# Anne-Marie Charrett 
> I write and work with tech and product leaders on the quality and organisational problems that stall good teams. Three decades in engineering
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).

## Pages
- [What I do](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/aboutme.md) - Quality problems are rarely just testing problems. They're system problems — in how teams are structured, how decisions get made, and how organisations change. I work with people who are trying to improve quality in systems they don't fully control.
- [Advanced User Settings](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/advanced-settings.md)
- [archive](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/archive.md)
- [Talks & Articles](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/articles_and_talks_on_software_testing.md) - An out of date page which I intend to clean up, just not today.... CoachingTesters Talk at Lets Test Stockholm May 2012. Here are some photos by @ru_altom [http://twitter.com/ru_altom/status/201892673450287105/photo/1/large] & @DuncNisbet [https://twitter.com/#!/DuncNisbet/status/199869512949055488…
- [Buy a Group Subscription](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/buy-group-subscription.md)
- [Buy the Quality Coach book](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/buy-the-quality-coach-book.md) - Quality Coach Book Buy in paperback
- [Dictator or Liberator](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/dictator-or-liberator.md)
- [Quality Coach FAQ](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/faq.md) - Frequently asked questions from readers.
- [Give a Gift Subscription](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/gift-subscription.md)
- [Group Subscriptions](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/group-subscriptions.md)
- [Guest Writers](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/guest-writers.md)
- [How I Use AI in My Writing](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/how-i-use-ai-in-my-writing.md)
- [Pricing](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/pricing-quality-coach-book.md) - Elevate your software testing skills to a new level with my quality coach book
- [Privacy Policy](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/privacy-policy.md) - **Last Updated:** November 2, 2025
- [Quality Coach Researcher](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-coach-researcher.md) - How Your Data is Used & Protected
- [terms of service](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/terms-of-service.md) - Terms of Service Last Updated: November 2, 2025 Welcome! This site is run by AMH Solutions Pty Ltd in Sydney, Australia. The Basics By using this site, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree, please don't use the site. What We Offer Free Content - Available to everyone Paid Subscriptions - Mo…
- [Testimonials](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/testimonials.md) - Like the quality coach book? Why not give a testimonial!
- [Tip Jar](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/tip-jar.md)
- [Welcome to the Quality Coach Newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/welcome-to-the-quality-coach-book-2.md)
- [Welcome to the Quality Coach Book](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/welcome-to-the-quality-coach-book.md)

## Posts
- [From Bulldozer to Scalpel](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/from-bulldozer-to-scalpel.md) - Arguing that metrics are poor measures wins the argument, rarely the money
- [Mine the Gaps](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/mine-the-gaps.md) - Don't mind the gaps — mine them.
- [Resilience is dead, long live antifragility](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/by.md) - Your guardrails guard the map. Who's watching the terrain?
- [Code reviews: what are they good for?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/code-reviews-what-are-they-good-for.md) - Before you outsource code reviews to an agent, ask what they're really for. You could be losing hidden work.
- [What the Dashboard won't tell you](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/what-the-dashboard-wont-tell-you.md) - Confidence is a visibility problem. Load is something else. Both matter, and collapsing them costs the one happening to people
- [Stop Measuring Fast. Start Measuring Better](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/stop-measuring-fast-start-measuring-better.md) - AI is moving PR throughput. But throughput isn't the whole story. When the bottleneck moves, the pressure shows up somewhere else. Measure better, not faster.
- [The Split We Agreed to Pay For](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-was-always-one-job.md) - How building a quality chatbot taught me that discovery and testing were never separate disciplines
- [Everyone owns quality. Nobody knows what that means](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/everyone-owns-quality-nobody-knows-what-that-means.md) - When organisations cut QA headcount, they redistribute the work without redistributing the definition — and most of the time, nobody notices until production does.
- [Contract Testing Isn't the Hard Part](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/contract-testing-isnt-the-hard-part.md) - Product teams mostly know the value of contract testing. The hard part is implementation. Where do they start? A reusable AI playbook — built on risk reasoning — can give them that starting point in minutes.
- [QC newsletter 41: I've been writing. Just not sending](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/qc-newsletter-41-ive-been-writing-just-not-sending.md) - A round-up of quality coach articles, events and articles from the quality coach book and community.
- [Not technical enough: Really?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/not-technical-enough-really.md) - Meet my shadow. Her name is "Not technical enough" and she's been walking beside me for all of my working career. It doesn't matter that I studied engineering at university It doesn't matter that I learnt to program in my first role It doesn't matter that I can comfortably analyse systems and ident…
- [Staying Sane in a Post Modern Tech world](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/staying-sane-in-a-post-modern-tech-world.md) - Before I start, I want to be clear. 2025 was an awesome year. I got to attend some incredible conferences such as Yow!, Agile Testing Days, Testing Talks. Plus, I got to attend a Kent Beck workshop kindly hosted by my work. I co-led a tutorial with Fiona Charles on expecting to lead quality which w…
- [My Genie Got It Wrong: Evaluating LLMs for a RAG Chatbot](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/my-genie-got-it-wrong-evaluating-llms-for-a-rag-chatbot.md) - How do you choose the right LLM for a RAG chatbot? I compared Llama 70B, 405B, and GPT-4 across 100 iterations. The AI agent's recommendation was wrong.
