It's not only about what you do, but how you go about it.
15 Sep 2026
It’s not only about what you do, but how you go about it.
This line has been on my mind recently and sums up a lot of my current thinking about Quality Management Systems - the what and the how and I believe both are important.
This line has been on my mind recently and sums up a lot of my current thinking about Quality Management Systems - the what and the how and I believe both are important.
For example, I’m working in a team where everyone tests. So the what — testing activity — is covered. But what about the how? This year, I walked into a place thinking: “What do you need me for? Everyone is testing, so why am I here?”
The answer was: the how.
- How does testing start from the beginning of delivery through to the end?
- How do you plan, design, build and deploy?
- Where does quality fit into each of those stages?
Some of these questions had answers. Others didn’t.
This, for me, is where Quality Management Systems can add real value. Not necessarily by telling people what to do, but by helping create the strategy, structure and approach around how we do it.
I think this is becoming even more important as AI changes the way we work.
AI can help us with the what:
Create me some API Tests
Create me some API Tests
But then comes the how:
- How are those tests reviewed?
- Where do they live?
- How are they maintained?
- How do they get into the pipeline?
- How do we know they provide the right coverage?
The future of quality isn’t just about doing more - it’s about getting better at understanding the how.
Melissa Fisher
Quality and Test Leader
She/Her
Hi, I'm Melissa! I'm a Quality and Test leader specialising in owning and delivering end to end testing across complex programmes, transformations and start up or enterprise environments. You can find me on here or Linkedin. Feel free to reach out. I am happy to have conversations about quality & test topics.
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Rosie Sherry
I've been thinking about this recently, I like how you frame it as the 'how'.
In a sense, over the years, we've had a lot of people tell us what to do. What practices we should adopt. Dare I say the holy grail of [insert keyword here].
A lot of these 'whats' sound great on paper, but often they don't help us with the how. And perhaps the how surfaces a whole new set of skills that are not directly related to quality. The problem analysis, the team work, the grit, the teaching, the leanring, and more...
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