Software Engineering - Is Quality assurance the fate of failed software architects

Author

Is Quality assurance the fate of failed software architects

datamodel

2006-04-25, 10:00 pm

I was recently offered a position to oversee software testing (and
activities related to quality assurance) - i'm currently a software
project manager. One of my first thoughts was that they didn't I was
good enough to be offered a software architecture position (as in
software design).

Am I correct in the perception that quality assurance is inferior to
software architecture? It's just not the track I want to get into - i'd
rather continue my career as someone who designs and oversees the
implementation of software solutions.

I'd like to hear your opinions on this. thanks.

Chris Hills

2006-04-25, 10:00 pm

In article <1145880511.207379.224030@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
datamodel <datamodel@gmail.com> writes
>I was recently offered a position to oversee software testing (and
>activities related to quality assurance) - i'm currently a software
>project manager. One of my first thoughts was that they didn't I was
>good enough to be offered a software architecture position (as in
>software design).
>
>Am I correct in the perception that quality assurance is inferior to
>software architecture? It's just not the track I want to get into - i'd
>rather continue my career as someone who designs and oversees the
>implementation of software solutions.
>
>I'd like to hear your opinions on this. thanks.

"It depends" is the answer.

Some places put there best people into testing and some don't. It
depends on the company and what they are making.

Several companies I deal with the testing people are just below the
system designers. The implementers are "code monkeys" and at the bottom
of the pile. In others, testers are those they don't want writing the
code.

What sort of industry/products was it?

What sort of QA system? ISO 9K, 61508? Do178b?

--
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
\/\/\/\/\ Chris Hills Staffs England /\/\/\/\/
/\/\/ chris@phaedsys.org www.phaedsys.org \/\/\
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Phlip

2006-04-25, 10:00 pm

datamodel wrote:

> I was recently offered a position to oversee software testing (and
> activities related to quality assurance) - i'm currently a software
> project manager. One of my first thoughts was that they didn't I was
> good enough to be offered a software architecture position (as in
> software design).

Architecture is a team role. Try this study:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/release...60423191907.htm

QA is an interesting situation. Some teams indeed confuse it with the rote
labor of manual testing. It is not. Your role is to architect the systems
around your code base that rate your project's health. These systems,
starting with automated tests, should be completely ... automatic. Anyone
should be able to run a top-level build script, on any workstation, and
rapidly learn if the code got worse or better.

That is really hard, and really important. Good QA can shorten time to
market by months out of years.

> Am I correct in the perception that quality assurance is inferior to
> software architecture?

No. You might think that Architecture is somehow an ivory tower occupation,
where you dispense UML diagrams to your coders. Your managers might think
that too.

You also should not think that QA is an ivory tower role!

> It's just not the track I want to get into - i'd
> rather continue my career as someone who designs and oversees the
> implementation of software solutions.

Is that resume padding, or because you actually have a serious knack? If the
latter, your QA systems also need a good architecture, too.

--
Phlip
[url]http://www.greencheese.org/Z

Land[/url] <-- NOT a blog!!!

H. S. Lahman

2006-04-25, 10:00 pm

Responding to Datamodel...

> Am I correct in the perception that quality assurance is inferior to
> software architecture? It's just not the track I want to get into - i'd
> rather continue my career as someone who designs and oversees the
> implementation of software solutions.

The comparison is apples & oranges. They are quite different subject
matters with quite different skill sets. For example, the vast majority
of software developers know very little about software testing. And
testing is only part of SQA. So there is no valid inferior/superior
comparison.

The only thing that SQA people and software architects have in common is
that they both start from the same requirements. In fact, experience
with software development can be a di

vantage at the system or
acceptance test level because it may introduce "white box" biases and
assumptions into what should be pure "black box" testing.

IOW, choose your career path around what you enjoy doing rather than
some notion of "better".

*************
There is nothing wrong with me that could
not be cured by a capful of Drano.

H. S. Lahman
hsl@pathfindermda.com
Pathfinder Solutions -- Put MDA to Work
http://www.pathfindermda.com
blog: http://pathfinderpeople.blogs.com/hslahman
(888)OOA-PATH

David Lightstone

2006-04-25, 10:00 pm

"datamodel" <datamodel@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1145880511.207379.224030@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
>I was recently offered a position to oversee software testing (and
> activities related to quality assurance) - i'm currently a software
> project manager. One of my first thoughts was that they didn't I was
> good enough to be offered a software architecture position (as in
> software design).
>
> Am I correct in the perception that quality assurance is inferior to
> software architecture? It's just not the track I want to get into - i'd
> rather continue my career as someone who designs and oversees the
> implementation of software solutions.
>
> I'd like to hear your opinions on this. thanks.

It all depends upon whether they take testing seriously.

As tasks go it it the risky side of the house. The place where all the
scheduling mistakes must be resolved.

That being stated ask yourself,
(1) what happened to your predecessor?
(2) Was it the suicide mission guarenteed to lead to departure?
(3) has the amount of testing in need of performance been recognized as
excessive enough to require another manager?

My personal opinion, it that it is a good position only if there is a
parallel CMMI initiative (activities related to quality assurance). With the
CMMI initiative experience more than a few doors open.

>

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