Mentoring QA without cloning yourself
Growing engineers is not copying your habits. It is building judgement they can use when you leave.
As Test Practice Manager I interviewed, coached, and embedded QA across teams. The mistake I see often is mentoring as imitation: “do it like I do.” That creates dependency, not capability.
Better mentoring is shared criteria. How do we decide severity? When is exploratory enough? What does a good defect look like? When do we stop and ask Product?
I pair on hard tickets, then step back. I review a sample of cases and defects for signal quality, not volume. I make dashboards so people can see their own impact without waiting for my opinion.
On large programmes, mentoring also means protecting focus: fewer zombie meetings, clearer ownership, and space to think. Quiet time is a quality tool.
The test of mentoring is simple. When I hand over, does the practice still produce honest evidence — or did it only work while I was in the room?
Marius Ene
Senior Functional QA · user & business focus