Talk Description
In this episode of Leading With Quality, Rosie Sherry speaks with Mark Dordel, Senior Software Quality Advocate at Olo. Mark shares why he believes that quality is built through conversations. He shows how small, visible habits help teams ship safer software and avoid late-night "incidents".
Mark outlines Olo’s whole-team quality approach: developers own the testing, while quality advocates coach, plan, and make risk visible. He shows how Amigo sessions, epic test plans, and living runbooks turn tickets into shared understanding. He also explains the owner-operator model and the rotating support-captain role that keeps reliability front and centre.
You’ll hear about:
- Choosing the right place to test: local, staging, or production checks
- When to use pairing, ensemble, or swarming on higher-risk changes
- How specialist contract testers can act as product SMEs in complex systems
- Why many former SDETs at Olo moved into developer roles
If you want practical ways to raise quality without slowing teams down, this conversation will help.
I've been working in the software testing and quality engineering space since the year 2000 whilst also combining it with my love for education and community. It turns out quality, community and education go nicely hand in hand.
🎓 MoT-STEC qualified
Leader in Quality Engineering with deep appreciation for agile methodologies, with expertise in integrating quality engineering practices into agile team processes.
I've been working in the software testing and quality engineering space since the year 2000 whilst also combining it with my love for education and community. It turns out quality, community and education go nicely hand in hand.
🎓 MoT-STEC qualified
Leader in Quality Engineering with deep appreciation for agile methodologies, with expertise in integrating quality engineering practices into agile team processes.
