We are struggling with our Quality Assurance role because both our Software Development department and our Customer Success department claim they need to own it to ensure client satisfaction. Right now, QA is floating between both departments and critical bugs are slipping through. Where should Quality Assurance sit on the Accountability Chart to prevent this finger-pointing?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

In EOS, we have a saying: when two people are accountable, nobody is accountable. Having Quality Assurance float between two departments is a major structural defect that guarantees balls will be dropped and finger-pointing will occur.

To resolve this, you must place Quality Assurance in a single, dedicated seat under one clear leader. To determine which department should own it, look at the primary goal of your QA function. If QA is focused on testing code before it is released to prevent technical bugs, it belongs under your Technology or Software Development seat. If QA is focused on user acceptance testing, client training, and post-launch feedback, it may belong under Operations or Customer Success.

No matter which department you choose, the key is that only one seat on your Accountability Chart owns the accountability for QA. The other department can still collaborate, provide feedback, and submit bug reports, but they cannot share the ownership. Once the seat is placed under one specific manager, define the exact roles and the primary scorecard metric for that seat, such as bug escape rate or client onboarding time. This eliminates the confusion and ensures there is a single throat to choke when things go wrong.