Break the Build

Sign in Subscribe

leadership

leadership

Leadership insights for building high-performing QA and QE teams — from scaling test strategy to fostering a culture of ownership, speed, and trust.

Building a QE-First Culture Without Ceremony or Bloat

Building a QE-First Culture Without Ceremony or Bloat

Quality Engineering has a branding problem. Too often, when leadership hears “QA” or “QE,” they picture process police. Heavy checklists. Endless signoffs. Test case bureaucracy. A tax on delivery speed. But the reality is this: a QE-first culture is the opposite of heavy process. Done right, it’s the single

Being the Salmon in a River of Features: The QA Struggle Nobody Sees

Being the Salmon in a River of Features: The QA Struggle Nobody Sees

Some days in Quality Engineering feel like being a salmon in the middle of spawning season; swimming upstream against a relentless current, dodging rocks, avoiding predators, and leaping over waterfalls, all while everyone on the shore is cheering for the fishermen pulling in the catch. It’s a strange feeling

Failure Is Your Fastest Teacher: Lessons from the QA Trenches

Failure Is Your Fastest Teacher: Lessons from the QA Trenches

No one likes to talk about failure. In software engineering; especially in Quality Engineering; we’re supposed to be the ones who prevent failure. We’re the safeguards. The gatekeepers. The ones waving the red flag before things go wrong. So what happens when we fail? What happens when a

Why 100% Test Coverage Is a False Summit (And What to Measure Instead)

Why 100% Test Coverage Is a False Summit (And What to Measure Instead)

“We hit 100% test coverage; we’re good to ship.” If you've ever felt a little uneasy hearing that sentence, you're not alone. In the world of software testing, 100% coverage has long been treated as the holy grail. It sounds definitive. It sounds impressive. It

If QA Shows Up After Devs Are Done, It's Already Too Late

If QA Shows Up After Devs Are Done, It's Already Too Late

Let’s be blunt: If your QA team is reviewing tickets after development wraps, you're not testing software; you're testing luck. And most teams are running out of it. Despite all the talk of “Shift Left,” many organizations still treat QA as the final checkbox before

QA Teams of 2030; Embedded, AI-Powered, and Unstoppable

QA Teams of 2030; Embedded, AI-Powered, and Unstoppable

QA Teams of 2030: Forward-Deployed Engineers and the New Quality Paradigm How embedding QA, AI orchestration, and strategic oversight will redefine software quality over the next five years In my recent article, “The Myth of QA’s Demise,” I debunked the idea that quality assurance would be entirely automated out

The Myth of QA’s Demise

The Myth of QA’s Demise

“Is QA dead?” It’s a provocative question that seems to surface every few years, usually whenever a new testing tool emerges or a buzzworthy technology takes center stage. Today, in July 2025, the rise of AI in software development has revived that question with fresh intensity. But the truth