Author: Yaroslava Mazepina, NSTC 2024 Speaker
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The fear that AI will replace jobs is widespread, and QA engineering is no exception. AI-driven tools are now capable of automating tests, detecting patterns, and even predicting defects. However, the real question is: Can AI replace strategic thinking, adaptability, and business awareness?
Quality Assurance engineers who limit themselves to technical tasks may struggle to remain relevant. But those who align their work with business goals, customer impact, and efficiency improvements will thrive. Let’s explore how QA can transition from being a technical function to a key business driver.
Shifting Perception: QA Beyond Testing
Traditionally, QA has been measured through test coverage, defect rates, and automation metrics. While essential, these KPIs don’t fully showcase the value QA brings to a company. What if QA was seen not just as a gatekeeper of quality but as a strategic partner in business success?
For this shift to happen, QA professionals must redefine their role and embrace:
– Customer-driven testing instead of just functionality validation.
– Business-aligned priorities rather than working in isolation.
– Proactive problem-solving to enhance processes, not just report bugs.
This means moving from a mindset of “I ensure features work” to “I ensure features drive business success.”
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QA as the Customer’s Advocate
One of the biggest untapped advantages of QA is customer insight. Unlike developers focused on building features, QA interacts with products as users would – spotting pain points before they reach customers.
How QA Can Improve Customer Experience
When developing test cases, shift your focus beyond standard technical approaches and consider the user experience. How will customers
interact with this feature? What benefits does it offer them? Understanding typical use cases and real-world ap
plications will help prioritise end-to-end testing and determine which scenarios should be executed and automated for the most significant impact.
For example, instead of saying, “We tested the new search feature”, frame it as: “We ensured users find results 30% faster, improving engagement.”
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Aligning QA with Business KPIs and Goals
A company’s success is measured by KPIs and Business leaders speak in terms of revenue, retention, and efficiency. QA must directly contribute to these metrics to prove its strategic value as well as bridge the gap between testing and business impact by quantifying the cost of quality issues.
How QA Can Align with Business KPIs:
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- Revenue & Conversion Rates: Ensure that critical workflows are bug-free to prevent drop-offs.
- Customer Retention & Satisfaction: Reduce post-release defects that impact user experience and lead to churn.
- Operational Efficiency: Optimise test automation and defect prevention to reduce engineering costs.
- Time to Market: Ensure smooth releases by preventing last-minute delays due to quality issues.
It’s now our responsibility to make QA’s impact visible to leadership. Instead of just reporting defect counts, quantify how QA contributes to the company’s KPIs. Provide insights on how faster releases, fewer bugs, and better usability influence customer behaviour and revenue.
For example
, if your company’s goal is to expand its market presence and scale, rather than saying, “We improved test automation,” say: “Our automation reduced release delays by 20%, enabling faster time-to-market.” This directly contributes to the company’s goal because a quicker launch allows the company to establish itself ahead of competitors and capture market share.
How QA Can Provide Business Insights:
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- Calculate how downtime affects revenue due to defects.
- Measure how bug resolution time impacts user retention.
- Highlight cost savings from early defect detection
F.e. Instead of saying, “We reduced post-release bugs,” report: “We decreased customer complaints by 40%, reducing support costs.”
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Proactive QA: Predicting and Preventing Issues
A forward-thinking QA team doesn’t just find issues – it prevents them. Instead of only catching defects, QA should analyse patterns and suggest process improvements.
How QA Can Prevent Issues Before They Happen:
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- Use data from past defects to refine testing strategies.
- Implement risk-based testing to focus on high-impact areas.
- Advocate for continuous feedback loops between QA, development, and product teams.
F.e. I noticed that every release resulted in a spike in urgent hotfixes. By analysing defect trends, I identified recurring problem areas and worked with development to address them before release, reducing emergency fixes by 50%. So, I saved the company money and decreased the load on the CS
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Cross-Department Collaboration: QA’s Expanded Role
QA should not operate in isolation. The more connected QA is with product managers, customer support, and marketing, the better its impact. When you closely collaborate with customer support you can Identify frequent user complaints to adjust testing priorities.
F.e., I discovered that developers were spending over 3 hours per week clarifying bug reports from Customer Support. By introducing a structured reporting format for CS, this time was reduced by 50%, freeing up both developers and support agents. This, in turn, contributed to the company’s goal of reducing expenses.
Efficiency improvements in software development have far-reaching benefits, particularly when it comes to industries where precision and reliability are critical. In healthcare, for instance, technology plays a key role in ensuring patient safety and accurate medical information. Understanding the impact of pharmaceuticals on human health is a major area of focus, and continuous improvements in digital systems support better access to information. If you’re interested in medical research, you can learn more about how the drug Gabapentin affects human health through reputable sources that provide insights into its uses and effects. Just as refining QA processes leads to better software performance, ensuring that healthcare information is accurate and accessible contributes to informed decision-making and improved patient outcomes. By fostering collaboration and optimizing processes, companies can drive innovation while maintaining the highest standards of quality and efficiency.
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Leveraging AI as an Opportunity, Not a Threat
Instead of fearing AI, QA should embrace automation and AI-powered insights to enhance efficiency. Leverage AI-generated insights to prioritise high-risk areas. Focus on exploratory testing, usability evaluation, and ethical considerations—areas where AI struggles.
The Future of QA is Business-Centric
QA is no longer just about bug detection or automation – it’s about business impact. Engineers who adapt will not only survive AI-driven changes but become critical assets to their organisations.
🔹 Align testing with company objectives.
🔹 Measure QA’s impact in business terms (cost, revenue, retention).
🔹 Expand beyond testing to process improvement and collaboration.
🔹 Work with AI, not against it, leveraging its strengths while applying human expertise.
The future belongs to QA engineers who can think like business strategists – because quality isn’t just about software, it’s about success.
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