect. I take the whole month to re-read books, check new titles, listen to old podcast episodes, and in general revisit resources that have helped me on my journey. This month, I’m not listening to the news. I don’t take my phone to the kitchen table. I take my journal and books with me in the morning as I stare out the window and watch the sunrise over the white snow.

It’s glorious.

One practice I do follow on January 1st is working through Mel Robbins’ 7 Questions. This assessment was so helpful last year, that I decided to make it a tradition. Did I accomplish everything I’d hoped to do last year? No. But, I took more risks. I tried things that scared me to pieces. And, I learned what I liked doing and what I didn’t. It was a year of learning and I’m ready to see what happens in 2025.

All this reflection got me curious 🤔 How can I make my work as a QA more meaningful in 2025?

While I don’t have the answers yet, here are questions I’m asking myself to create the time and opportunity to see what’s possible.

Revisit the Why and the How

What’s your why when it comes to QA? Why do you do what you do? What value are you hoping to bring to your team? This is the Why I created near the beginning of last year:

The Why:

Testing:

To provide feedback early and often to enhance the users experience at every stage of development.

Automated Testing:

The Automation Suite exists to provide timely and accurate results to the development team. The results help guide team decisions and build courage with every release opportunity.

This is how we’ll accomplish this. This is my How:

The How:

Each automation test written helps decrease the need for manual regression. The end goal is to automate all appropriate tests currently existing in the manual regression project.

As new features are built, new automation tests are created.

This prevents the manual regression project from becoming an ever-increasing list we use for testing.

Automated tests are only considered valuable if they accomplish the Why stated above.

I love this. And, reading it, I realize my process has changed. Our automation is nearly in place (yay!) and our QA goals are completely different now. We’re working as a team to shift left and bring QA in at the start of each project. This doesn’t mean that the How is wrong. It just needs to expand. As we expand, so will our needs, values, and tools. This is growth. It’s an exciting place to be!

Other Questions:

January is the perfect time to feel things. As I feel, I reflect. Do I like the food I eat and the clothes I wear? Am I getting the sleep I need?

The same goes for our QA role. Here are some feeling questions I’m considering:

Which processes are working?
Which processes aren’t?
What have we “settled” for as a team?
What are we happy about?
What are the frustrating things that we’ve gotten used to?
What changes would we like to see?

Feel your feelings. Sometimes, decisions are made because it’s what was necessary at the time. Times change! So can we. Bring things up to the team if they haven’t been discussed in a while. You’ll never know what can be changed until you ask the questions and see what’s possible.

What do you want?

Keep in mind, you may want the people, circumstances, or opportunities around you to change. This may not be in your control. With this understanding, ask yourself “What do I want?” Get quiet. It might be good to have a piece of paper close by. Write down what comes up. Don’t judge your answer. Just make space for it.

Then, believe it’s possible.

I can’t wait to see who you become and what changes in 2025.

Till next time…

Leave a comment or feel free to join the conversation about this topic at the Ministry of Testing club: New Year, New QA - Do you bring the new year vibes into your role as a tester?

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Written with Forgotten Gods - Emotional Ethereal Fantasy Music for Deep Relaxation playing in the background.