First time as a QA/Test Strategist, what would be your first steps and references to use?

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Hi all,

I’m looking for advice and tips on how to start your first journey as a QA Strategist in a completely new project/ company.

Many thanks :slight_smile:

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Hey Emna,

Could you provide a little more context?

  • Is the role internal or external facing?

  • Where within the org does the role sit? Who do you report to and will you have reports?

Either way, I’m really excited to find another QA Strategist, and excited to see what it looks like and where it’ll take you.

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+1 Chris! The best part of the title is that it has no clear definition - the worst part of the title, is that it has no clear definition :smiley:. That being said, in my recent title change I did find it supportive that there was already a job description of the role. While the description wasn’t specifically towards test advisory/strategist - the topics apply. Perhaps be curious if there are other strategist roles in the new company - what do they do?

Some things to consider is, as Chris hinted, your organizational power and influence both formally in the org and informally in the work. Don’t fall in the trap in wanting to change everything in the first three months… perhaps pick a few quick wins for yourself and deliver them to your manager. Make her fell a success - then add more change :slight_smile:

Don’t worry about it :slight_smile: Take it one step of the time and reach out. We believe in you! Perhaps set up a personal kanban for the role to help visualize and prioritize the tasks?

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Hey Chris,

Thank you for your entry :wink:

Sure, to answer your questions:

  • It’s kinda both, It’s a freelance role for a short duration. I’ll be working with people from the company in order to implement automation strategy for the first time in their process, to improve testing process, to document it and I’m sure more other tasks.
  • It’s not that huge one, I’ll work mainly with the product manager (including UX people) and other testers

Glad to try this new role even for a short period, happy to share with you more details about it !

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It sounds really exciting, Emna.

I look forward to hearing more about it.

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Hi @jesper,

Thank you for your encouraging comment and advice !
Actually, I find this role randomly for a short period (2 months and half) during my break between 2 jobs It’s a freelance role in a small company and half time.
I’m so excited to try this kind of roles in this perfect time and I hope to learn from it.
Curious how this position look like, I’ll may be reconsider it in the future :wink:

To answer your questions

  • There is no other similar role in the company, it’s a startup culture.
  • Job description:
    • Working with QA team reviewing QA processs and documentation
    • Improving QA proccess
    • Improving how to document QA
    • Implementing new automation practises and processes and documentation
    • Inspire better QA process in the whole organization
    • Teach and coach organization in QA

Their product is a mobile app.

I’ll start this new role in few days ! curious from where I start, I like the personal kanban for the role I’ll do it and discover the role at the same time.

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Nice to see some more fellow QA strategists! As for some advice about first steps… Not sure really, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it is to set expectations very clear from the start. Most of the time people have no clue what you’re actually going to do or how that will impact their work. And in extension to that, I emphasise that I’m going to provide the solution they need. And that’s almost always not the solution they are asking for.

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Thank you for your comment! And how you convince them that this is the solution they need Vs. want before you finish doing it ?
How you deal with such conflicts (I suppose there are quite a lot)?

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Ah yeah, the million dollar question :slightly_smiling_face: But it largely comes down to consultancy skills and at the core of that is communication. People don’t just randomly do things, there’s always a motivation behind certain behaviour. Part of a the consultant/strategist job is also finding out what these motivations are. You can then use that information to formulate your solution around those needs. I deliberately said behaviour here, which is different from what people tell you. In that last case you’ll usually get the “acceptable” answer. It doesn’t mean that it’s wrong, but it’s not uncommon to see a discrepancy between what people say they do vs. what they actually do. So if you can find out the real needs within the org, and your solutions tie into that, you’re basically 2/3 of the way there.

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