- [Quality Coach newsletter #39](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-39.md) - A round-up of quality coach articles, events and articles from the quality coach book and community.
- [Introducing the Quality Coach Researcher](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/introducing-the-quality-coach-researcher.md) - I wrote The Quality Coach's Handbook as a practical guide, something you can pick up for an answer when a question at work arises. Now I wonder if a chatbot could supplement the book by quickly locating relevant content? I decided to build the Quality Coach Researcher, an augmented service trained…
- [The girl in the purple jeans](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/the-girl-in-the-purple-jeans.md) - The girl in the purple jeans plucks at her embroidered threads. The sun shines on her face, blessing her. She plucks a flower and twirls it between her fingers. How can she know that in that moment, she’s to become a symbol of a time when no fear exists, only hope She doesn’t know the force that sh…
- [Have Your Slice and Eat It: Boost Quality with Vertical Story Slicing](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/have-your-slice-and-eat-it-boost-quality-with-vertical-story-slicing.md) - How product features are sliced into smaller work items has a big impact on quality. Slice your epics well, and quality will follow.
- [There are no bad testers only bad systems](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/there-are-no-bad-testers-only-bad-systems.md) - Avoid labelling people as good or bad testers, focus on how to improve the system
- [Quality Coach newsletter #39](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-38-2.md) - Monthly newsletter by Anne-Marie Charrett on all things quality.
- [Why Software Teams Need Speed Limits](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/why-software-teams-need-speed-limits.md) - Reducing the speed limit before a known bottleneck allows traffic to flow smoothly. While we feel we're going slower, we actually get to our destination faster. The same principles apply in software engineering.
- [Quality Coach newsletter #38](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-38.md) - The Quality Coach's Handbook Course is now available. New post on change in enterprise plus some great discounts for Agile Testing Days 🙌
- [Building Momentum for change in Enterprise](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/building-momentum-for-change-in-enterprise.md) - Driving change in Enterprise requires relationship building and thoughtful communication.
- [Quality Coach newsletter #37](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-37.md) - The Quality Coach's Handbook in paperback and hardback is now available on Amazon. Get a discount code for the ebook version. For reviewers, there's an even better offer! Plus, there is content from around the community and some upcoming events. 🙌
- [Quality, Critical Thinking and Risk in Modern Engineering](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-critical-thinking-and-risk-in-modern-engineering.md) - Rethinking how we think about quality in discovery, delivery, and service operations can help us to better understand the nature of risk and where to apply our critical thinking skills.
- [How to write a book](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/how-to-write-a-book.md) - It took me ten years to write my book. I learned few lessons on the way.
- [Be the spark](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/be-the-spark.md) - I am wood wanting to be fire.
- [Laying the Foundation for Quality Software](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/laying-the-foundation-for-quality-software.md) - At the core of delivering quality software lies a learning mindset—one that must permeate every level of the engineering organization. But what exactly does that mean?
- [🕵️‍♀️ Quality Coach newsletter #35](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-35.md) - A round-up of quality coach articles, events and articles from the quality coach book and community. Please share!
- [Exploratory Testing with a Team](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/exploratory-testing-with-a-team.md) - Holding an exploratory testing session is a fun way to encourage teams to think from a customer perspective.
- [Quality Coach newsletter #34](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-34.md) - A round-up of quality coach articles, events and articles from the quality coach book and community.
- [Using AI in Quality Coaching](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/using-ai-in-quality-coaching.md) - Many teams are keen to explore how AI can help them in improve test coverage or reduce the time required for testing.
- [Create a Team Test Automation Strategy](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/create-a-team-test-automation-strategy.md) - You don't have to be an expert in test automation to facilitate a team test automation strategy. Here's a fun workshop you can run with any team.
- [Togetherness](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/togetherness.md) - My little one. Do not be afraid. The morning is upon us and the dawn sheds a new light. You are loved. I am with you and will hold your hand as we walk through the shadows. I cannot go where you have been. That door is closed leaving whispers of darkness and sadness. But I will walk with you today.…
- [📖 Quality Coach newsletter #32](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-32.md) - A round-up of quality coach articles, events and articles from the quality coach book and community. Please share!
- [Building Cross-Functional expertise in a team](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/building-cross-functional-expertise-in-a-team.md) - Product teams often overlook cross-functional requirements. Here's one way to help them consider those quality attributes.
