Quality Engineering Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Quadrants
Software applications have moved a great deal from well controlled procedural code on green screens supported by a single processor, single database and limited and trained user base, to the present day multi-device, multi-user, multi-threaded, event-driven workflows, with distributed data, multiple instances of processing power and fractured business logic. All this is compounded by increased awareness and implementation of security and privacy regulations and industry mandated best practices. The increasing complexity has fundamentally and irreversibly changed the definition of "Fitness for use" of software, and non-functional compliance requirements. The end result has been an evolution in the roles and responsibilities of pod members, and especially in the relationships between the quality team and the developers. This paper casts the trends in software and team dynamics in terms of the software functionality quadrant, and also links it to the classic Hugo & Nebula award winner story by Samuel Delany.
Vivek Mathur
Working in software Quality Engineering for the past 20 years, across ADM service companies, ERPs, cyber security products companies and game testing.