The game has changed. On backing quality engineering.

I've been in testing (and quality and tech) for over 25 years. That's wild.

I went through a lull period, questioned whether it was for me, got bored and I struggled with the lack of progress and the continued discussion of the same things, again and again. I stood back to explore community deeper. Both through writing and trying out working for other people. (Emphasis on the 'trying' part of working for other people!)

The time away was helpful in bringing in a new perspective. I came back determined to take a different approach, even if I didn't know what it would it should be. I did things the only way I really know how: explore, learn, build. 

Of course there's all kinds of tears (of sorrow and joy), stresses and accomplishments that comes with this. I've never had my head so deep in focus.

It's been a journey, and the truth is that through the hundreds of people that I've personally spoken to, and the many of thousands of people that we continue to serve, I could not be more excited to continue to explore what building good products looks like. This partly means backing quality engineering, which I have so much energy for, but it also means building bridges with how others in tech think about product building too. The silos are everywhere, and they ain't helping anyone.

I want it to be clear, to everyone that I (and we at the MoTaverse) back quality engineering. We spent months building a cert for it, various ondemand courses and insights on topics related to quality engineering. And the more we've gone down that path, the more it feels so good and so right. I've never felt better about how everyone is thinking about and doing the quality work. It truly feels like a great career to be in.

So whilst we say we back quality engineering (we do and I hope that our actions show that we do!), really the vision has deeper roots. Quality is everywhere. And we back the idea of figuring out how to build better products, with quality at the heart, and quite literally, one conversation, one action, one event and one conference at a time.

My hope is for quality engineering to continue to evolve and for the MoTaverse to continue to have the privilege to be leaders in this space. But it's not just about quality engineering, the game is constantly changing and we're adapting with it, how we learn and show up is not what it use to be 25, 10 or even 5 years ago.

A conference on its own is not enough. Continuous community is required.

Onwards!