The New Breed of QA

During a recent meeting an R/GA Technical Director referred to one of our senior testers as part of “a new breed of QA.”  I found it  interesting given that this particular tester had been at R/GA for almost ten years.  This immediately introduced the possibility that the new breed is actually a rare mutation and the infection is slowly spreading throughout R/GA. In the interests of science, we diverted the meeting to consider what the new breed of QA might be and how the mutation might have happened.

After a bit of discussion we came to believe that – like all great mutations – this new breed came about by combining QA core skills in new and unexpected ways.

Perhaps one tester mixed his automated testing skills with his client management skills to propose a new way of solving an old problem, leading to new operational efficiencies.

Perhaps another applied her strong technical foundation, effective process management, and team communication abilities to become a hybrid Tester & Technical Project Manager.  Her hybrid role could free up the Technical Lead and the Producer to focus on other parts of the project.

Perhaps a third tester combined all of these skills: technical execution, process management, automation/coding, internal communication and client management.  These are the testers that mutate into our QA Leads and QA Directors, and a few will transition to become Technical Project Managers.

While the stories are all true, the mutation was obviously just a clever diversion.  In reality, R/GA loves to staff with generalists.  We’ve found that if a tester has a robust and vast skill set, he or she is more likely to combine two or more of those skills and come up with something new and unique, like a mutant QA PM Tech Lead that automates regression testing and delivery of our projects.