Core Quality Principles
1. You engineer quality into the way you deliver.
Controls, testing, validation, and assurance activities should be integrated throughout design, delivery, and operation rather than treated as separate or end-stage activities.
Quality and assurance activities are most effective when they are embedded into the way work is planned, developed, delivered, and operated from the start, so shifting left as well as shifting right.
2. You take a holistic approach to engineer quality.
Quality is a shared responsibility and is achieved through a combination of skilled people, effective quality engineering practices and appropriate technology, considering all relevant quality characteristics, both functional and non-functional.
Shared ownership and a holistic approach to quality encourage collaboration, earlier risk identification and faster feedback. Quality depends on both technology and human capabilities such as critical thinking , curiosity, systems thinking and risk assessment. Teams should consider not only whether a service works, but how well it performs, including aspects such as accessibility, security, resilience, testability and maintainability.
3. You define quality by user needs and outcomes.
Quality should be measured by how effectively products and services meet user needs and operational outcomes.
Assurance activities should focus on delivering outcomes that add value for users, customers, and the organisation along with compliance.
4. You apply effort proportionate to risk.
The level of assurance, governance, and control applied should reflect the level of risk, complexity, and potential impact involved.
Not every change requires the same level of assurance. Applying controls proportionately improves effectiveness, speed, and focus. Also making quality indicators, risks and operational health transparent enables informed decisions, shared understanding, and appropriate governance.
5. You automate repetitive quality engineering activities.
Repeatable assurance, validation, and control activities should be automated wherever practical and valuable.
Automation improves consistency, repeatability, scalability, speed, and confidence in delivery outcomes.
6. You shorten feedback loops wherever possible.
Fast and continuous feedback should exist across delivery, testing, operations, and support processes.
Fast feedback helps teams identify issues earlier, reduce uncertainty, and respond more effectively. Shifting left enables delivery of value to users faster and more safely.
7. You use evidence to make quality measurable, visible, and actionable.
Quality decisions should be informed by objective evidence, measurable outcomes and operational insight. Quality, risk, confidence, technical debt and operational health should be transparent to stakeholders and used to inform decisions and continuous improvement.
Evidence provides a shared understanding of quality and enables informed decisions about risk, release confidence and quality engineering improvements. Making meaningful quality indicators visible helps stakeholders understand the current position, supports effective governance and builds confidence in delivery.