Enabling Business Readiness Enabling Business Readiness by Establishing Testing by Establishing Testing Centers of ExcellenceCenters of Excellence

bybySumithra GomatamSumithra Gomatam

Testing Practice Leader–CognizantTesting Practice Leader–Cognizant

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AgendaBusiness Readiness & Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE)Voice of CustomersTCoE Models

Scope Activities Critical Success factors Key considerations

TCoE EcosystemTCoE –Towards Best in ClassTCoE Success EnablersMoving Ahead –The Future of TestingQ&A

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Voice of Customers

How can I leverage technology in

testing?

What value do I offer to business?

How will I drive effectiveness and

efficiency?

How do I ensure that applications are defect free?How can I improve

my time-to-market?

What are my true responsibilities?

How will I identify and remove overheads?

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Towards Testing Centers of ExcellenceTCoE Models

•Definition | Development | Maintenance of test processes, standards & templates• Facilitation of Test Management Community• Metrics Reporting & Management• Test Process Training• Continuous Process Improvement (CPI)

• Provision | Administration | Support of Test Infrastructure and Test Tools

• Provision of NFT Services & Test Automation Services• Technical Test Consultancy

• Provision of Functional, UAT & liaison services• Flexible resource pool creation• Provision of specialized testing services

Testing Tools/

Infrastructure CoE

NFT & Automation CoE

Shared Testing TeamTesting

Process CoE

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Testing Process CoE

• Process definitions & Roll-out• Process facilitation & maintenance• Process Compliance Audit• Facilitation of Test management community • Continuous process improvement

Services

• Organizational strategy alignment• Effective Communication & Training • Effective Piloting and Evaluation• Process compliance review mechanism

Critical Success Factors

• Assessment of existing process assets • Define/Refine and standardize processes • Institute metrics framework• Usage guidelines and communication plan • Establish centralized process framework

Pre

Setu

p

Activities

• Communicating, Piloting & Training • Process audits • Change management • Industry benchmarking Po

st S

etup

• Representation of key stakeholders from various groups

• Seed change agents to facilitate propagation

• Closed loop feedback mechanism

Key Considerations

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Infrastructure & Tools CoE

• Tool evaluation• Testing tools technical support• Test tool license management & administration• Tool process standardization• Tool optimization

Services

• Tools inventory • Tool evaluation• Capacity planning & Platform optimization • ROI Analysis• Tool licensing & procurement policy

Pre

Setu

p

Activities

• Clear understanding of opportunities for operational efficiencies• Demand forecasting mechanism• Tool/Infrastructure utilization & Optimization• Service Level Agreements

Critical Success Factors

• Tool standardization for testing activities such as requirement management, defect management etc. • Leverage vendor organization’s tool partnership• Tool set integration• Alternative tool pricing model

Key Considerations

• Maintain tools inventory• Tool administration, upgrades, license management & tools training• Monitoring & maintenance• Incident management workflow

Post

Set

up

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NFT & Automation CoE

• Review/Refine & publish scripting standards and guidelines• Resource sharing & allocation models • ROI Analysis • Team identification

Pre

Setu

p

Activities

• Uniform Automation/Performance Testing guidelines & scripting standards

• Reusable Automation/Performance testing framework & work load models

• Defined Non Functional/automation testing requirements

Critical Success Factors

• Scope for Regression & Test Automation based on scheduled releases• Utilize Tools CoE for standards & guidelines definition• Utilize Process CoE for propagation of best practices

Key Considerations

• Feasibility analysis & Proof of concepts

• Construct reusable frameworks

• Technical Training/Support

• Technical test consulting

Post

Set

up

Services• Performance testing• Security testing • Usability testing• Workload Modeling

NFT

• Test Automation• Framework design and Implementation

Automation

Value-Adds• Technical consultancy• Feasibility analysis

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Shared Testing Team

• Establish test management office• Scope analysis & demand forecasting• Engagement & Sourcing model• Institute training program • KPI definition

Pre

Setu

p

Activities

• Identification of core vs. non-core business functions.

• Strong Governance Model

• KPI identifications

• Management by Metrics

Critical Success Factors

• Tracking mechanism to measure achievements over period of time against established goals

• Cross-functional training

• Effective collaboration of Business Analysts and QA

Key Considerations

• Resource allocation• Skill assessment and training• Test program management • Construct knowledge assetsPo

st S

etup

Services• Functional testing• System testing/SIT• Acceptance testing

Basic

Specialized

Support & Consultancy

• Defect Management• Test Life Cycle modeling• Test Strategy conceptualization

• Compliance testing• DW testing• Agile testing • SOA testing• Product/Package testing

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TCoE Ecosystem

Test Planning & Estimation

Test Design &

Build

Test Execution &Management

Test Reporting

Test Metrics

Management

TestProgram

Management

Testing Center of Excellence

Infrastructure & Tools COE

Tool Maintenance & Support

Test Automation Tool Implementation Tool Provision

Process COE

Process Maintenance Process Definition Metrics Program Test Process Training Continuous Process

Improvement Best Practice

implementation

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T e s t i n g C e n t e r O f E x c e l l e n c e

Service Spectrum

System TestingSystem

Integration testing

Regression Testing

Test Automation UAT

Core – Flexibleresourcing

Standard process& Frameworks

Common Tools,Infrastructure &

Automation

SolutionAccelerations/Best practices

Governancestructure

>

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TCoE –Success Enablers

People

Process

Technology

• Training & Skill development• BA/QA Model• Core-flex teams• Knowledge Management

• Reviews & Continuous process improvement• Stringent Quality gates• Defined performance objectives• SLA driven Governance

• Tool Research & Integration• Test Modeling & Automation• Scientific estimation methods• Test case optimization• Increased reusability (Scenario repository)

Innovations

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Moving Ahead –The Future of Testing

Vision for the future

Towards measuring testing on outcome rather than outflow

Trends in this direction

Balanced Score Card to align

testing with business objectives

Mature relationship between

Business, Dev & Testing teams

driven by SLAs

ΠJustifying budget for testing Gap between business needs and testing metrics

Complexity in operationalizing outcome-based measurement Dependencies of testing with other groups

InhibitorsAccelerators

Towards eliminating human intervention in the testing

process

Model-based testing tools for automated generation of test cases from business requirements

Time-to-market pressures Assured quality of testing

Capability to build an integrated tool for automated test execution in the first run

Towards replacing testing by IT certification a la CMMi

CIOs mandate independent certification of IT teams (internal and external) along the lines of CMMi; but with focus on grading quality of applications delivered by the IT teams

Cost of qualityDiffused ownership of quality in the current operating model

Enterprise-level acceptance of an IT certification driveCapability to conduct comprehensive certification for internal & external teams

Towards rapid development paradigms that render testing

obsolete

Emergence of Testing Center of Excellence Models Agile testing & Test Driven Development

Cost of quality Time-to-market pressures

Inertia to change

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TCoE –Success Enablers

Q&A

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Thank You

Thank you

Testing ServicesTesting Services

Enabling Business Readiness