Do. Learn. Repeat.

I started a newsletter.
I started a newsletter to become better.
I started a newsletter to become better and to help you.

Did it work?
Did I change anything?
Did you read this and think differently about quality, or testing, or your own job?

I have no idea.

But I think I’m getting better.
I have a marketing calendar now. I never had one before.
I built a test environment for my website. Why would you need a test site for a blog?

Whatever.

I produce more content.
Faster.
Fewer rewrites.
That’s measurable.

Do you care?
No.
Why would you, it’s not visible.

These are my internal processes.

But this is internal quality.

Internal quality is a predictable discipline, tracked and continuously improved through its measurable characteristics and indicators, a pursuit of excellence with which an organisation and its people produce a product or service for the person who matters.

Read it again.

From my definition of quality, this is the part that’s actually measurable. To make it useful, we just have to select the right KPIs. Like number of test cases. LOL. No. Not that kind of KPI. The real ones. The ones that give us value. For example, incidents after release grouped by root cause and severity.

Is it hard?
No.
Well… yes.
It can be a trap.
If I have trash metrics, I’m successful at something no one cares about.

So pick the metrics that the person who actually uses your work would care about.
Measure them honestly.
Look at trends, not individual results. (Everybody can have a bad day.)
Change something.
Get better.
Repeat.

I have a marketing calendar. I don’t know if my newsletters are better or not.
I built a test environment. I don’t know if it adds value for my audience.

I know one thing.
I decided that in the second half of the year I want to share more of what I know, in a prettier way.
Because I got feedback. I’m taking it seriously. I’m improving my internal processes. Also, thanks for that.

Hit reply.

Tell me if “this is the way.”* Tell me if you want something else.

Thanks for reading.

*That was a Mandalorian joke. Pun intended.