- [Be this tall to do Quality Assistance](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/be-this-tall-to-do-quality-assistance.md) - Just like any fairground ride, I recommend having these systems in place before you consider quality assistance
- [📖 Quality Coach newsletter #31](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-31.md) - A round-up of quality coach articles, events and articles from the quality coach book and community. Please share!
- [Quality Coach Team Operating Model](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-coach-team-operating-model.md) - The hub and spoke model is an effective org structure for a quality coach enabling team
- [📖 Quality Coach newsletter #30](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-30.md) - A round-up of quality coach articles, events and articles from the quality coach book and community
- [Is Your Quality Ecosystem Thriving?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/are-you-nurturing-the-seeds-of-quality-2.md) - If you cant measure something, you cant improve it - Peter Drucker
- [Value](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/value.md) - When we take on a job, we're entering a contract to deliver some value and its wise to demonstrate your commitment to that contract. Just don't tie it to your self worth and the need for recognition.
- [Recognition](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/recognition.md) - Just because you do an amazing job and you show value doesn't mean you will be adequately recognised. You cannot control being recognised. You can control what brings you joy in the day.
- [Quality Coach newsletter #29](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-29.md) - A round-up of quality coach articles, events and articles from the quality coach book and community
- [The secret ingredient is joy](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/the-secret-ingredient-is-joy.md) - Let joy be the reason you want to demonstrate value, anything less is a shallow win.
- [Be like mist](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/be-like-mist.md) - When your role is an influencing one, with little direct control, focus on seeding ideas and providing options, less on making obvious impact
- [Experiments in Quality Coaching](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/experiments-in-quality-coaching.md) - Use the concept of experiments to encourage product teams to try new approaches, tools and ways of working
- [💃Quality Coach newsletter #28](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-28.md) - A round up of quality coach articles, events and articles from the quality coach book
- [Decoding the Dance: Customer Value Meets Quality](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/decoding-the-dance-customer-value-meets-quality.md) - I suggest we begin exploring different ways to think about quality. Let's take a step back and critique our existing assumptions on quality. If we question what we accept as truth in testing, we may begin to identify new ways of achieving quality products that our customers really value.
- [💰Quality Coach newsletter #27](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-27.md) - 💰The cost of change Framing change in the language of business can be an effective way to communicate strategy to business stakeholders and senior management. And there's nothing like talking money to get their attention. Boehm knew this and used this language in the 1980s when he explored the cos…
- [Cost of Change in SaaS](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/cost-of-change-in-saas.md) - Boehm's cost of change model has changed over the years. This article looks at the cost of change in SaaS and how it has changed the curve once again.
- [🔭 Quality Coach newsletter #26](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-26.md) - 🔭 Tails don't wag dogs do Knowing what you can and can't control helps manage expectations. Over time, you can look for ways to incorporate some of these factors into your circle of influence. This article includes a download to help you determine what you can and can't control with your work. Thi…
- [Tails don't wag, dogs do](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/tails-dont-wag-dogs-do.md) - Knowing what you can and can't control helps manage expectations. Over time, you can look for ways to incorporate some of these factors into your circle of influence.
- [🔭 Quality Coach newsletter #25](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-25.md) - 🔭 3 Lens Quality Assitance Model The three-lens quality assistance model encourages you to consider the role of a quality coach in the context of your existing product engineering constructs. How will a quality coach impact these teams and the organisation? How will people need to think differentl…
- [3 Lens Quality Assistance Model](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/3-lens-quality-assistance-model.md) - What to consider when transitioning to a quality assistance model
- [📚Can you help me finish this book? QCN # 24](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-24.md) - Product Excellence Are you tired of convincing Product Managers to take extra time to build quality? Would you rather your role focus on the relationship between product and customer instead of user story and assert? Take a look at my Product Excellence framework. It takes a holistic view of qualit…
- [Publishing the online Quality Coach Book](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/publishing-the-online-quality-coach-book.md) - It's hard to believe I posted about writing an online quality coach book two and a half years ago. It's been a fascinating exercise in self-discipline. I've watched my membership grow from a few to almost 1000 subscribers. The book's content has swelled to forty posts. Themes such as concepts, work…
- [Product Excellence - Continuous Quality from Discovery to Support](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/product-excellence-continuous-quality-from-discovery-to-support.md) - Overview Introducing Product Excellence, a new framework that creates a single view of quality across discovery and delivery. Delivering small batches of customer value in isolation comes with a cost. As a strategy for risk reduction, it wins hands down. It can come up short as a strategy for deliv…
