Both Quality Assurance (QA) and Business Analysis (BA) can take on lives of their own, losing sight of purposes and mindlessly performing their activities. In fact, quality and QA begin and end with BA, identifying requirements and how to confirm they've been met. The value of being able to ensure high-quality in a process or effort is unmistakable. The value of what good analysis can show you about that same process or effort is a skill that leads to better results. Have you ever thought about the relationship between analysis and quality? Tajoura Davis walks us through the highlights of her personal journey and discusses some questions she discovered the answers to while learning to use business analysis skills to optimize a quality mindset, including: What does an analytical world without an eye on quality look like? What does quality without good analysis look like? Where do the skills and techniques of quality and analysis overlap and work well together? Under what conditions does the relationship fall apart?

• Quality and analysis are not mutually exclusive - one requires the other to optimize outcomes.
• Quality gives the analysis skill set purpose, goals and stability.
• Analysis gives the quality skill set, proof, clarity and possible pathways.

Tajoura spent 30+ years in health insurance, beginning as underwriting auditor at a start-up and finding her way to Product Owner, Product Manager and Business Product Lead. She is a Certified Business Analysis Professional (CBAP) and the President of Greater Boston IIBA Chapter.

Testing celebrity @Joe Colantonio presented January's highest-attended meeting with his annual testing trends predictions and recap of last year's predictions. Watch recording at www.SQGNE.org calendar to see all the great audience interaction!

Joe's 2025 predictions, along with his and ChatGPT's sores:

• Agentic AI in testing 4.5/5
• AI shift-right 4.0/5
• Everyone is QA 5/5
• The tester role evolution 4.5/5
• DevOps + SRE + continuous quality 4.0/5
• End-to-end autonomous platforms 3.5/5
• Dominance of Playwright 5/5
• Python as the new standard 4.0/5

What is settled:

• Playwright is the standard
• Collaborative QA is the model
• AI is a necessity, not a helper

What is next:

• Breaking down silos between QA and SRE
• Closing the skills gap for manual testers transitioning to hybrid roles

Joe's 2026 predictions:

• 67% would only trust AI-generated tests with human review
• 49% cite “lack of knowledge” as biggest barrier

• It’s not about new tools; it’s about making the old ones talk; integration is the #2 concern.
• Experienced testers feel like beginners again.
• The double-edged sword of “vibe” Good for exploration, disastrous for security.
• The “Show Me” revolution. Theory fatigue has set in. The era of the “AI thought leader is ending.”
• Compliance just got teeth. The European Accessibility Act (EAA).
• The rise of the Quality Architect. The “secret life of automation” demands human oversight.
• Fixing the source. AI for requirements discovery is the new shift-left. [Spec2TestAI™ from past SQGNE presenter Agile AI Labs is leader, incorporates Robin Goldsmith’s REAL Business Requirements]
• The Agentic Future. From scripting to orchestration.
• The wild card—Vibium. Preparing for a post-selector world.