Enabling

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

by
Sumithra Gomatam
Testing Practice Leader–Cognizant
 Agenda
Business Readiness & Testing Center of Excellence
(TCoE)
 Voice of Customers
 TCoE Models
 Scope
 Activities
 Critical Success factors
 Key considerations
TCoE Ecosystem
TCoE –Towards Best in Class
TCoE Success Enablers
Moving Ahead –The Future of Testing
Q&A
2
 Voice of Customers

How will I identify

and remove What value do I
overheads? offer to business?
How can I leverage
technology in
testing?

How will I drive

effectiveness and
What are my true efficiency?
responsibilities?

How do I ensure
that applications
How can I improve are defect free?
my time-to-
market?

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 Towards Testing Centers of Excellence
TCoE Models
•Definition | Development |
Maintenance of test processes,
standards & templates
• Facilitation of Test Management • Provision of Functional, UAT
Community & liaison services
• Metrics Reporting & Management • Flexible resource pool creation
• Test Process Training • Provision | Administration | • Provision of NFT Services & • Provision of specialized testing
• Continuous Process Improvement Support of Test Infrastructure Test Automation Services services
(CPI) and Test Tools • Technical Test Consultancy

Testing NFT &

Testing Shared
Tools/ Automation CoE
Process CoE Infrastructure CoE Testing Team

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 Testing Process CoE

• Process definitions & Roll-out Service

Critical Success
• Process facilitation & maintenances
Factors
• Organizational strategy alignment
• Process Compliance Audit
• Effective Communication & Training
• Facilitation of Test management
community • Effective Piloting and Evaluation
• Continuous process improvement • Process compliance review mechanism

Activiti Key
esassets
• Assessment of existing process
• Representation of keyConsiderations
stakeholders from
• Define/Refine and standardize various groups
Setup

processes
Pre

• Institute metrics framework • Seed change agents to facilitate

• Usage guidelines and communication propagation
plan • Closed loop feedback mechanism
• Establish centralized process
framework
• Communicating, Piloting & Training
Setup

• Process audits
Post

• Change management
• Industry benchmarking

5
 Infrastructure & Tools CoE

Service Critical Success

• Tool evaluation
s Factors for
• Clear understanding of opportunities
• Testing tools technical support operational efficiencies
• Test tool license management & • Demand forecasting mechanism
administration
• Tool/Infrastructure utilization &
• Tool process standardization Optimization
• Tool optimization • Service Level Agreements
Activiti
• Tools inventory es Key
• Tool evaluation Considerations
Setup

• Tool standardization for testing activities

Pre

• Capacity planning & Platform

optimization such as requirement management, defect
management etc.
• ROI Analysis
• Tool licensing & procurement policy • Leverage vendor organization’s tool
partnership
• Maintain tools inventory • Tool set integration
• Tool administration, upgrades, license
Setup
Post

• Alternative tool pricing model

management & tools training
• Monitoring & maintenance
• Incident management workflow

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 NFT & Automation CoE
NFT Service Critical Success
• Performance s
Value-Adds Factors
testing • Uniform Automation/Performance Testing
• Security testing • Technical guidelines & scripting standards
• Usability testing consultancy
• Feasibility • Reusable Automation/Performance testing
• Workload analysis
Modeling framework & work load models
Automation
• Defined Non Functional/automation testing
• Test Automation
• Framework design and requirements
Implementation
Activiti Key
es
• Review/Refine & publish scripting Considerations
• Scope for Regression & Test Automation
standards and guidelines based on scheduled releases
Setup
Pre

• Resource sharing & allocation models • Utilize Tools CoE for standards &
• ROI Analysis guidelines definition
• Utilize Process CoE for propagation of
• Team identification best practices

• Feasibility analysis & Proof of concepts

Setup
Post

• Construct reusable frameworks

• Technical Training/Support
• Technical test consulting

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 Shared Testing Team
Basic Service
• Functional testing
Critical Success
• System
s&
Support Factors
testing/SIT Consultancy • Identification of core vs. non-core business
• Acceptance • Defect functions.
Specialized
testing Management
• Compliance testing • Strong Governance Model
• DW testing • Test Life Cycle
• Agile testing modeling • KPI identifications
• SOA testing • Test Strategy • Management by Metrics
• Product/Package conceptualization
testing
Activiti Key
es
• Establish test management office
Considerations
• Scope analysis & demand forecasting • Tracking mechanism to measure
Setup

achievements over period of time against

Pre

• Engagement & Sourcing model

established goals
• Institute training program
• KPI definition • Cross-functional training
• Effective collaboration of Business
• Resource allocation Analysts and QA
Setup

• Skill assessment and training

Post

• Test program management

• Construct knowledge assets

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 TCoE Ecosystem
Testing Center Of Excellence

Service Spectrum
System Testing System Regression Test Automation UAT
Integration Testing
testing

Process COE

Infrastructure & Test Test

Tools COE  Process Maintenance
Metrics Program
Management Management  Process Definition
 Tool Maintenance &  Metrics Program
Support Testing Test Process Training
> 
 Test Automation > Center of
 Continuous Process
Excellence
 Tool Implementation Test
Test Improvement
 Tool Provision Planning &
Estimation Reporting  Best Practice
implementation
Test Design Test
& Execution &
Build Management
>

Core – Flexible Standard process Common Tools, Solution

Accelerations/ Governance
resourcing & Frameworks Infrastructure &
Best practices structure
Automation

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TCoE –Success Enablers

• Training & Skill development

• BA/QA Model
People • Core-flex teams
• Knowledge Management

• Reviews & Continuous process improvement

Process •
•
Stringent Quality gates
Defined performance objectives
• SLA driven Governance

• Tool Research & Integration

Test Modeling & Automation
Technology
•
• 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  Trends in
this
direction
 Balanced Score Card to
ΠAccelerators
 Inhibitors

align testing with business  Complexity in

Towards measuring testing on  Justifying budget for
operationalizing outcome-
objectives testing
outcome rather than outflow based measurement
 Mature relationship  Gap between business
 Dependencies of testing
needs and testing metrics
between Business, Dev & with other groups

Testing teams driven by

SLAs
 Model-based testing tools  Time-to-market pressures  Capability to build an
Towards eliminating human for automated generation  Assured quality of testing integrated tool for
of test cases from business automated test execution
intervention in the testing process requirements in the first run

CIOs mandate
Enterprise-level
independent certification of  Cost of quality acceptance of an IT
Towards replacing testing by IT IT teams (internal and Diffused ownership of certification drive
external) along the lines of
certification a la CMMi quality in the current Capability to conduct
CMMi; but with focus on operating model comprehensive certification
grading quality of
for internal & external
applications delivered by
teams
the IT teams
 Emergence of Testing
Towards rapid development  Cost of quality  Inertia to change
Center of Excellence
 Time-to-market pressures
paradigms that render testing Models
 Agile testing & Test
obsolete Driven Development

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TCoE –Success Enablers

Q&A

12
 Testing Services
Thank You
Enabling Business Readiness

Thank you

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