We’re conducting community research around the idea of Continuous Quality, we’d love your input!
Do you want to learn more about Continuous Quality?
Bonus points for any community commentary or thoughts that come to mind on this question. 
I’ve probably used some of the practices which are part of this, but I’ve never known that there’s a name for it.
What is it’s actual definition, what’s the context? Software Engineering, Development, Process Improvements, Project Management, Quality Management, Testing, Continuous Deployment?
PS:
I found very little information using google search. So I had to ask ChatGPT about it.
It seems this isn’t the same as Continuous Quality Improvement which appears more often:
‘Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is a broader management approach often used in healthcare, manufacturing, and service industries, focusing on iterative process improvements to enhance quality. While CQI and CQ share a commitment to ongoing improvement, CQI is more process-oriented, with applications across different sectors, whereas CQ is specific to software development and focuses on continuously integrating quality checks within the coding and deployment processes.’
‘Continuous Quality (CQ) is a modern approach to software quality that emphasizes ongoing quality assessment, testing, and feedback integration throughout every stage of the development lifecycle. Instead of relegating quality checks and testing to isolated stages (e.g., at the end of development), CQ involves continuous testing, automated monitoring, and iterative improvements as part of agile, DevOps, or CI/CD pipelines. This enables faster feedback, fewer errors, and higher software reliability while responding to user feedback and needs in real-time. CQ often utilizes automated testing, observability, continuous integration, and continuous deployment practices to ensure that code quality and performance are maintained throughout the development cycle.’
’ The term Continuous Quality (CQ) emerged in the 2010s as an extension of Agile, DevOps, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) principles, which had already been popularizing the idea of quality as an ongoing process rather than a single-step check. It developed to address the need for faster, more frequent testing and integration of quality throughout the development lifecycle, as opposed to focusing solely on end-stage quality assurance (QA) testing.’
Do you mind giving at least an brief overview what this this is about?
I’m reading this here about the first time.
I interpret it as multiple kinds of automation that one engineering team might do so that they monitor some aspects of the quality of the product at various stages.
Most of these have existed before the term being coined. But probably due to multiple agility movements to deliver faster the quality processes were skipped. This concept of CQ seems to highlight them in a separate bucket.
Some examples that I gathered as well to understand more about it (also ChatGPT): ‘automated testing pipelines’, continuous monitoring and observability, shift-left testing, feature flagging and canary releases, quality gates in ci/cd, code quality metrics and dashboarding, continuous feedback loops from prod, automated regression testing with ML algorithms, real time analytics for continuous improvement.
Example: Amazon uses CloudWatch to monitor application performance and AWS Lambda functions to trigger automated responses to incidents. This allows Amazon to detect issues like latency or error rate spikes in real time.
Example: Netflix has automated testing embedded throughout its software release pipeline. By using tools like Spinnaker (a continuous delivery platform), Netflix runs automated tests in real-time with each change in code, allowing them to catch issues before they reach production.
Example: Microsoft employs shift-left testing within its Azure DevOps pipeline, enabling tests to be run early in the development process. This allows Microsoft teams to catch defects early and reduce the cost of fixing them.
Example: Facebook uses feature flags to deploy new features to a subset of users first. The feature is then monitored in real time to ensure quality before a full rollout.
Example: Salesforce uses synthetic data in test environments to simulate real-world scenarios without compromising user privacy. This enables comprehensive testing of features without exposing sensitive customer data.
Example: SAP has implemented quality gates in its CI/CD pipelines for enterprise applications. These gates enforce that specific quality metrics (code coverage, security scan results) are met before code can progress to the next stage.
Example: Google employs code quality dashboards to monitor and visualize critical metrics like code maintainability, test coverage, and bug trends across its projects. The Google Code Health dashboard provides insights for ongoing quality improvements.
Example: Uber gathers real-time feedback from its production apps, monitoring user actions, errors, and crashes to identify areas for quality improvements.
Example: Adobe applies machine learning algorithms to its testing frameworks to detect and prioritize potential regressions in new builds. This helps focus testing efforts where they’re most needed.
Example: Spotify employs real-time analytics to assess user experience on the platform. By analyzing patterns in app usage and system performance, Spotify can continuously enhance performance and resolve any disruptions swiftly.
I picked up on the term on a LinkedIn post with @melissafisher and @sjday95
And our next Testing Planet episode is on the topic of Continuous Quality.
We’ll be posing questions/polls over the next week or two as a way to gather insights into what Continuous Quality means to them.
Thanks. Would have been good if was available in advance. When I read a phrase for the very first time and have no summary what it is about makes it hard for me to decide if I’m interested.
You are making polls to ask whom? Melissa and Stuart? Why don’t you ask and them?
I guess just a few people have heard the term and imo it would be about them to introduce the concept.
I don’t even know how to define Continuous Quality, hence the starting of conversations and polls around it to help us all start to understand it, or what it could be.
More to come soon.
For those asking what it is, It promotes quality at each stage of the software delivery cycle.
A good blog post is this What is Continuous Quality ?. Continuous quality (CQ) is an… | by Rakesh Sukla | Medium