What do you mean the death of QA?

For decades, QA was often treated as a necessary evil — a cost center slowing releases, a checkbox to appease stakeholders. Testing teams were seen as barriers to launch rather than partners in delivering quality. The process was overwhelmingly manual: clicking through UI screens, following lengthy spreadsheets of test cases, and documenting every bug by hand.

Within this culture, testers were frequently viewed as “failed developers” — people who couldn’t cut it in coding and settled for QA. After all, why would anyone choose to be a tester when they could write the software instead of just trying to break it? This mindset marginalized skilled testers and minimized the strategic importance of quality.

But times are changing. Over my 15 years in the industry — across insurance, healthcare, trading platforms, and video games — I’ve watched QA transform. Automation isn’t a niche add-on anymore; it’s the backbone of modern testing strategies. QA engineers are taking on greater responsibility, designing tests integrated directly into CI/CD pipelines, collaborating earlier with developers, and owning quality across the SDLC.

Today, companies that still lean heavily on manual testing are already falling behind. In a world of rapid releases and shifting user expectations, slow, error-prone manual processes simply can’t keep up. Organizations embracing automation and empowering testers to act as quality advocates — not just bug finders — are the ones thriving in this new landscape.

This isn’t just a shift in tools or techniques; it’s a complete redefinition of what it means to build quality software.

In the coming weeks, I’ll share stories from the trenches — exploring businesses I’ve worked at, contracted with, or even interviewed at, and the wildly different ways they’ve approached QA. Expect war stories about testing gone wrong (and right), insights into what sets forward-thinking organizations apart, and reflections on where I believe the industry is headed.

I’ll also offer recommendations for anyone considering a career in QA today: what skills matter, what pitfalls to avoid, and how to thrive in an industry that’s changing faster than ever.

Stay tuned — because whether you’re an experienced tester, an aspiring QA engineer, or a curious developer, the future of testing is something we all have a stake in.