- [Glints in Leadership](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/glints-in-leadership.md) - I talk quite a bit about leadership as creating spaces where people can thrive and grow. It suits my leadership style to lead in such a way. I get to amplify my strengths and work in a way that rewards me. It's a beautiful experience to see people back their ideas and abilities and venture into som…
- [Quality Coach Newsletter 23](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-23.md) - Motivation as a Quality Coach Moving to a quality coach role can be slightly confronting if you've typically worked within a single team. There's a certain amount of confidence required to jump into a new context who, for whatever reason, may be reluctant to include you in their work. How do you qu…
- [Follow the Energy](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/follow-the-energy.md) - Motivating a team when you're not on the team is tricky business. You could be expected to conduct a workshop to identify a quality strategy. Yet, you might not have all the context available to know what risks exist and why obstacles exist. What you call quality activities, they might hear 'extra…
- [Sing your voice](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/voice.md) - We all have a voice and a song. Sometimes, the song beats loud in our hearts, and sometimes, it's so quiet that you must stop everything else to listen. It's your song. Only you can sing it. No one can sing your song like you do. Sometimes, you might think you don't have a song. You do. There are t…
- [The Extraordinary in the Ordinary](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/the-extraordinary-in-the-ordinary.md) - Recently, I’ve heard references to mediocrity in software testing. Statements like “Tolerance of mediocrity has done massive damage to our testing field". There’s an implicit judgment in this statement. In that word mediocre, there’s a suggestion that many in the software engineering field are some…
- [Agency is ours to keep](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/agency-is-ours-to-keep.md) - In software testing, an activity that provides information on the state of quality, we're often in a position where we say "If only". If only we could get developers to do better unit testing if only the requirements were more complete. If only people kept us informed about changes. But by wishing…
- [🍾 HYN Quality Coach Newsletter 22](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-22.md) - Tester or Quality Coach? The provocative title of this month's post is "Should my company ditch testers and use Quality Coaches instead?" It's that unspoken question that CEOs and testers want to ask. After all, if a CEO can get quality at half the cost, why wouldn't they explore the model? And of…
- [Should my company ditch Testers and use Quality Coaches instead?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-coaching.md) - TL;DR: Quality coaching is a model you grow into, not adopt. That's because testing is an acquired skill, and teams must learn how to test. Pairing is an optimal way to learn about testing. As teams learn about risks, test design, and exploratory testing, they can preempt risk and build quality int…
- [Quality Coach Newsletter 21](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-21.md) - This month's guest writer, Allison Lazarz explains how a story impact checklist can help us improve quality. Story Impact Checklists in Sprint Planning Alison's article shows us how we can improve product quality early in sprint planning by adopting a checklist to prompt thinking on testing. I enjo…
- [Improve Your Sprint Planning with the Story Impact Checklist](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/improve-your-sprint-planning-with-the-story-impact-checklist.md) - By Allison Lazarz, Software Test Engineer at Cox Automotive (allison.lazarz@coxautoinc.com) We’ve probably all been in situations where we’ve looked back at our 2-week sprint cycle and thought, “how did our team forget [fill in the blank]?” How did we forget we’d have a dependency on another team?…
- [Move at the speed of trust](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/move-at-the-speed-of-trust.md) - "Move at the speed of trust. Focus on critical connections more than critical mass—build the resilience by building the relationships." - Adrienne Maree Brown What is trust? Trust, according to my go-to source of truth, The Thin Book of Trust by Charles Feltman, is built on four elements: * sinceri…
- [Quality Coach Newsletter 20](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-20.md) - Gap Analysis in DevOps Gap Analysis in Devops is this month's article written by Katya Obring where she talks about the value a quality coach can generate by "mining" the gap. She gives tips to get started, the importance of feedback and aligning with organisational values. Well worth a read. Thank…
- [Gap analysis in Devops](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/gap-analysis-in-devops.md) - Gap analysis is a tool that helps us explore the space between where we are now and where we'd like to be. It's a way of assessing the disparities in performance to achieve a desired business strategy or specific objectives. In the fast-paced world of DevOps, where continuous integration and delive…
- [I am the power](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/i-am-the-power.md) - To be precise, I am the energy. Power is energy applied. Power can be positive or negative. Energy just is. And that's what I have. We all have it. But most times, it doesn't feel like it, especially if things are not working out the way we want. Instead, we go to (SFD) Shitty First Draft* mode. It…
- [Quality Coach Newsletter 19](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-19.md) - Quality is everyone's accountability What does "Quality is everyone's responsibility" actually mean? What do you mean by Quality? What do you mean by responsibility? And if everyone is responsible for quality, does that mean one outcome is poor quality? Software engineering is complex and challengi…
- [Quality: We need to talk about accountability](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/everyone-is-accountable-for-quality.md) - We all have accountabilities in quality. But what they are will vary according to role and seniority.
