AgileManagedServicesPerformance
Planit started working with a new client in the engineering industry in a partnership to manage the testing across all of the projects in their shared services department. The client spends on average around £10 m per year on projects covering their global business and office software.
During the first few weeks of the engagement, a Test Process Optimisation (TPO) was undertaken to benchmark how testing was completed. Furthermore, a road map was produced detailing a three-year plan to improve the level of testing and reduce the cost of testing to the projects.
The TPO highlighted the use of SAP with a legacy of custom systems and software throughout the organisation. During the TPO, it became apparent that the defect detection and travel rates were too high to be sustainable to Planit’s client. There was a 1:1 ratio of defects found during the testing cycles and in the production environment post go-live.
This level of defects not only affected the multiple integrated systems that supported the global business, but also had a negative effect on the perception of the IT department within the overall business.
Thousands of hours in downtime and £1 million saved in one year alone from reduced defects found in production.
Cost and time savings from correcting defects sooner.
Fewer defects found during testing and in production from static document reviews.
Improved perception of software quality within the business from earlier testing.
During the first twelve months of the engagement, several changes were made to the way projects engaged with the testing team:
As the above graph shows, there was a significant reduction in defects found in production, saving the client thousands of hours in downtime in the first year alone.
As the TPO was being undertaken for every defect found in the testing cycles in Q1, the same amount of defects were also found in the production environment after go-live. This issue had to be addressed, as the cost to the business was significant in terms of technology for the correction of the defects, as well as business time spent on workarounds until the defects were fixed.
The introduction of more rigorous test coverage of the business requirements showed a spike in defects in Q2, but resulted in a reduction in the amount of defect travel into the production environment.
In Q3, the involvement of the testing team moved into the requirements elicitation phase of projects. This ensured static document reviews happened, which further reduced the number of defects found during the dynamic testing phases and in production.
By choosing Planit as their testing partner of choice and leveraging the integrated services offered by Planit, the client benefitted from a reduced the cost to the business of project rework and an increase in the perception of software quality within their global business.
The managed service approach continues to increase the maturity of the testing processes which delivers tangible benefits to the client.
In the first year of the engagement, the client saved £1 m from increasing the level of testing and applying industry best practice. They also reaped the benefit of less defects impacting their ability to carry out their business functions.
In the future, the move is to introduce automation to reduce the overall cost of testing across the projects by 30 per cent.
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