Software Testing vs Quality Assurence - what is in a name?

This is a debate that will probably never get everyone on the same page.

In my opinion a role with Quality in the name probably better reflects what it is that I do, but I have given a wider berth to QA as a title, not least because assurance isn’t a helpful terminology and I think it carries more baggage than is useful.

However I have also been a Test Engineer before and that also didn’t really reflect what it is that I was doing, as I wasn’t only engineering tests.

I guess Software Quality Engineer sounds nice, but then don’t developers also aim to engineer quality software too?

I’m definitely talking myself out of this as we go.

In a different thread, I suggested rather tongue-in-cheek that we should be called Test Ninjas, but in my context I have been trying to frame the remit of those who do testing and quality roles primarily, that we would call it Quality Practice. It’s not perfect, but I think it speaks better into what we do.