Quality Coach newsletter #39

📱 Quality Coach Researcher Launch

The Quality Coach Researcher is like having your quality coaching expert on tap. The research is a chatbot that provides tailored advice from the quality coach's handbook based on your role. Ask it a question, and depending on your role, it will provide contextual advice.

The quality coach researcher is now accessible to everyone.

Free Access: Try it out with 5 queries, no signup required. Perfect for exploring what the researcher offers.
Free Members: Get 10 queries per month. Sign up to keep the conversation going.
Paid Subscribers: Unlimited queries plus continued first access to continued content.

Try it out at annemariecharrett.com you will see the rotating icon on the bottom right-hand side with "Ask the Book"

Recent Articles

Some recently published posts that I haven't got round to sharing!

Introducing the Quality Coach Researcher

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

Anne-Marie CharrettAnne-Marie Charrett

There are no bad testers only bad systems

Avoid labelling people as good or bad testers, focus on how to improve the system

Anne-Marie CharrettAnne-Marie Charrett

And for premium members

Have Your Slice and Eat It: Boost Quality with Vertical Story Slicing

How product features are sliced into smaller work items has a big impact on quality. Slice your epics well, and quality will follow.

Anne-Marie CharrettAnne-Marie Charrett

Why Software Teams Need Speed Limits

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.

Anne-Marie CharrettAnne-Marie Charrett

🌱 Around the Grounds

I'm behind in my reading, but I liked this from Nicola Lindgren and found myself nodding as I read it.

Is It the Relationship or the Idea that’s the Problem?

I share some mental models I have on relationships, ideas and how I think people view others. These can be useful when introducing new ideas.

Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory have launched a new book!

Holistic Testing: Weave Quality into Your Product: 9781999220570: Computer Science Books @ Amazon.com

Holistic Testing: Weave Quality into Your Product: 9781999220570: Computer Science Books @ Amazon.com

Shop the Store on Amazon ›Follow

Who's with me in loving Katya Obrings work. She has a new course launched.

Become the tester people listen to: introducing Stakeholder Ready - Kato Coaching

If you work in testing or quality engineering, you know the feeling.You see risks early. You spot patterns before anyone else. You raise concerns because you care about what happens next.And yet the conversation stalls. People nod politely, then move on. It is frustrating. Not because you want attention, but because you want to make […]

Kato CoachingKatja Obring

Parveen Khan and Suman Bala launched Quality Unfiltered, and this podcast episode was on leading quality when you're not embedded in a team. Something I'm very familiar with!

📚 From the Vaults

Two older posts worth revisiting:

Emergent Quality from 2018 explores my hypothesis that quality is an emergent property of complex systems. We manipulate quality by manipulating the parts: people, processes, infrastructure, product, and outcomes. We can't truly know quality—it's constantly morphing—but we can create spaces where quality naturally emerges.

Look for the Helpers from 2020 reminds us to focus on those who build rather than those who tear down. "By focusing on those who move forward who work to build and to help, there is a path forward. We build the path together, not ignoring our differences, but respecting them and seeing how they can complement each other."

✈️ Reflecting on 2025

What a year. Launching my book on Leanpub in multiple languages and on Amazon, as well as creating the online course, has to be the highlight of my year! Agile Testing Days in Potsdam—running "Expected to Lead Quality" with Fiona Charles, and the workshop on Moving at the Speed of Trust felt like coming home. Testing Talks Melbourne had such great energy, and YOW showed me how much our quality conversations overlap with the broader engineering world.

Next year? Test Automation Days. Looking forward to new conversations there.

Happy reading!

Anne-Marie