Steve Upton
The Affordances of Quality
#1about 5 minutes
Understanding affordances through everyday object design
The concept of affordances, which determine what actions are easy, is introduced using examples like well-designed doors and messy desks.
#2about 3 minutes
Removing the QA column from your workflow board
A dedicated QA column on a task board acts as a bad affordance, making it too easy to defer quality concerns instead of building them in.
#3about 5 minutes
Why a testable system is a well-designed system
Making testability a first-class design concern leads to systems that are modular, observable, and simple, which are also hallmarks of good design.
#4about 6 minutes
Using continuous delivery to enable business agility
Continuous delivery transforms releases from a complex, technical bottleneck into a simple, repeatable business decision.
#5about 3 minutes
How frequent releases increase both speed and safety
Releasing software frequently makes the process practiced and reliable, demonstrating that speed and safety are complementary, not contradictory.
#6about 2 minutes
The evolution of QA from gatekeeper to enabler
The modern QA role shifts from being an adversarial gatekeeper to a collaborative enabler who helps teams build affordances for quality into their process.
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