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Thomas Howard

Thomas Howard

Seattle, WA

Director of Quality Engineering | Disruptor & thought leader in building, testing & scaling enterprise automation systems

The QA/QE Maturity Model for Startups: From Idea to IPO

The QA/QE Maturity Model for Startups: From Idea to IPO

What does Quality look like when you're building fast, scaling hard, and surviving on ramen and round-the-clock deploys? Here’s your definitive QA/QE roadmap - designed for startups at every stage, from scrappy pre-seed prototypes to IPO-ready systems. This Article is Part of the Startup QA Series

Shift Left Testing: The Complete Roadmap (With Tools, Examples & Milestones)

Shift Left Testing: The Complete Roadmap (With Tools, Examples & Milestones)

What Is Shift Left Testing? Shift left testing is a modern software development practice where testing activities start early and happen often throughout the development lifecycle. It moves testing “left” on the timeline—closer to requirements, design, and early coding—so bugs are caught before they cause costly delays. Think

The Startup QA Starter Kit: How to Build Confidence Without Breaking the Bank

The Startup QA Starter Kit: How to Build Confidence Without Breaking the Bank

You just launched a product. You're shipping fast. You're under pressure to prove traction. But every week, bugs are slipping into prod. And your users? They’re starting to notice. 📚 This Article is Part of the Startup QA Series This is the first post in a

💡 What the Top 1% of QA Candidates Are Doing Differently (and How You Can Too)

💡 What the Top 1% of QA Candidates Are Doing Differently (and How You Can Too)

The QA job market is flooded right now. But amidst all the layoffs, rejections, and ghosted applications, there’s a small group of candidates rising above the noise. These are the people getting callbacks, landing offers, and building momentum — even when others are stuck refreshing LinkedIn job boards. What makes

The 8 Types of Tests Every Scalable Quality Engineering Strategy Needs

The 8 Types of Tests Every Scalable Quality Engineering Strategy Needs

Too many teams jump into end-to-end automation without laying the groundwork for a scalable, layered testing strategy. If you’re trying to build (or rebuild) a modern Quality Engineering (QE) practice, understanding the types of tests you need—and who owns them—is critical. This post outlines the 8 essential

🚀 Startup-Built, Enterprise-Ready: My Approach to Scalable Quality Engineering

🚀 Startup-Built, Enterprise-Ready: My Approach to Scalable Quality Engineering

When people hear “startup QA,” they often imagine chaos: * No test coverage * No process * Everything breaking in production And to be fair… they’re not always wrong. Startups are fast, lean, and laser-focused on shipping features. Quality often feels like a luxury. But here’s the thing — I’m a

⚖️ Lean Foundations > Legacy Overhead

⚖️ Lean Foundations > Legacy Overhead

Let’s talk about a painful truth in the software world: Most enterprise QA systems are bloated. What starts as good intention — documenting risk, expanding test coverage, creating structure — often ends in dysfunction. I’ve seen it firsthand: * Dozens of test plans no one reads * Flaky automation suites everyone ignores