Engineering UnZipped: Q&A with Nitin

Meet Nitin, who's leading Zip's charge to introduce a new, innovative approach to Quality Engineering focused on coaching and levelling up our Engineers' capabilities.

Nitin tell us about yourself, how long you’ve been with Zip and a little bit about your background and previous career

Yep, so I joined Zip around 6 months ago and it’s been great so far. I have met and worked with so many amazing people. I have been into Quality Engineering for more than 15 years now and I have seen huge transformation in the way organisations are tackling software quality. Prior to Zip, I was with Amazon in Seattle, USA.

Zip has adopted an innovative approach to Quality Engineering which is uncommon in the Australian market. Can you tell us a little bit more about it, and explain how our approach differs from conventional processes?

Basically there are three terms that people often use interchangeably: testing, quality assurance and quality engineering, but they all have different meanings. Quality engineering is more about creating systems and processes that inject quality into every stage of the software development life cycle. In a conventional approach, testing comes at the very end of the cycle, with the tester’s work often seen as the final ‘gate keeper’ before the product reaches customers.

At Zip, what we are looking to achieve is the shift to empower each Engineering team with the right tools, processes and coaching so that the whole team ‘owns’ quality, not just the QAs. With this approach, quality is top of mind for Engineers from the start and as soon as the requirements are defined, not simply as an afterthought.

What are some of the benefits that you, the team and the wider organisation will experience from this new approach?

There are many benefits of this approach. First and foremost is that it democratises quality, and makes the development more effective. Secondly as is often the case, QA no longer becomes a bottleneck to the release process as quality sits with the end-to-end team.

And finally, the work of the Quality Coach helps the teams to refine, define, measure and visualise quality dimensions resulting in a more effective process and a better product.

How will giving access to QE Coaches help elevate the capabilities of Engineers at Zip?

The reason this may be an attractive proposition for Engineers at Zip is that they get to take full ownership of their work, and they are guided by Quality Coaches coaches in order to deliver work of a higher quality. We believe this adds an important and interesting new dimension to the way Engineers think and operate. Since they have the accountability to test their own work, they start thinking about it from very early in the cycle, ask more of the right questions and in the end deliver a higher quality product to the customer. It instils in Engineers a form of ‘quality mindset’, which is a great skill to possess for any Engineer. Beyond that, Engineers don’t just support testing and test automation, they are responsible for it. It means they have a great opportunity to broaden their skillset which in turn drives their own career development and opportunities for the future.

What one thing that people outside of the organisation may not know about Zip that makes you excited about your future here?

What stands out the most to me is that people here are just amazing. Zipsters genuinely care for you. When you’re having a bad day, there are people who will come and ask you ‘Is everything alright? Can I help you?’. It’s great to be a part of a team that’s supportive and excellent at what they do.