1.6Building from Scratch vs. Inheriting a Team

Building from Scratch

Your first QA hire matters enormously. This person will set the culture, processes, and standards for everyone who follows. Hire someone who is:

• Senior enough to work independently and make strategic decisions
• Strong in automation (you need to build the foundation early)
• An excellent communicator (they will be the voice of quality)
• Comfortable with ambiguity (nothing is established yet)

First 90 days for a new QA team:

1. Days 1-30: Understand the product, map the riskiest areas, document the current state of quality
2. Days 31-60: Set up basic automation (smoke tests, CI integration), establish a bug reporting process, start writing critical test cases
3. Days 61-90: Propose a test strategy, identify the next hire's profile, establish metrics to track progress

Inheriting an Existing Team

When you inherit a QA team, resist the urge to change everything immediately.

1. Listen first (weeks 1-4): Meet every team member individually. Understand their skills, frustrations, and ideas. Observe current processes before judging them.
2. Assess (weeks 3-6): Map the team's skills, identify gaps, understand the test infrastructure, review metrics and trends.
3. Quick wins (weeks 4-8): Fix one or two pain points that the team has been complaining about. This builds trust and credibility.
4. Strategic changes (months 2-6): Introduce larger changes gradually, with the team's input. Explain the "why" for every change.