Author: Emily Arnott # How SRE Will Transform the Role of QA Engineers - DZone DevOps [Readwise URL](https://readwise.io/bookreview/9160840) | [Source URL](https://www.blameless.com/blog/how-sre-will-transform-qa) ---  --- SRE removes silos from QA expertise, better aligning QA and engineering teams. Also, better prioritization and automation reduces the amount of toil QA teams face. ^181044767 **References:** https://instapaper.com/read/1413030622/16420460 --- > In his book Implementing Service Level Objectives, Alex Hidalgo explains how SLO implementation can affect QA. He describes six stages that we've summarized here: > \ > \ > The engineers hear they have free reign, as long as they stay within the error budget. They start to skip the QA team's processes. > Now that their deployment has been sped up, engineers deploy too much code too quickly > The error budget is exhausted before they know it. The error budget policy is triggered, perhaps including a code freeze. > The engineers refocus their efforts on improving the deployment process. This can involve better monitoring, automating rollbacks, slowing down rollouts, setting up canaries. > The code freeze is lifted and deploying resumes. Sometimes the backlog of deployments wipes out the error budget again immediately. Other times deployment improvements will slow the burn rate. Engineers look for a way to break the cycle. > The engineers return to the old QA functions. Things like presubmit tests, dry runs, and traffic replay are added to the deployment cycle again. Working with the QA team, they rebuild a library of useful QA steps. ^181044768 **References:** https://instapaper.com/read/1413030622/16420462 --- SRE teaches us that failure is inevitable. ^181044769 **References:** https://instapaper.com/read/1413030622/16420463 --- As you adopt SRE best practices, the actual function of testing is often adopted by the engineering team. QA then becomes responsible for the overall design and direction of testing. By using SLOs and SLIs, the goals of development and QA become more aligned and tests become more efficient. ^181044770 **References:** https://instapaper.com/read/1413030622/16420466 --- Another way that SRE reduces the toil of QA is through automation. The SRE mentality is to automate wherever possible. ^181044771 **References:** https://instapaper.com/read/1413030622/16420467 --- QA testing can also be formatted as a runbook or playbook. ^181044772 **References:** https://instapaper.com/read/1413030622/16420474 --- > QA skills and experience will be even more important. > \ > Instead of executing tests in a silo, QA engineers will become involved in designing and directing testing through development. > They'll be empowered to communicate how engineers should implement testing in their processes. > In developing policy around error budgets, they'll come to the table with unique and valuable perspectives. > By drawing on their experience of discovering bugs, they'll be able to anticipate and build strategies to prevent potential sources of error budget depletion. ^181044773 **References:** https://instapaper.com/read/1413030622/16420484 --- Amy Tobey echoes this sentiment in a panel with Blameless. She suggests that SRE can "uplift" traditional QA teams by empowering them in "owning and nurturing the test spectrum, but extending that all the way out into production." ^181044774 **References:** https://instapaper.com/read/1413030622/16420488 --- The cultural lessons of SRE are centered around empathy and blamelessness. Instead of blaming individuals, incidents are viewed as opportunities, and people are encouraged to collaborate in addressing socio-technical challenges and improving resilience. ^181044775 **References:** https://instapaper.com/read/1413030622/16420491 --- ## Citation ``` [^arnott]: Arnott, E. (2021). _QA engineers, this is how SRE will transform your role_. Blameless. Retrieved from https://www.blameless.com/sre/how-sre-will-transform-qa . [[How SRE Will Transform the Role of QA Engineers - DZone DevOps|My highlights]].