It seems that good quality control can be a really difficult thing to integrate at growing/smaller companies.
Where do you include it?
Who does it?
How much time do you allow for it?
Throughout my career, I've had several clients even volunteer to be part of a QA team. The thought of it has always made me cringe, however, they are using the products the way that they're likely to use...rather than the folks at the respective companies using them how they were designed to be used. There can be a big difference. But, mostly you hope that you have everything figured out before a client has a chance to find a bug/type-o/issue.
Currently working for a company that operates every project through a variety of silos, our development of a better QA process is bringing to light how differently the various silos use the data and work to create the end product. As the PM, on the starting end, things can work beautifully for me that can really hurt someone later down the line if the QC that they need done is not completed. Recognizing this we're developing a system that allows the group that gets the output from our initial product to QC it before it goes into the field. Every single time this happens I'm amazed to see the things that come up. Most of them would not have been big issuess (and, most of them are not NEW issues) but saving an hour or two on the end is increasing revenue for the company.
What we're still struggling with is the time to allow for it. Since it's not a normal QA team, it really is ending up to be something they can get to quickly when they aren't overworked and it's slower when they are (and maybe not done at all).
I wonder if all small companies go through this issue of how to handle QA before they’re big enough to employee a person/team that just focuses on this aspect of the project and deliverable.
1:24:21 PM 
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