2 min read engineering management

Broken Lines, Broken Builds: When Dev, PM, and QA Don’t Talk

Broken Lines, Broken Builds: When Dev, PM, and QA Don’t Talk
A QA person losing their mind

Here’s a harsh truth:
Your product didn’t fail because the tech was bad.
It failed because your people weren’t talking.

You can have the best devs slinging code, PMs running sprint rituals like clockwork, and QA engineers catching bugs like Pokémon—but if they’re not communicating, your launch is a dumpster fire waiting to happen.

Silence is Not a Workflow

Too many teams treat cross-discipline communication like a game of telephone—pass the plan, pray for understanding, and hope nobody breaks production.

Devs make assumptions.
PMs rewrite priorities in a vacuum.
QA finds bugs no one told them to expect.
And the client? Oh, the client’s just out here getting demo’d a “final build” that nobody signed off on.

All because no one said the damn thing out loud.

Devs: You're Not Coding in a Cave

You’re not a lone wizard conjuring solutions. You're building for people—with people. If you don’t understand the why, your “perfect” implementation might be a perfect waste of time.

Talk to your PM. Ask questions. Get messy in the requirements. Clarify that one line in the ticket that was clearly written at 3AM after two Red Bulls and a panic attack.

PMs: You're Not a Human Jira Board

Stop treating the team like a set of levers to pull and deadlines to chase. Get in the weeds. If you can’t explain what QA is testing, or why devs are blocked, you’re not leading—you’re just forwarding Slack messages.

You are the translator, not the bottleneck. Speak the languages. Align the goals. Clear the damn fog.

QA: You're Not Just Here to Break Things

You are quality defenders, not just bug-hunters. If no one is telling you what’s changing, what’s critical, or what’s even in scope, say something. Scream it. Drop a bug ticket titled “Lack of Communication Is the Real Defect.”

You deserve to be in the room when the plan is made—not just when the damage is done.

The Fallout? It’s Always the Same.

  • Features ship half-baked.
  • Timelines implode.
  • Trust erodes.
  • And the team starts muttering the quiet part loud:
    “This place is a mess.”

Not because of tools. Not because of velocity. But because nobody’s talking like they give a damn.

Here’s the Fix: Talk. Early. Often. Loudly.

  • Devs, ask questions until you’re annoying.
  • PMs, clarify until it hurts.
  • QA, raise your hand before the flames hit prod.

Real communication isn’t polite. It’s proactive. It’s messy. It’s necessary.

So if your team’s communication strategy is just hoping everyone figures it out—
🔥 congrats, you’re not a team. You’re a bomb with a timer. 🔥

Break the silence. Blow up the silos.
Lead. Don’t Ctrl.

Ctrl Zed