I have come across some jobs in which the QA people of a team are lead by a Software Engineering Manager/EM of that team, who has zero experience as a QA manager/QM or has never lead a QA team before. In most of these cases, the team or company was moving in the direction of no QA people or few QA p…

I used to manage on of those QA teams, test teams and also a testing center of excellence for a while. The test center of excellence did not a bad job, aligning global practices, sorting training and that guidance and development side, it had a fairly clear testing remit. The QA team less so as no…

Related answer - [image] Where did all the Test managers go? shooting_starDiscussions I thought I’d add my experience here, in case it’s useful. My title is “Senior QA Manager” and currently, I line manage 9 people (mix of SQA and SDETs) who are spread across…

One answer which shares my concern - [image] Where did all the Test managers go? shooting_starDiscussions What I miss is not support managing testing, but having a line manager knowledgeable in testing who can coach me in my career growth. With no test manage…

An excellent reply from personal experience by @ckenst [image] Where did all the Test managers go? shooting_starDiscussions I’ve been thinking about your questions in terms of my career progression and it’s worked like this: My first job I worked for a big i…

Unfortunately, I have the same experience as @ipstefan [image] Where did all the Test managers go? shooting_starDiscussions +1 to the feeling mentioned here by Ben I’ve worked 12+ years in testing in 3 different European countries and have never had a test ma…

An entire post related to replacing QM with EM - [image] QA reporting to development managers shooting_starDiscussions Hi all! wave I’ve been through a couple of reorgs in my career so far that have unfortunately resulted in QA management/lead positions being…

There’s an article by Jon Bach (I think) called the Expert Game - the premise is basically that when you get hired into a company or project and you are the only person doing it - you are the expert. Which means you have to figure out how to be valuable / helpful in your role. I wouldn’t judge have…

Jon and James Bach wrote the doc Playing the Expert Game “…I am continuously learning without my manager needing to push, prod, or pay much attention to my learning process. I manage my own learning process…” I think one’s career is too important to leave it in someone else’s hands like an EM or Q…

The pros and cons of working under a Software Engineering manager VS a QA manager?

Discussions

nsegal (Nitin Segal) 4 September 2026 21:31 7

An entire post related to replacing QM with EM -

I have seen this too and share the concerns of @adamjfoy

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The pros and cons of working under a Software Engineering manager VS a QA manager?

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