My official title is ‘Manager of Quality Assurance’ which was flattering when it was offered, but now I think it is a greater hindrance getting stuff done than a help. And I suspect I’m not the only one out there struggling with the expectations of title. The problem is that a title acts as a summation of role. It doesn’t matter what your official or unofficial job description is, people will fixate on their perceptions of what that title does.

Lets analyze what my title would seem to imply.

  • Manager – There are two ways to look at this one. First, there is the split between a ‘lead’ and a ‘manager’ which involves handling a team’s activities vs. handling a team’s activities and their hr components. The other is to take the literal root word of ‘manage.’ In this view then the Manager is who manages activities in their sphere, which is often the rest of the title. In my situation, it would be in all things Quality Assurance.
  • Quality – Another tricky concept. What does ‘Quality’ mean? We as an industry of testers and quality folk have not adopted a recognized definition of the word. The truth is though, it doesn’t matter what you think it means. The only people whose definition matters are those that sign the cheques.
  • Assurance – How many QA people can actually assure anything. Can you delay a release? (Should you have that power? Its arguable.) Can you force people to care? To take pride in their work? To change their routines? Usually not. Especially if you buy the argument that Quality issues are a leading indication of Culture issues and those need to be addressed by those who drive the culture. And that person rarely has QA in their title. Usually it start with Chief.

A flawed title at best. But its pretty standard in the industry. And the root cause I think of a lot of friction.

Trying hard to not just throw out generic problems with no chance of solutions, I propose the following. At minimum, we to get rid of the QA title unless those with it actually can fulfill the implied tasks of the role. The next, more radical, step is the model SocialText uses (or at least as I understand it). They don’t have ‘testers’ or ‘developers’. In stead they have ‘members of technical staff’. Its not sexy by any means, but it reflects what they actually do, which is kinda the purpose of titles. Its also a sign of what seems to be considered a healthy organization structure these days. One nicest fallout of the Agile movement is the embedding of test specialists on product teams. This removes (some) politicking and refocuses everyone on the product, which is the whole purpose of your employment.