7 reasons why you need a testing center of excellence

Testing teams are constantly under pressure to reduce development time without compromising quality. Traditional methods of quality assurance fail as they just cannot keep up with the challenges in constantly delivering software that is time-bound, robust, and efficient. This has prompted more and more companies to lean toward the idea of establishing a centralized testing service. 

What is a Testing Center of Excellence? 

A testing center of excellence (TCoE) is a framework where testing is maintained as a centralized service and shared across the organization. It is a core unit that involves standardized testing processes, formal metrics, required tools, and expert professionals. An amalgamation of tools, QA processes, and human resources, TCoE empowers organizations to implement test automation the right way while enriching manual testing productivity and outcomes. They can achieve a higher QA maturity level as TCoE offers the benefit of scalability and robustness of QA function within an organization. 

Does your business need a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE)? 

The answer is ‘yes’ if any one of the following SEVEN CRITERIA applies to your organization: 

1. Your QA is aligned to project goals rather than the organizational goals: In the absence of a centralized testing framework, the testing teams report to individuals and hence do not share a common goal or direction. TCoE consolidates all testing functions under a single umbrella so that they operate toward a common goal which is, in turn, aligned towards the mission, vision, and goals of the organization. This serves to add more clarity and visibility to QA in the eyes of the top management. 
2. Finding testing resources with desired technical and domain skills is a challenge and hence, projects suffer from high training costs: In a traditional QA set up, there is limited cross-project visibility due to which resources are not utilized optimally. Under TCoE, testing resources are organized on the lines of technology and Line of Business (LoB) as per their core skills which aid in proper deployment of resources across projects. 
3. Your QA process is not transparent: In other words, you are not sure how much ROI you get out of your QA process. Without a TCoE, there is no efficient tracking of how much an organization has invested in testing and how much return has it generated. TCoE introduces metric-based tracking that measures the success of the QA process in terms of test coverage, test effort, defect slippage, test effectiveness, as well as the ROI on testing. 
4. You desire to reduce your testing time without compromising on quality: With TCoE, you can achieve a mature QA with standard tools and frameworks resulting in a more efficient test cycle. Organizations with TCoE in place show an average reduction of up to 30% in the testing cycle which considerably reduces the time-to-market. 
5. You do not have a standard QA process and there is no sharing of best practices, tools, and automation opportunities across teams at an organization level. Unnecessary time and effort are spent on reinventing the wheel each time. TCoE standardizes testing processes throughout the organization and sets guidelines for test planning, test scripts, and test execution. It facilitates the sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and automation opportunities. This leads to a reduced learning curve and eliminates chaos arising from variation in testing across projects. 
6. Your projects are often struggling with issues related to defect leakage and missed deliveries: With TCoE, organizations have been able to achieve up to 50-70% level of automation in testing with an average of 30% reduction in test cycles and limit defect leakage to less than 2%. 
7. Your organization is not aware of new trends in testing. There is no focus on emerging technologies and you do not possess the framework necessary to test them. A TCoE structure helps QA to be more business-oriented. It is in sync with new technologies and trends in testing which gives the organization a competitive edge and empowers it to respond quickly to new business opportunities. 

To sum up 

It might seem overwhelming to set up such a centralized unit. But like all good things, a TCoE too requires only a one-time investment of time, resources, and efforts. The benefits that it offers in return far outweigh the investments, thus, giving the desired ROI to the organizations. 

Organizations that have adopted TCoE have reported an average cost reduction of 35% over 3 years. Some of the other benefits of TCoE are that it brings in more agility to QA and helps to establish a continuous improvement process driven by metrics. Setting up a TCoE does require a certain amount of change along with support and commitment from the top management. But you always have the option of partnering with a company that already has TCoE capability. 

Cigniti’s unique TCoE services combine a deep understanding of industry best practices and decades-long expertise in software testing services delivery. We have established Software Testing Centers of Excellence around Mobile, Performance, and Security Testing. We have set up dedicated labs within the organization, which our clients leverage for gaining maximum benefit from their QA investment. Our TCoE Services are unique as we not only take up the end-to-end QA ownership but also provide complimentary testing R&D expertise in the form of IP and test accelerators. To handle sporadic service demand, we also provide a ‘Shared Pool’ model of engagement. Our ability to set up cross-functional TCoE in business organizations removes redundancies and streamlines testing processes and hence accelerates the entire software testing life cycle. 

To know how Cigniti’s TCoE can help you transform your testing functions, schedule a discussion with us today.