- [Quality Coach Newsletter 18](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-18.md) - This month Neil Younger returns with the final of his three post series on developing engineering cultures. Today's post on developing a growth-based framework builds on Neil's two previous posts; building a learning culture by amplifying team wins and accelerating a quality culture through buildin…
- [Boost your engineering capability with this growth-focused framework](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/engineering-capability-model.md) - ℹ️In this article, we will use the term ‘Engineering Capability’ to mean the practices and approaches we use to get work done within an engineering department. This article extends and references the work of two previous publications in this series. Namely ‘Accelerate your quality culture by identi…
- [🦋Quality Coach Newsletter 17](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-18-2.md) - Prevent, Detect, Recover Three words to get your team starting to think about quality right away! 😉. Prevent, Detect, Recover (PDR) is one of my favourite concepts to use with teams. It sticks and helps teams understand that quality is broader than testing. The latest quality coach article is on t…
- [Prevent, Detect, Recover](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/prevent-detect-recover.md) - Prevent, Detect, Recover (PDR) is a thinking tool I use to help teams consider quality beyond testing. PDR stands for: * Prevent: activities that can be performed to prevent incidents happening in the first place. * Detect: activities or approaches that allow the discovery of incidents before deplo…
- [What colour is your leadership corset?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/what-colour-is-your-leadership-corset.md) - Leadership is a corset. Are you aware of its constructs? A Leadership in tech perspective on leadership failures and a path forward
- [Quality Coach Newsletter 16](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-16.md) - This month Neil Younger returns with another punchy post on accelerating a culture of quality by identifying company engineering needs. This build on Neil's original post on building a culture of learning by amplifying team wins. Accelerate your quality culture by identifying your engineering capab…
- [Accelerate your quality culture by identifying your engineering capability needs](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/accelerate-your-quality-culture-by-identifying-your-engineering-capability-needs.md) - In the previous article “Build a culture of learning by amplifying team wins” I talked about how categorising ‘wins’ can support an improvement program. In this article, we will extend on this and explore how you can identify and build your capability model enabling you to better talk about what go…
- [Quality Solution Opportunity Tree](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-solution-opportunity-tree.md) - This framework asks at a high level: "How else might we improve quality?". It's a simple open-ended question that encourages alternative perspectives, which is a good antidote to tunnel vision and SBS (silver bullet syndrome)
- [Quality Coach Newsletter 15](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-15.md) - Less Friction, more Freeway This month's newsletter looks at the topic of frictionless services. I hope you enjoy it. It's more than a Field of Dreams It's not enough to simply create a frictionless service. I wish it were like Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams", where "if you build it, they will c…
- [Quality Coaching: Focusing on Frictionless](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/as-a-quality-coach-frictionless-service-is-a-quality-attribute.md) - TL;DR It takes effort to persuade by logic or motivate people. You may achieve more success by removing team obstacles that are preventing them from performing quality-related tasks.
- [Quality Coach #14](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-14.md) - We're going with a Ted Lasso vibe this month. This month's premium article is amplifying success. Neil Younger has provided us with an excellent workshop and explainer to kick-start amplifying those positive vibes in your company. His article includes a short video explaining the workshop, plus a m…
- [Advocacy for less testing](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/a-psych-safety-reflection.md) - As a strategy, I'm a fan of minimising the number of end-to-end1 tests a team owns and runs. However, this advocacy for less testing can be a difficult sell. Software Engineers and testers express their reservations about adopting such a strategy. Good Reasons for End-to-End Tests End-to-end tests…
- [Build a culture of learning by amplifying team wins](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/build-a-culture-of-learning-by-amplifying-team-wins-2.md) - Neil Younger talks about amplifying success to drive change in this latest quality coach book article
- [Quality Coach Newsletter 13](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter-13.md) - This month we have a guest post by Gerard McCann. Gerard talks about those moments when a learning opportunity opens itself up. Of course, as a quality coach, you want to recognise those moments and use them as opportunities to share information, provide training, or suggest a facilitated workshop.…
- [Are you your missing leg?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/are-you-your-missing-leg.md) - Change isn't always difficult. There are lots of things about change I adore. I like getting pay raises. I like getting job promotions. I like it when my partner organizes a surprise event for us. And I like driving change. I like seeing gaps in quality and setting about improving and fixing them a…
- [Teachable moments in Quality Coaching](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/teachable-moments-in-quality-coaching.md) - Situational Quality Coaching - Experience Report. Gerard McCann explains how he uses quality coaching in teachable moments to effect improvements within his team.
- [February 23 Quality Coach Newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/february-23-quality-coach-newsletter.md) - This month, the quality coach book explores some techniques to cement and ensure long term integration of ideas into ways of working.
- [How to run a (quality) coaching session](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/how-to-run-a-team-based-coaching-session.md) - Running a task-based, time-boxed coaching session is a great way to embed concepts and learning into a team.
- [Quality Coach Newsletter 11](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/january-23-quality-coach-newsletter.md) - Primarily through interviewing, I’ve discovered many people have different ideas of what a quality coach may be. For example, some software testers call themselves this, as they occasionally coach the team even though their core work is software testing within a team. Some folks who do this type of…
- [How do I know I'm a Quality Coach?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/how-do-i-know-im-a-quality-coach.md) - Mostly through interviewing, I’ve discovered many people have different ideas of what a quality coach may be. So what is the difference between a software tester and a quality coach, and, which one are you?
