Michael Bolton argues that 'quality engineering' and 'testing' are fundamentally different things and should not be used interchangeably. Quality is defined as value to some person — a set of relationships between a product, its context, and people's needs — while testing is the process of evaluating a product by exploring and experimenting with it to discover where quality goals haven't been met. A quality strategy focuses on achieving success; a test strategy focuses on finding trouble. Bolton criticizes the trend of rebranding testing as 'quality engineering', identifying it as misrepresentation, usurpation of other roles' identity, and a failure to improve testing in practice. He warns that conflating the two concepts causes important testing work to be neglected, and advocates for embracing the term 'tester' rather than hiding behind grander labels.
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