9.3The Quality Coach Model (Modern)

In the modern model, QA is embedded in the development team from day one:

      QA ← ←  Reviews requirements
       ↓
 QA + Dev ← ← Three amigos, pair testing
       ↓
  QA + Dev ← ← Code review, test review
       ↓
    QA ← ← ← Exploratory testing, automation
       ↓
   Team ← ← ← Monitoring, continuous improvement

Characteristics of the Quality Coach

• QA is embedded in the development team from day one
• QA helps developers write better tests, not just finds their bugs
• QA contributes to code reviews, architecture decisions, and CI/CD pipeline design
• Quality is everyone's responsibility; QA provides expertise and tooling
• QA focuses on preventing bugs through process improvement, not just detecting them through testing
• Success is measured by bugs prevented, not bugs found
• Testing is continuous, not a phase