- [December '22 Quality Coach Newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/december-quality-coach-newsletter.md) - December brings us a guest writer Deb Sherwood. Deb is a quality coach at Squiz, where she coaches over ten teams. Understandably she's got a unique approach to her role. It underlies the diversity of approaches a quality coach can take. Read her article on Five Quality Coaching Tips (when coaching…
- [Five Quality Coaching Tips (when coaching 10+ teams)](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/five-quality-coaching-tips-coaching-10-teams.md) - My name is Deb Sherwood, and I am a Quality Coach at Squiz. I have been at Squiz for nearly 17 years, starting as a trainer and moving into the engineering team as a software tester. Before joining Squiz, I was a software engineer working in an environment where we had thousands upon thousands of a…
- [Quality Coach Newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-newsletter.md) - Kent Beck & 3X Model, Agile Testing Days, and Strategies
- [Kent Becks 3X Model and Quality (a quality coach perspective)](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/kent-becks-3x-and-quality-a-quality-coach-perspective.md) - Kent Beck describes three different phases of a product, Explore, Expand and Extract. This article looks at quality strategy for each phase to maximise value to both customers and the company.
- [🎃October 22 Quality Coach  Newsletter, Halloween edition🎃](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/halloween-22-quality-coach-newletter.md) - I know two newsletters in one month! How good is that? And since it's the month of Halloween, this edition is "Quality Coach Newsletter 2" and just like any classic Halloween movie, it is the sequel that is the best! There are two bundles of goodness in this newsletter that couldn't wait until Nove…
- [What's your org optimising for?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/whats-your-org-optimising-for.md) - 💡This is a work in progress. The thoughts are a bit rough and not fully formed. I'm sharing because I'm keen to hear other perspectives to help my concepts take shape. Comments welcome. I've got a hypothesis around organisational structures. It's half-baked and not ready for release. I talked abou…
- [October '22 Quality Coach Newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/october-22-quality-coach-newsletter.md) - Nine tips on hiring a Quality Coach This month's premium content is about hiring. Hiring is difficult and time-consuming at the best of times. Hiring a quality coach role can be extra complex. In this premium content, I explore why and suggestions on how to navigate that complexity. I provide nine…
- [Nine tips on hiring Quality Coaches (can you make it ten?)](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/hiring-quality-coaches.md) - Hiring is tricky at the best of times, hiring a quality coach is trickier because the nature of the role is not yet well understood.
- [Quality Coach September 22 newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-august-22-newsletter.md) - Make Quality Coach book better Can you believe it's almost a year since I started writing this book? Personally, I'm really happy with the outcome. What about you though? If you are a regular reader, I'd love to hear from you on what you want me to Keep, Stop, and Start doing! Simply fill in this s…
- [How do you do your testing?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/how-do-you-do-your-testing.md) - Here's my advice. Stop thinking about testing in phases and begin thinking of testing as an activity. Something done in parallel to your coding instead of after your coding.
- [Quality Coach: a team approach to mapping "the work"](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-coach-mapping-a-delivery-workflow.md) - Today, I'm doing a deep dive into early and frequent feedback as a way to improve overall product quality.
- [Quality Coach July 22 newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-july-22-newsletter.md) - This month's premium content explores the topic of when to coach, train and mentor a product team. This is important, as how you coach one team differs from another depending on where they're at in terms of owning quality. Situational Quality Coaching (when to coach, train & mentor)Like many things…
- [Situational Quality Coaching (when to coach, train & mentor)](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/situational-quality-coaching.md) - Fun fact, a quality coach doesn't only coach; they also mentor, train and facilitate1. This article explores when to coach, train, and mentor a product team on quality. Coaching, Mentoring, Training Coaching, Mentoring & training are different teaching methods and valuable parts of your quality coa…
- [Quality Coach June (ish) Newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-june-ish-newsletter.md) - Quality Coach Book Actionable & practical tips on being a quality coach Freshen up your skills This month I've published a mammoth workshop packed full of goodies to help you get started on delivering a team test strategy. This article has got everything from miro boards to a slide deck to facilita…
- [Team Test Strategy Workshop for Quality Coaches](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/testing-strategies-are-team-strategies.md) - This workshop provides a systematic approach to developing a team test strategy for an epic or large feature. It provides a team with a framework within which they can consider all the factors that impact testing.
- [Quality Coach May Newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-may-newsletter.md) - Welcome to the May newsletter. I know it's June, but we've had an election in Australia and I was busy saving democracy. This month in my premium content, the quality coach article explores the topic of Quality Improvement. Building on the sailboat retrospective workshop I show you how to prepare a…
- [Quality Improvement Workshop (run by a Quality Coach)](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-improvement-workshop.md) - Quality Coaches, run this workshop to figure out team quality tasks prioritisation using the sailboat analogy. Instructions and a miro board help structure the workshop.
