Conference paper
The concise reading edition of the argument first shared through LinkedIn.
VerityJX Publication 001 · BCS SIGiST Summer Conference 2026
Rehumanising Quality
The QA Role as Orchestrator in AI-Accelerated Testing - an evolving body of work about human-centred testing, journey integrity and the responsibilities that remain ours.
Human-centred testing
Journey integrity
Quality stewardship
AI as amplifier
From one talk to a wider initiative
The conference presentation began with one question: as AI increasingly absorbs execution, what becomes uniquely human about quality?
Rehumanising Quality is not presented as a finished answer. It is the founding contribution to a wider Initiative exploring judgement, context, evidence, stewardship, professional identity, organisational learning and the integrity of user journeys.
Read, watch and download
The page remains the hub. Longer material is published separately so the core argument stays easy to navigate.
Rehumanising Quality - Full Edition
The fuller narrative, adapted for sustained reading and presented as VerityJX Publication 001.
Presentation deck
The original visual narrative delivered at the BCS SIGiST Summer Conference 2026.
The core argument
If AI can generate tests, execute checks and accelerate delivery, the future of quality cannot be defined only by the activities it performs.
1
AI validates fragments
Automation and AI increase speed, scale and repeatability. We should welcome that wherever the work is repetitive, deterministic and high-volume.
2
Humans understand journeys
Interpretation, ambiguity, trust, ethics, context and human consequence remain central to quality work.
3
QA becomes orchestration
The future quality professional preserves coherence across user journeys, delivery disciplines and organisational outcomes.
Extended notes and references
This is a deliberately concise guide to the foundations behind the work. It signals the areas being developed without turning the page into a bibliography.
Human-centred design
How designing around people rather than systems changes what we mean by software quality.
Systems thinking
Why quality emerges from relationships, dependencies and feedback rather than components in isolation.
Socio-technical systems
Understanding delivery as the interaction of people, process, technology and organisational context.
Delegatable and non-delegatable work
A practical distinction between what AI can perform and what human professionals must continue to own.
AI as an amplifier
Using AI to strengthen professional judgement and role-specific expertise rather than replace identity.
Professional competence
How Analyst, Lead, Architect and Manager capabilities may evolve differently in an AI-enabled profession.
Quality as stewardship
Why the future role may be better understood through stewardship, facilitation and orchestration than inspection.
Capability and maturity
How human capabilities might be expressed as reusable patterns, role expectations and progressive maturity levels.
Planned companion: a fuller set of annotated notes and references will be published only when it adds practical value to the framework.
Questions we are still exploring
These are not placeholders for unfinished copy. They are the active research questions shaping the next stage of VerityJX.
- What remains uniquely human? Which quality responsibilities continue to require judgement, empathy, ethical reasoning and contextual understanding?
- Can human capabilities become reusable patterns? How might curiosity, facilitation, sense-making and stewardship be described in ways teams can practise and develop?
- Should different roles follow different AI journeys? What should Analysts, Leads, Architects and Managers learn, retain and amplify?
- What would a capability matrix look like? How can role expectations, observable behaviours and development levels be expressed coherently?
- How should this connect to recognised frameworks? Where might the work align with ISTQB role-based competencies, TMMi, CMMI and related models?
- How do we assess journey integrity? Can quality be understood through continuity, trust and human outcomes rather than component correctness alone?
- What does good orchestration look like in practice? Which behaviours help teams maintain shared understanding across increasingly complex delivery ecosystems?
How the work will develop
The intention is to move from argument to practical application without publishing unfinished material simply to fill space.
Manifestos and essays
Clarify why human-centred quality matters and challenge assumptions about professional identity.
Human capabilities
Describe judgement, curiosity, context, facilitation, empathy and related capabilities.
Personas and patterns
Map capabilities to Analyst, Lead, Architect and Manager personas and make them reusable.
Capability matrix
Express observable levels of maturity and connect them to professional development frameworks.
This conversation is becoming a body of work.
Read the full conference edition, explore the questions above, or contribute a perspective from your own organisation and practice.