13.2From Test Executor to Quality Systems Engineer

The role of "QA engineer" in 2020 was primarily about writing and running tests. The emerging role of "quality systems engineer" is about designing systems — both technical and organizational — that produce quality as an emergent property.

A test executor catches bugs after they are created. A quality systems engineer prevents them by:

• Influencing architecture to be more testable and more reliable
• Building feedback systems that surface quality signals fast
• Designing processes that make it easier to do things right than wrong
• Creating cultures where quality is everyone's responsibility, not a department