Quality Engineering in Product IT Operating Model – Testing Operating Model 2.0 Mindtree Point of View by Test Advisory Services Product IT Operating Model

Quality Engineering in Product IT Operating Model – Testing Operating Model 2.0 Mindtree Point of View by Test Advisory services Product IT operating Model

With Agile being ubiquitous in Enterprise ITs and finding greater adoption in Businesses, Enterprises are realigning and elevating their IT capabilities to deliver specific business value on top of technology outcomes. This is enabled by two key changes a) Integrated Biz-IT teams aligned to a business outcome/Process or LOB b) engineering mindset.

However, they are doing so using “legacy” models for testing. Many organizations moved to centralized testing models. Some setup monolithic T-CoEs. While these generated many benefits, they are not aligned to value streams delivering business outcomes. In the same breath, testing only within the agile squads / sprints is a tactical response and delivers to engineering outcomes.

Test operating model 2.0

In large Enterprise IT, that is shifting to this new paradigm, there are three key demands from a QA capability perspective. A) In sprint Developer-Tester who are part of specific business context aligned squads B) Test Engineering capabilities that serve common services for example; common test automation framework, test data management, performance engineering etc. C) QA governance aligned to Business & engineering outcomes. This new model for testing across the enterprise needs to be considered. One that supports the velocity while recognizing that many enterprise applications cross the boundaries of their agile teams, but also leverages common services that can be shared across agile teams, as well as non-agile teams ( capability squads). And also providing a layer of governance to ensure an optimized level of standard processes, tool usage and reporting.

Make the SHIFT -> What constitutes test operating model 2.0?

A Test Operating Model 2.0 typically constitutes of three layers that can be applied to almost any SDLC model. Across varying maturity levels of agile. The new operating model increases both, emphasis on testing the functionality and test coverage of the product/application. It constitutes of three layers, a product testing team that focusses on testing functions at the pod/ sprint level, the LOB (Line of Business) testing team that focusses on cross-functional / End-to-end (E2E) and non-functional testing aspects, thereby increasing test coverage and the enterprise testing team that focusses on re-usability, depicted in the picture below:

Product Engineering Pods

Figure 1: Test Operating Model 2.0

The figure below describes how the people, delivery and process of testing changes across the various layers of the new operating model.

People Delivery Process

Resources are part of the sprint Consume frameworks, best Product teams and report into the Resources focus on feature practices, utilities/tools etc. project / portfolio managers testing the user stories that are Engineering Provide metrics, lessons learnt with dotted line to the specific to that sprint etc. Pods enterprise testing leader

Resources are tightly coupled Resources, focus on cross- Consume frameworks, best with the project testing team functional testing, E2E testing, LOB Testing practices, utilities/tools etc. and the portfolio stakeholders, regression automation amongst Provide metrics, lessons learnt Team however are managed under others for the sprint / projects etc. the enterprise testing leader within the particular portfolio

Publish metrics, drive efficiency Resources focus on building build frameworks, utilities/tools Enterprise Resources are managed under utilities / frameworks that can & new solutions, share lessons the enterprise testing leader be cross-leveraged by the other Testing Team learnt & industry best practices two layers etc.

Figure 2: How the new operating model works

Make the SHIFT -> 1 The Test Operating Model 2.0 though can be applied to all kinds of organizations, but have great benefits when applied to medium or large organizations which have scale and multiple testing teams.

Why should organizations adapt to the new test operating model 2.0?

Through this model, organizations can leverage synergies of scale, increase visibility, standardize, become more efficient & agile and improve governance leading to expedited savings, increased flexibility, continuous improvement and overall higher quality. The time taken for organizations to transform into this model with a detailed business case and custom solution, achieve cost benefits and improved quality may vary from 3 months to even a year. This will be, based on the organization’s current maturity, people skills and leadership mandate.

How to get started?

Mindtree can engage with potential customers in varied forms of test advisory services, ranging from dipstick analysis to enterprise test consulting and guide organizations to re-design the ways of working for testing teams.

At Mindtree, we have taken various kinds of organizations (including medium & large) through a phased transformation journey from Siloed testing model to the new Test Operating Model 2.0. This is enabling organizations to reap the benefits in through reduction in cycle time of the value streams, reduced wait time on defects, reduced technical debt and overall TCO reduction.

About the Author: Meril Jacob is a Consultant with Test Advisory Services (TAS) in Mindtree. He is currently instrumental in conducting QA assessments for test transformations, strategy & maturity consulting engagements, organizational re-designs and contributing to thought leadership. He has over 16 years of experience and has worked extensively across multiple geographies and domains to build custom testing solutions for both program and enterprise level.

Gagan Jain is a Business Consultant with Integrated Services in Mindtree. He consults Mindtree Clients on shift to Product IT model on IT operating model design & embedded practices. He has over 17 years of experience and has consulted Enterprise IT extensively across multiple geographies and domains on IT Strategy & operations.

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