Stop Making QA The Last Train Stop Before Production

Stop making it seem like QA has some magic power that allows things to get production. QA shouldn't be the last stop on the trip to production, they should be on the train from the start.

Throughout my career, I have heard the same excuse over and over again. "We're waiting for QA before we can push this to prod." But why do we keep hearing this? What magic does QA have that no one else has to give this permission to go to production? Spoiler alert, we typical don't have too many magical powers. This talk is designed to stop the misconception that QA is a train stop. Building a quality approach to your entire SDLC should be your goal and this talk will provide a map of how to make quality involved in every stop along the way rather than waiting until the last stop before the depot. We will discuss how you can bake quality before a single line of code is written, how to get your engineers more involved in testing their solution as they build and how to make that validation stop before production less about a specific QA person or team and more about ensuring you have fed your train the right amount of quality along the way to it's final destination. Following this pattern will allow you to get your work to production quicker with more quality than simply relying on QA to do all of the validation work. Quality minded folks should be treated as a resource to helping the overall quality of the SDLC, not a single point of failure in your final destination.