Testing Centre Of Excellence From AppLabs

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2. Testing Centre of Excellence
Myth or Reality
22
nd
October 2008
Ian Londesbrough

3. AppLabs confidential and restricted circulation 3
Agenda
»Understand business drivers for TCoE
»Identify the building blocks of the TCoE
»How to build the TCoE
»Assessing TCoE against the Testing Lifecycle
»Deploying the TCoE solution
»Improving and expanding the service
»Build the Business Case
»Summary

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Why TCoE? Business Drivers
»Increased business user demand
»Complex changes
»Time to market
»Multiple releases in a year
»Dynamic business changes
»Lack of uniform testing processes
»Every project having its own testing process
»More people dependant and not process dependant
»Testing is time consuming
»Inadequate Automation & usage of tools
»No key Accelerators / Frameworks
»Effectiveness of testing
»No measurements / metrics

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Test Center of
Excellence
Project Support
Expertise
Building
Process
Improvement
Knowledge
Management
Methodologies
Tools
Benchmark
metrics
Templates
External, internal
training
Test Automation
tool certifications
Accelerators
Internal projects
Prototypes
Functional,
technical support
for projects
Problem
resolution
Capture
experiences
White papers
Best practice
repository
Re usable
components
The Building Blocks
Complete Formal
Test
Review

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Proof of concept
Bring in Applabs rich experience,
from Testing industry specific Best
Practices
Test tools and technology competency
Access to the latest tools and technologies like
automation tools, scripting languages,
databases
Knowledge management
Integrated knowledge
management system to help
leverage our learning
Reusable test suites & frameworks
Proven & Structured Process Models. Design &
implement best-of-breed solutions & technology
Deepening of skills
Through training & prototype
development
Measurement & Continuous
Improvement
Metrics to ensure enterprise wide
implementation
Regular check points to evaluate
process maturity & Feedback
Strategy definition
Leverage on internal and external
knowledge base to define objectives
and scope of TCoE
Assimilation
Creating a knowledge
base through Testing
best practices
Awareness
Building a roadmap and
vision for the Center of
Excellence
Deployment
Using capabilities and
components that the
CoE generates,
deploy across enterprise
Improvement
Improving value by
repeated use –
continuously
refining the components
Test
Center
of Excellence
Building a TCoE

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TCoE – Assimilation
Looking at every step of the Testing lifecycle
Test Lifecycle
Management
Test
Strategy
Test
Planning
Test
Case
Design
Test
Execution
Defect
Report
Analysis
&
Reports
Test strategy
document
Test plan
document
Traceability
matrix
Test
Scripts
Defect
reports
Test summary
reports
R
R
R
Analysis
reports
Test case
document
RIndicates review point
Indicates testing process
Indicates test artifacts
Study
Require-
-ment
Feedback
Test
Organization
Test
Environment
Test
Data
Test
Tools
Test Metrics
Release
Management
Review
Process
Software
Development
Lifecycle
Configuration
Management
Change
Management

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System Tests
Testing
effectiveness
THE “MOSAIC”
Assimilation - Spot your candidates for TCoE
Key business element
Packages &
Technology enablers
Architecture
Testing Imperative
Strategies
EAI
Cycle time
reduction
Data
Migration
SOA
Data
Integrity
Regression
SAP
Web
Services
Performance
Test
automation
POS framework
Oracle
DW
Test Process
Improvement
Packaged
app testing
Business
Partners
IT Technology
groupsL
e
v
e
r
a
g
e
Platform J2EE .NET
AS/400
Mainframes
Unix/Linux Windows
Process & Techniques WIP-CAFÉ
Orthogonal
Array
P
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c
e
s
s

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B
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S
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v
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n
c
e
CRM Finance HR Systems Inventory Sales & Marketing
Manugistics JDA Software Seibel
Client/Server
Reliability Modeling

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TCoE - Deployment
Step 3
»Environment Planning
»Hardware
»Software
Step 1
»People Planning
»Test organization
»Training
Step 2
»Processes Planning
»Management processes
»Communication processes
»Automation / Tools

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TCoE - Deployment
Project Testing Life Cycle
Regression
Test
Test case
Design
Integration
Test
Fix the
Defects
System
Test
Fix the
Defects
Regression
Test
UAT
Performance
Operations
Testing
Final
Regression
Pre-Release
Testing
Implement
Testing practises
TCoE team working with
Project Managers /
Process and Change team
Final
Fix

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Process and Change Team
Business
Area 1
Define
&
improve
Deployment Timelines
Test consulting
Transformation level
Test execution
Tactical level
Execute
&
Feed back
Testing Center
of Excellence (TCOE)
Business
Area 2
Business
Area 3
Business
Area 4
Business
Area n……
• Improve project quality, reduce
costs & delays
• Measure improvement and establish
benchmarks
• Define a customized testing
framework based on best practices
• Educate people
• Consistent logistics, automation and
resources usage
TCoE - Improvement

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Path to Success - Build a Business Case
»Define key objectives and scope
»What are my the key issues that the TCoE aims to solve
»What are the priorities of these issues
»Engagement model with other departments and project teams
»To ensure its own success, the TCoE must set rules around how and when
it will provide services to project teams.
»Clearly defined entry and exit criteria for its operation
»Quantifiable benefits
»What is the ROI on this?
»How do I select and measure success criteria
»Where will the funding come from?
»For many enterprises, TCoE usually remains a model without powers of
enforcement because they do not have a mechanism to understand the ROI
of implementing a COE strategy
»Chargeback or direct from business budget

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Summary
»Fully understand what you are trying to achieve through the TCoE – don’t
overestimate or oversell the solution
»Plan accordingly by outlining a sensible and pragmatic roadmap to success
– bite size chunks are the best approach
»Position the TCoE as an evolutionary process – it’s about continual
improvement, refinement and execution (not a one-off)
»Define a well thought-out and structured business case – use metrics and
evidence from process improvement initiatives to show the value of the
TCoE
»Ensure you have sponsorship at all levels – Business and IT
Questions to: [email protected]