How well do you know your QA?

QA efforts valued based on the bugs that make it to production.

Once upon a time in an Asian village, there lived 4 brothers. All the four brothers were doctors.

The eldest brother treated many patients for years. 

1. He charged reasonably for the years of treatment.
2. Most of them advanced to terminally ill condition. 
3. Many of them died. 
4. He talked a lot about all the reasons that lead to the patient's death and how his treatments to save the patient became ineffective due to reasons not in his control. 
5. He was famous all over the village and a little in the surrounding villages too. He was very important to them. 
6. He did not get a bad rep either. People thought he did his best.

The second brother treated patients with care too for months.

1. He charged an arm and a leg as his fees.
2. A few of his patients became chronically ill even after months of treatment. 
3. Most of his patients survived and recovered. 
4. Few of his patients became terminally ill.
5. He explained about all the reasons for why he had to charge so much for the treatment. He also had reasons for why the patient could not be saved for reasons not in his control
6. He was famous in his village. He was important to them.

The third brother treated patients for weeks.

1. All of his patients survived and recovered. 
2. He charged reasonably.
3. He was known by a few people in the village. He was considered to be okay. 
4. People did not prefer to pay enough for his services.

The fourth brother never treated any patients actively.

1. He studied all the patients that came to his brothers.
2. He invested all his time on preventing diseases than curing them. 
3. He was more interested in prevention than cure.
4. He was not known by anyone in the village. He was never paid enough even to cover for his research. 
5. He was not valued as much. And sometimes he was considered pesky and hindering to the specific lifestyle the villagers were accustomed to.

QA people are valued the same way too.

A company values its QA team and invests in it when a lot of bugs make it to production. And seriouslyunder values the QA team that makes sure issues are nipped in the bud. This is when the upper management decides that their code is so clean and bug free, they may not need the QA team who are always asking for more time or resources and sometimes becoming the gate keepers for releases.

Oh! The irony.