Quality Intelligence: Embedding the Customer Voice to Drive Excellence
Quality is more than just a gate for software engineers, testers, and Agile teams - it's a direct line to customer success. Yet many Agile quality practices still focus on defect detection rather than leveraging Quality Intelligence (QI) to drive a customer-centric focus on quality, continuous improvement, and business differentiation.
This paper explores ways functional experts - QA engineers, test automation specialists, Agile testers, developers, Agile leaders, and more can partner to:
- Integrate the Voice of the Customer (VoC) into Agile Quality Practices - Incorporate real-time customer feedback, support data, and user analytics into testing and development pipelines.
- Leverage Quality Intelligence for Proactive Decision-Making - Use data-driven insights, automation, and AI to detect patterns, predict defects, and improve user experience.
- Drive Continuous Improvement through Agile Testing - Establish feedback loops that align quality efforts with evolving customer expectations and business goals.
- Bridge the Gap Between Development and Business Teams - Translate quality insights into product strategy, ensuring teams build the right things, not just the right things.
Through real-world examples and actionable takeaways, this paper provides a playbook for transforming Agile testing and the quality organization into a competitive differentiator - where quality is assured and engineered for customer impact.
Paper | Presentation
Kristine O'Connor
Kristine O'Connor spent several years in the United States Navy before entering the software industry in 1998. Starting her journey at the help desk for a hotel software company, she quickly moved into software testing, finding a home for her process-driven thought process, customer-centric mindset, and knack for tools. For over 18 years, Kristine has filled various software quality roles, from manual software testing to a Sr. QA Project Manager and Agile and DevOps practitioner in a Fortune 4 organization. In 2018, she dipped her toes in the coaching water and transitioned into the role of certified Agile Coach (ICC-ACP), ultimately achieving her Scaled Agile Practice Consultant (SPC). Kristine has supported organizations such as Aetna, CVS Health, Bank of America, Northrop Grumman, NASA, and more.
Kristine is a Sr. Agile Transformation Consultant with Agile Rising, where she works as a Coach, mentor, Agility Health facilitator, and SPC, helping people, teams, programs, and organizations adopt Agile and Scaled Agile practices and processes. Her passion is enriching the mindset and practices needed to transform into a learning organization and empowering the functional tester in a mindful and intentional way.