Quality Assurance at Cancer Research UK
Who are we?
Quality Assurance(QA) Engineering Team is part of the Engineering and Data capability in the Technology Portfolio under the Chief Operating Officer(COO) directorate.
The QA team is dedicated to embedding quality across all software developed by or for Cancer Research UK(CRUK). We champion a culture of continuous improvement, aiming for long-term, measurable results that align with modern technology standards.
How we work?
Quality is a shared responsibility at CRUK. QA is not the final step in the process but a collaborative function, integrated into how we build and deliver software together.
We embed quality practices from planning and design through to release and ongoing support.
What do we do?
- Define and maintain testing standards that align with CRUK’s QA Engineering strategy
- Adopt test tools and frameworks that align with QA Engineering Strategy
- Collaborate with engineers, designers, and product managers to identify and address risks early
- Design and execute test strategies: manual, automated, accessibility, performance, and exploratory
- Support CI/CD pipelines through meaningful quality gates
- Monitor quality metrics and feed insights back into the development process
Our Principles
We focus on prevention over detection to catch issues early and reduce costly rework, accessibility from the start so our products are usable by everyone, and keeping our supporters and users at the centre to ensure what we deliver meets real-world needs. Key principles include:
- Software Engineers(Developers),QA collaboration : Early and close collaboration ensures we catch risks before they become defects, reducing rework and speeding delivery.
- Automate tests as features are developed : Ensures immediate coverage, keeps quality consistent, supports CI/CD and safeguards the feature for future releases.
- Shift-left testing : Detects issues earlier in the development process, when they are cheaper and easier to fix.
- Minimise reliance on end-to-end tests : Improves speed and stability by focussing more coverage within unit and integration/API tests and reserving E2E for critical journeys.
- Support CI/CD : Embedding tests into our pipelines ensures every change is validated before release, enabling faster, safer deployments.
- Incorporate shift-right practices like monitoring and feedback : Captures real-world performance and user behaviour to continuously improve quality after release.
Collaboration Norms
QA collaborates with Product Managers, Business Analysts, UX Designers, and Software engineers from the earliest stages. We contribute to:
- Story refinement and acceptance criteria
- Risk analysis and test planning
- Test automation strategy and coverage decisions
This early and ongoing collaboration ensures that quality is baked in—not bolted on.