Software Quality Specialist

What is a software quality specialist?

• Someone who understands functional testing.
• Someone who understands unit testing.
• Someone who understands performance testing.
• Someone who can code.
• Someone who understands software development methods and strategies.
• Someone who is familiar with software development technologies and frameworks.
• Someone who understands continuous integration and build automation.
• Someone who understands version control systems and strategies.
• Someone who understands application architecture.
• Someone who understands the infrastructure on which applications run.
• Someone who understands the impact of architectural decisions on code quality.
• Someone who understands how to manage a good software development team.

That's me.  That's what I do.  I am not a tester.  I make sure software has better quality, gets to the customer a little quicker, runs a little faster, and that all this is repeatable.  By repeatable, I mean the team gets up in the morning and looks forward to doing this all over again.  That's my measure of success.

Software testing is changing.  Some say software testing is becoming obsolete.  In some sectors that may be true.  But software quality will never be obsolete.  And where lives are on the line, or you are trying to shoot a tiny computerized-chemistry-set-on-wheels off to another planet and hope that it will get there and talk back to you, well, then it's mission critical.