Embracing Quality Engineering in the Digital Transformation Journey
- Tigran M.
- Jan 4, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 6, 2025
One of the most overlooked aspects of digital transformation is how quality is managed. Many organizations still treat quality as a gate at the end of delivery rather than a discipline that shapes it from the start. This is where the shift from Quality Assurance (QA) to Quality Engineering (QE) becomes essential, not as a cost-saving measure but as a strategic investment in agility and reliability.
In one transformation I supported, leadership viewed QE primarily as a way to reduce headcount in testing. The assumption was that quality could simply be distributed across Agile teams. What we found instead was that without redefined roles, stronger collaboration models, and embedded automation, defects increased and velocity dropped. We restructured QE as a shared capability that paired dedicated quality engineers with developers and DevOps, integrating quality gates into CI/CD pipelines. Within two release cycles, defect leakage dropped by more than 30 percent and delivery predictability improved significantly.
QE is not about eliminating QA; it is about evolving it. Traditional QA functions focused on verification. QE shifts that focus to prevention, embedding test design, automation, and observability directly into the development process. It enables faster feedback loops, earlier risk detection, and measurable improvements in resilience and customer experience.
The misconception that QE is a budget optimization move undermines its purpose. Done right, QE accelerates delivery and strengthens accountability across teams. Done poorly, it fragments ownership and increases risk. The difference lies in leadership: aligning culture, structure, and tooling so that quality becomes a system property, not an afterthought.
In digital transformation, agility without quality is not progress; it is just motion. Quality Engineering ensures that speed and confidence scale together.
Comments