Why Agile Teams Don’t Need Process QA

Why Agile Teams Don’t Need Process QA

Flashback: Quality Week 2001

In 2001 a conference for quality and testing professionals has been organized. Kent spent the first portion of his talk explaining how QA is a throwback to Tayloristic, Time-and-Motion, Scientific Management practices, and that XP teams just don’t need any of that. He went on to explain the XP practices, and how they are both disciplined and self-supporting.

What Kent didn’t realize is that he had a double time slot. The crowd wasn’t about to let him go after he’d just offended all they knew to be good and holy. He spent the next 45 minutes answering questions posed by extremely angry QA professionals.

The good news is that Kent survived the experience. Despite a few tense moments, the audience did not charge the podium after all. I must say that I was impressed with Kent’s courage and grace under fire.

The insights I gleaned from that Conference may not have been exactly what Kent intended. It seemed to me that:

XP teams still needed Test QA people.
XP teams might not need Process QA people.
Kent didn’t understand (or at least didn’t articulate) the difference between Test QA and Process QA; he seemed to paint all “QA” people with the same brush.
I should learn more about this XP stuff.