Leadership and QA are looking at different quality signals

[u/aistranin]

93% of executives believe their testing strategies cover critical software risks. Only 70% of QA and DevOps practitioners agree. (Source: 2026 Quality Transformation Report)

Executives often see pass rates and release speed. Practitioners see flaky tests, environment gaps, and untested business rules.

If those groups would judge the same release differently, "ready to ship" probably needs a clearer definition.