People over technology

We believe that technology should enable people to connect, collaborate, communicate and transact. All technology, therefore, should have Human Quality.  Our definition of quality is simple;

A quality product or service is one that meets or exceeds customer expectations

The role of a quality assurance and testing professional is to help the business achieve this goal. If you accept this definition of quality and the role of a quality assurance and testing professional then it is obvious they must have customer expectations front of mind. This is why we believe a quality assurance and testing professional who understands customer expectations and local customer context will ALWAYS give you a better result than one who doesn’t. The customer in this context is not a stakeholder but the human who will use the technology.

Shift left, shift up

Quality can’t be tested into a system; it must be built in from the start. The most effective place to capture and eliminate a defect in technology development is in the phase it is introduced. This old rule of quality has been sidelined over the past 20 years through the commoditisation of the IT industry. This has resulted in a lot of pain for clients. We need to rethink the way the IT industry addresses quality assurance across the lifecycle, by shifting our thinking and attention to earlier in the SDLC and by elevating our thinking to the customer experience we want to deliver. We call this “shift left, shift up”.

Consider the Customer Experience

All customers are humans and they test all customer experiences every time they come in contact with your organisation. Most customer experiences are either underpinned by technology or delivered directly through technology. The customer is intuitively measuring the Human Quality of their experience at every customer contact point with your organization and you can’t stop them from doing this. They compare their experience against the set of expectations they have, not against the set of requirements established by the business. Quality is always measured through the eyes of the customer, not through the lens of the business.

"We believe that a quality customer experience is a right, not an option"

- Tony Bailey, CEO AccessHQ

Customer Driven Testing

We recommend that wherever possible across the entire lifecycle of technology products, test with real customers. Ultimately, the end customer tests every technology product and they won’t lie to you about their experience.

Evidence Based Quality

We need to apply a new rigour to assuring and testing of technology products. We need to base our approach on hard evidence and measurement. This evidence based data approach enables us to truly understand the root cause of quality issues and enables us to make evidence based decisions to improve quality.

Communication

We believe that good communication is about conveying information in a way the recipient understands, not in the language of the IT industry. If we can’t communicate in the language the recipient understands we’ve failed as professionals.