A phrase we often hear within delivery teams is, “This needs to get into production.” Speed has become the marker of success. Agile, DevOps, and continuous delivery pipelines are all designed to help teams move faster, release sooner, and learn quicker.
Yet, for all the focus on fast feedback loops, quality assurance (QA) too often lags. It can be treated as something to “fit in” rather than a practice that shapes how we deliver. If QA does not evolve with delivery methods, it becomes the bottleneck that no one wants to acknowledge.
Over the last few years, across several programs, one theme has appeared time and again: achieving quality at speed is entirely possible. However, it requires QA to stop acting like a final check and start functioning as an integrated capability from the very beginning.
Continuous Integration Needs Continuous Validation
Continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) only work if every code commit is treated as potentially releasable. This means the feedback loop cannot rely on someone checking screenshots or manually walking through flows at the end of a sprint.
Teams need lightweight, automated checks running constantly in the background. The process doesn’t need to be perfect, but it must be consistent. The goal isn’t to automate everything; it’s to give developers rapid signals when something breaks.
There is a misconception that mature QA means everything is automated. Anyone who has managed large test estates knows this is not practical. A significant part of the strategy is deciding what not to automate.
Automation should focus on:
- Stable, high-value user paths
- Repetitive functional checks
- Common integration flows
- Environments where manual testing would slow down releases
Chasing 100% automation coverage drains time and resources. Getting the right 80% automated is where teams see genuine acceleration.
QA Engineers Must Sit with the Product Team
This is the one behaviour that separates high-performing teams from the rest. If QA is still a separate team “waiting for handover”, the battle is already lost.
Embed testers beside developers. Let them take part in refinement sessions. Give them access to design decisions. The earlier QA gets involved, the fewer defects emerge later, and the less pressure there is at the end of a sprint. When testers understand the intent behind a requirement, not just the requirement itself, the quality bar naturally rises.
Risk-Based Testing Keeps Teams Honest
When delivery velocity increases, the only sustainable approach is to test the things that matter most, not test everything equally. Risk-based testing forces teams to make conscious choices about what to prioritise based on factors like:
- Business-critical functions
- Technically fragile components
- Customer-visible features
- What would genuinely cause harm if it failed
This approach can be uncomfortable because it demands clear prioritisation. However, it is the only way for quality to keep pace without causing burnout.
Automation is Fast; Human Judgment Creates Confidence
Despite all the available tooling, you still need testers who can spot the things automation will miss. This includes ambiguous user flows, confusing UX, and edge cases that customers will find instantly but developers might overlook.
Automation provides speed. People provide confidence. The objective is to achieve speed with confidence, not just speed for its own sake.
In the End
Poor QA slows delivery down; effective QA does not.
The organisations that get this right are the ones who treat quality as a first-class discipline. It should be embedded early, supported by smart automation, and guided by risk.
When teams shift their mindset from “testing at the end” to “quality throughout,” they will realise an important truth: the goal is not just speed, but speed with confidence.
We work with organisations that want to strengthen their delivery models without slowing the business down. If you would like to explore how a modern assurance model could support your goals, we would be happy to start that conversation.
