I work for a small company that has had a product development department for quite a while. What we haven't had, however, is a QA/testing group.We are looking to add a testing group, but are struggling to determine where best to put them in the organizational structure of the company. Specifically, we are going to hire a lead tester position. Should they be put in as part of the product development department, or should they be a new department? Should they be somewhere else?Our company is roughly structured as follows:CEOCTODirector Product DevelopmentDirector Customer CareDevelopersVP OperationsNetwork engineersSales/sales engineersPresidentController
Should QA be part of the development department?
testing;organization;qa
Yes and no :)Both developers and QA people should have the same goal (and their performance measured against that): deliver a quality product in time and on budget. You get to define quality product, but it has to be the same for both groups. Why? Because if it isn't the same, you will get two groups with different agendas and that can quickly deteriorate into a situation that is to the detriment of the product/company.QA should work (very) closely together with the developers and vice versa, but both should be totally independent of the other in their decision making. They are, after all, responsible for totally different aspects of product developmentThe way we have set it up is that Product Development is a virtual department realized by two concrete departments: QA and Development. Both report to the same member of the management team: the CTO. This ensures that there is a single person responsible for the product (our CTO) and that both QA and Development are independent of each other.