Q Team Agile Transformation: Six-Step Process for Strengthening Quality Management

The Q Team (Q派) of Xiaomi’s Information Technology Department launched an agile transformation in December 2019 to create a unified quality‑management information system for the whole group, aiming to standardize processes, support decision‑making, and improve quality outcomes.

Before the transformation, the team suffered from insufficient user‑story splitting, unclear delivery timelines, and frequent delays despite two‑week sprint cycles.

With support from the Agile Transformation Committee, the team invited an agile coach (the "Light‑Bringer") and selected the Q Platform reconstruction project as a pilot, initiating a series of structured changes.

Step 1: Define Development Team Roles and Responsibilities

The new structure introduced Business Expert Elders, Product Elders, Scrum Masters (referred to as "Steering Masters"), Development Elders, Test Elders, and junior members, each with clear duties such as converting business needs to product requirements, managing the backlog in JIRA, conducting sprint planning, and ensuring test coverage.

Step 2: Establish Iteration Calendar and Real‑Time JIRA Boards

The team created a detailed iteration calendar, set key milestones, and deployed JIRA boards (Backlog, Sprint, and Daily) to visualize task progress across Beijing and Wuhan locations, ensuring every member updates status before daily stand‑ups.

Step 3: Plan Releases, Split Products, and Allocate Iterations

Guidelines for user‑story splitting were defined: product elders enter stories, development elders break them into tasks with initial estimates, test elders create test‑case tasks, and all members update remaining effort before each stand‑up.

Step 4: Integrate Product and Testing Activities To compensate for a single test elder, product elders were involved in testing, receiving training on test fundamentals and using the "fishing" analogy to illustrate defect detection and test‑case design. Step 5: Shift Quality Activities Upstream Test elders design test cases and key self‑test points before development begins, enabling developers to catch issues early and improve overall quality. Step 6: Daily Cross‑City Video Meetings and Electronic Boards Because the team is split between Beijing and Wuhan, daily video stand‑ups review three‑question updates from each lead, assess sprint risks, discuss upcoming requirements, and share project news, ensuring seamless communication. Through these six steps, the Q Team built a solid foundation for agile quality management, aligning roles, processes, tools, and communication to unlock higher team capability.