- [Quality Coach April Newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-april-newsletter.md) - Welcome to the April newsletter. This month in my premium content, the quality coach article explores the topic of Example Mapping Workshops, a concept first originated by Matt Wynn.
- [Example Mapping for Quality Coaches](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/example-mapping-workshop-for-quality-coaches.md) - Example Mapping workshop for quality coaches contains instructions and slides using a typical story to help quality coaches get started on example mapping for their teams.
- [Quality Coach March 2022 Newsletter](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/newsletter/quality-coach-march-2022-newsletter.md) - Welcome to my regular newsletter where I provide updates and links to content that I enjoy. Premium readers a special thanks. You encourage me to continue to write and share my experiences. It's hard to digest the fact that I've been consistently writing on this blog for 15 years now. In this newsl…
- [Quality Coach Career Paths](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/can-quality-coaching-be-a-career.md) - Change at the best of times is hard. Clarity on quality coach career paths enables those impacted to make clear and informed decisions on the role. It provides engineering leadership structures to support career growth.
- [Quality Coaching on AB Testing Podcast](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-coach-ab-testing-podcast.md) - It was a great discussion on quality coaching, credibility and trust, how the ultimate shift left act is to hire engineers who embrace software testing as their role. It was such a fun chat, and I could have gone on talking and sparring for hours. Fortunately for you, I didn't.
- [How to explain Quality Coach (to your CTO)](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/quality-coach-explainer-to-cto.md) - I describe the quality coach role in terms of a delivery lead, a product manager, a quality professional and a software developer.
- [Moving to a Quality Coach Role](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/moving-to-a-quality-coach-role.md) - The HoQE performs the role of change agent. It's their job to create a space and framework so that the software tester will achieve a successful transition.
- [What is a Quality Coach?](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/what-is-a-quality-coach.md) - Defining the term quality coach and explaining this role in software engineering in contemporary organisations
- [Create a Quality Coach Job Description](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/define-the-quality-coach-role.md) - For clarity, I'm going to use the term quality coach (QC), though in your world you may prefer Quality Advocate (QA), personally, I find that gets confused with Quality Assurance and often people default to that term. Imagine you or your company has decided to transition to a Quality Assistance mod…
- [Team Topology & Quality Engineering](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/team-topology-quality-engineering.md) - As director of quality engineering, part of my role is structuring how and where quality sits within a company that's scaling in customer numbers, in terms of architecture and software engineers. Team Topologies written by Matthew Skelton & Manual Pais suggests reversing Conway’s law and providing…
- [About that quality coaching book...](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/about-that-quality-coaching-book.md) - "So Anne-Marie when is that book on quality coaching coming out?" is the question I dread. The time has come to do something about it.
- [More than a maverick tester](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/no-longer-a-maverick-tester.md) - Some of you may know I've changed the title of my blog from Maverick Tester to AnneMarieCharrett.com. But why the change? These days I write about a lot of things, and some of them are outside of software testing.. I write about quality engineering, leadership and sometimes about women in technolog…
- [Habits and Shu Ha Ri](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/habits-and-shu-ha-ri.md) - Whatever happened to Shu Ha Ri? It was the bees-knees of learning processes about 4 years ago. Now crickets...or perhaps I'm not moving in the right circles. Anywhooo, had a lunch chat with the lovely Paul Hughes from CultureAmp. (If you're wondering, he ate healthy carrots and tuna, I scoffed down…
- [Habits in Quality](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/habits-in-quality.md) - I often get asked as a quality coach, how do you get teams to do more software testing? It's a tricky one, because as quality coach you don't have any direct authority over anyone in the team. You could try and tell them to do it, but in my experience even if they agree in principle, the pressure o…
- [It's all one elephant](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/its-all-one-elephant.md) - Recently, I posted on twitter a representation of how I see the differences between coaching, mentoring and training. The lens I chose to look through was that of direction. How much the person coaching, is actively providing guidance. Its just a question of quality - quality strategy https://t.co/…
- [3 Amigos - a sequel](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/new-3-amigos.md) - In agile, the 3 Amigos is a collaboration event that takes place between QA, Product and Engineering right before the start of software development. The purpose is develop a shared understanding over what is being built, and what will be tested In this new version, the 3 Amigos still keeps three co…
- [The 3 Amigos in agile](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/3-amigos-in-agile.md) - I’m exploring the 3 Amigos in agile at the moment, as I feel it may be in need of a makeover. But first, the traditional view of the 3 Amigos. I know, there’s already loads of articles on the 3 amigos, but I thought it might be useful to understand my perspective. If you are well versed in 3 Amigos…
- [Supporting the whistleblowers](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/supporting-the-whistleblowers.md) - Whistleblowers I’ve written before on how software testers think differently and play a different role to others in a technical team. In the past, a typical non testing view of the role was gatekeeper. This didn’t turn out so well. The history of quality and software testers is littered with corpse…
- [Be your best self](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/be-your-best-self.md) - Leadership is being your best self. Easy to say, harder to implement. For starters, what the hell does ” be your best self” mean? And why is that leadership? For me, being my best self, doesn’t mean achieving goals. It doesn’t mean going to the gym, eating the right food, studying the correct books…
- [The Scab Picker](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/the-scab-picker.md) - As I child I received the usual number of knocks and bumps, cuts and the inevitable scabs that grew as my body healed itself. I enjoyed nothing more than spending time picking away at these scabs. I wanted to explore and uncover, pick and observe in fascinating as the pink flesh repaired itself. To…
- [Creating a Culture of Quality](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/creating-a-culture-of-quality-in-a-startup.md) - A culture that is embedded figuratively eats everything around it. Once a culture is defined, it takes on a life of its own. Slowly, bit by bit, more bricks are laid on top of those early foundations, those decisions. And, before you realise it, your culture has been set.
