Testing CoE

How do you bring innovative products and services to market fast, with minimum effort and investment? MindTree knows that the answer lies in efficient utilization of limited resources to enhance business value. The proven, cost-effective norm today is to focus on core business processes, outsourcing non-core activities to specialist firms.

For businesses that are driven by IT, success can depend on application performance and availability. MindTree understands the business pressures that reduce lead times, forcing technology owners to test applications at faster rates and reduced cost - leading to quality problems and operational challenges. We also recognize that there is a lack of standard operating procedures and mechanisms to proactively detect issues; this adversely impacts end customers, partners, and employees, adding up to unnecessary cost, complexity, and end-user frustration.

To address these challenges, MindTree can establish a centralized, consolidated testing group for you - a Testing Centre of Excellence (CoE). The focus here is on processes, people, tools, domain knowledge, and best practices. Comprehensive testing services can thus be delivered, using flexible frameworks comprising governance models, key assets, and a set of shared processes.

Testing CoE: Highlights

• The testing CoE can cater to all testing requirements, with an emphasis on continual process improvements
• Testing CoEs will focus on innovations, building core competencies that are agile enough to adapt to diverse customer testing requirements
• CoEs help promote a culture of learning and innovation, providing the entire organization with a central platform for quality assurance programs and quality management
• CoEs can also create visibility into the quality parameters of IT applications, keeping everyone informed, and aligning IT applications with business objectives

CoE Benefits

CoEs can be active partners in establishing a robust, reliable, real-time IT infrastructure for a dynamic and competitive business world. Apart from addressing the shortcomings of more traditional models, the testing CoE can deliver the following advantages:

• Ability to verify and validate technological solutions for business needs, by leveraging on knowledge bases, best practices, innovations, domain expertise and technology competencies
• Availability of shared common processes, standards, tools, and resources to reduce lead time in providing testing services and supporting scalability needs
• Flexibility in terms of team ramp-up and ramp-down, and better utilization of existing resources
• Ease in getting test engineers to train on domain-specific skills, and developing subject matter experts
• Enhanced productivity and operational efficiency through synergy of skilled people, best-of-breed testing tools, techniques, standard processes, automation frame works, and reusable components
• Assurance of gained knowledge through well-established knowledge retention programs within the COE, through documentation and sharing of internal knowledge
• Greater demarcation and visibility of the cost of testing services to the business owner
• ROI-based justification to the business owner through continuous cost-savings, improved productivity, better quality of service, and faster time-to-market

3-year Roadmap

The CoE will achieve excellence on different aspects of testing over 3 years as depicted.

Year 1 - Attain Technical Excellence

• Frameworks and Tools identified for use within the CoE and piloted in the projects.
• Standardized metrics measured across the CoE, SLAs based on the metrics published, and adhered to.
• 20% of Regression Test Cases for frequently changing applications will be automated.
• Service levels of the CoE will meet the current service levels.
• Unified process / communication plan established and practiced within the CoE
• MindTree tester’s handbook of process to be followed, published, and used.

Year 2 - Deliver Service Excellence

• Optimization of baseline SLAs
• Implement domain related testing frameworks
• 40% to 50% of regression test cases for frequently changing applications will be automated
• Repository of the domain knowledge for all products in the CoE
• Frameworks and tools deployed across all projects
• Continuous improvements to the processes identified and implemented

Year 3 - Attain Business Excellence

• Complete coverage of all Business Units (BUs) and product lines identified
• Identify and implement changes in the technology trends across the domain
• Tracking Business Service Levels
• 70% to 80% of regression test cases for frequently changing applications will be automated
• Extensive usage of frameworks (including automation) leading to reduction in SDLC and maintenance costs