{"id":282,"date":"2018-01-11T23:07:57","date_gmt":"2018-01-11T23:07:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rainforestqa.com\/2018-01-11-what-growing-teams-can-learn-about-qa-from-how-google-tests-software\/"},"modified":"2025-03-18T13:22:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T13:22:19","slug":"2018-01-11-what-growing-teams-can-learn-about-qa-from-how-google-tests-software","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/2018-01-11-what-growing-teams-can-learn-about-qa-from-how-google-tests-software","title":{"rendered":"What you can learn from how Google tests software"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When your organization has over 2 billion lines of code and 25,000 engineers, how do you keep quality high?<\/p>\n<p>As Google has grown, they\u2019ve had to create a QA strategy that keeps up with the demands of an organization with a huge number of moving pieces to keep track of &#8212; from collaborative teams across the world to a shifting landscape of new features and products &#8212; while enabling their team to continue innovating across the board. They\u2019ve managed to do so with a relatively small number of dedicated testers for an org of their size.<\/p>\n<p>Want to learn some lessons from Google\u2019s QA at scale? We dove into the archives of the <a href=\"https:\/\/testing.googleblog.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Testing Blog<\/a> to discover how other growing teams can learn from the way Google approaches software testing.<\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_82_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/2018-01-11-what-growing-teams-can-learn-about-qa-from-how-google-tests-software\/#Think_Small_and_Fast\" >Think Small and Fast<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/2018-01-11-what-growing-teams-can-learn-about-qa-from-how-google-tests-software\/#Software_Testing_is_a_Focus_Not_a_Team\" >Software Testing is a Focus, Not a Team<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/2018-01-11-what-growing-teams-can-learn-about-qa-from-how-google-tests-software\/#Communicate_Effectively\" >Communicate Effectively<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/2018-01-11-what-growing-teams-can-learn-about-qa-from-how-google-tests-software\/#%E2%80%9CTesting_on_the_Toilet%E2%80%9D_Foster_a_Culture_of_Quality_Ownership\" >&#8220;Testing on the Toilet&#8221;: Foster a Culture of Quality Ownership<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/2018-01-11-what-growing-teams-can-learn-about-qa-from-how-google-tests-software\/#Finding_the_Software_Testing_Strategy_to_Help_You_Scale\" >Finding the Software Testing Strategy to Help You Scale<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Think_Small_and_Fast\"><\/span>Think Small and Fast<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Just because Google is big organization doesn\u2019t mean that everything they do is big &#8212; when it comes to testing, Google favors <a href=\"https:\/\/testing.googleblog.com\/2011\/03\/how-google-tests-software-part-four.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">small, frequent releases<\/a> and small, concise tests. This incremental approach allows them to better control changes to the user experience over time and pinpoint issues efficiently. As a result, they invest heavily in unit and integration testing and <a href=\"https:\/\/testing.googleblog.com\/2015\/04\/just-say-no-to-more-end-to-end-tests.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">use end-to-end testing more sparingly<\/a>. In general, Googlers are encouraged to look for ways to <a href=\"https:\/\/testing.googleblog.com\/2016\/11\/hackable-projects-pillar-3.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">speed up testing cycles and minimize test failures<\/a> to ensure that the team\u2019s QA process is as efficient as possible.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Software_Testing_is_a_Focus_Not_a_Team\"><\/span>Software Testing is a Focus, Not a Team<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As Google\u2019s team grew, software engineers building and testing their own didn\u2019t scale. Instead of rolling out a more traditional testing team, Google started creating <a href=\"https:\/\/testing.googleblog.com\/2016\/03\/from-qa-to-engineering-productivity.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">specialized engineering roles<\/a> to help boost the organization\u2019s QA bandwidth holistically.<\/p>\n<p>Now there are several engineering roles within the \u201ctesting\u201d focus to solve different quality problems: Software Engineers, who write test code; Software Engineers in Test, who focus on testability and refactor code to make it more testable; and Test Engineers, who organize overall test strategies and write automation scripts.<\/p>\n<p>But despite these specialized roles, there&#8217;s no &#8220;over the wall&#8221; QA process. \u201cAt Google it&#8217;s the product teams that own quality, not testers. Every developer is expected to do their own testing. The job of the tester is to make sure they have the automation infrastructure and enabling processes that support this self reliance. Testers enable developers to test,\u201d wrote James Whitaker in his series on <a href=\"https:\/\/testing.googleblog.com\/2011\/01\/how-google-tests-software.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">How Google Tests Software<\/a><\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Communicate_Effectively\"><\/span>Communicate Effectively<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Part of making this developer-owned testing approach work at scale is to prioritize communication channels. Engineers who focus on testing aren\u2019t siloed in their own areas of Google\u2019s offices, but are <a href=\"https:\/\/testing.googleblog.com\/2013\/12\/the-google-test-and-development.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">integrated with the rest of the engineering team<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Google also puts an emphasis on communicating product quality internally to increase ownership and spur the team to focus on quality every day. For example, Google has internally published data about code coverage helped increase adoption of best practices.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe feedback from our fellow engineers was overwhelmingly positive. The most loved feature was surfacing the coverage information during code review time. This early surfacing of coverage had a statistically significant impact: our initial analysis suggests that it increased coverage by 10% (averaged across all commits),\u201d wrote Marko Ivankovi\u0107 in a post on <a href=\"https:\/\/testing.googleblog.com\/2014\/07\/measuring-coverage-at-google.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">measuring coverage at Google<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CTesting_on_the_Toilet%E2%80%9D_Foster_a_Culture_of_Quality_Ownership\"><\/span>&#8220;Testing on the Toilet&#8221;: Foster a Culture of Quality Ownership<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Perhaps the most eccentric QA practice at Google is the long-running tradition of posting fliers &#8212; featuring a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2006\/10\/20\/AR2006102001461.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cquiz that changes every few weeks and asks technical questions about testing programming code for bugs\u201d<\/a> &#8212; on the walls of bathroom stalls at HQ. This practice, dubbed <a href=\"https:\/\/testing.googleblog.com\/2007\/01\/introducing-testing-on-toilet.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cTesting on the Toilet\u201d<\/a>, helps keep software testing best practices at top-of-mind for the team as they go about their day. While this quirk isn\u2019t quite a pillar of Google\u2019s QA strategy, it does signal something important about the way the org thinks about quality ownership and best practices.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Finding_the_Software_Testing_Strategy_to_Help_You_Scale\"><\/span>Finding the Software Testing Strategy to Help You Scale<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Whether they\u2019re large enterprises or small startups, every organization must find an approach to quality that will fit their team\u2019s values and workflow. Finding successful role models for everything from how your team communicates about quality to the tools and platforms they use to get the job done can help you rethink your approach to QA and start seeing results!<\/p>\n<p>Want to read more about QA innovators? Learn how growing teams like SolarWinds are using Rainforest at scale.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We dove into the archives of the Google Testing Blog to discover how other growing teams can learn from how Google approaches software testing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-qa-strategy"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3097,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/3097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rainforestqa.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}