- [Questions over Answers](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/questions-over-answers.md) - Growing up, I remember listening to Bob Dylan on the radio with perplexment. He would sing: > “the answer my friend is blowing in the wind” To a twelve year old, this made little sense. How could wind, something invisible, fluid and uncontrollable provide any solution, any answer? And because the w…
- [Look for the helpers](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/look-for-the-helpers.md) - * Its not about winners and losers * It’s not about right versus left * Its not about good or bad, right or wrong * Its not about pass or fail, testing versus checking, manual versus automation Its’s about the helpers. Always look for the helpers [https://youtu.be/-LGHtc_D328]. It’s scary at the mo…
- [Keynoting Remotely Selenium Conf 2020](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/keynoting-remotely-selenium-conf-2020.md) - I had the absolute pleasure to be invited to keynote at SeleniumConf 2020 in Bangalore. I had decided in February to talk about test leadership and how to lead through uncertainty. And that was before COVID-19 came on the scene! It’s the first time I’ve spoken ‘live’ online at a conference and it d…
- [Outcome over output](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/outcome-over-output.md) - I discovered the concept of outcome over output in 2014 through Jenny Mar’s work on OOPSI [https://jennyjmar.com/2016/04/16/bdd-discovery-and-oopsi/]. This led to Teresa Torres [https://www.producttalk.org/] awesome work on outcomes and opportunity This blog post is tagged #qualityhack. A quality h…
- [The Software Mechanic](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/the-software-mechanic.md) - Having explained the role of a software tester to a non IT person they replied: > So it’s like I’m taking my car to a garage to get serviced by a mechanic and all that the mechanic does is to find everything that needs to be fixed, tell me and walks away? The Software Mechanic To which I muttered,…
- [Good Enough (Perfectly Applied)](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/good-enough-perfectly-applied.md) - This is a series of blogs posts tagged quality hack. Quality Hack is a phrase I’ve coined to emphasise the importance of focusing on delivering “good enough” software, and embracing the cult of imperfection. If you wish to contribute a post, contact me either on twitter [https://twitter.com/charret…
- [Coaching Upwards](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/coaching-upwards.md) - I struggle to complete blog posts. Lena Wiberg [https://twitter.com/LenaPejgan] suggested we do pair-blogging on a same topic. It’s a great idea. Here’s my version. Lena’s angle is more personal and I love it. You can read it here. Thanks Lena for the suggestion. This topic has been on my mind for…
- [Inflicting Help](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/inflicting-help.md) - Pain is our bodies way of telling us to stop doing something. Stop putting your hand on a hot stove, stop hammering your thumb, stop walking into lampposts… Like it or not, our profession, software testing, unwittingly creates pain in others. Shattering illusions does that. Have you seen that look…
- [The beginning of discovery](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/the-beginning-of-discovery.md) - Lisa Crispin [https://lisacrispin.com/] picked up on this small seemingly innocent sentence about the importance of ‘shallow tests’ in discovery > “These [shallow] tests are often essential beginnings to discovery”Anne-Marie Charrett“Shallow Testing gets a bad rap” [https://mavericktester.com/2018/…
- [When the rubber hits the road](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/emergent-strategy.md) - Anyone who has attempted to create and then implement a strategy, will know there’s a big difference between what is intended when the strategy is written, and what is realised on implementing a strategy. To the point in software testing, there’s been a push away from writing formal strategies. The…
- [Test Management Revisited](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/test-leadership.md) - The concept of test management sits awkwardly in agile, mostly because it’s a construct derived from the time when testing was a post-development phase, performed by independent testing teams. These teams were often of significant size, to reduce the time required to perform test execution. A test…
- [Starting Something](https://www.annemariecharrett.com/starting-something.md) - Your first child. Like many parents, I vividly recall my moment of reality when I realised my life (in a weird and wonderful way) would never be the same again. Being pregnant with my first child now feels like a time of great excitement and also great indulgence. Baby showers, afternoon naps, disc…

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