New capability required

Major programme, new company, demerger, merger, temporary organisation or simply something that has never been properly addressed. There are many varied situations where a test capability may need to appear where none exists.

Greenfield

Building from the ground up is a large involved task. Practices, operating model, facilities, staffing, training, leadership, tooling and governance are some of the things that need to be dealt with. Individually, as incremental changes for an existing operation, each is not too daunting. However, doing them all in parallel with little existing structure to build on, when the rest of the wider organisation has its day job to do, is very challenging.

Growing pains

Growth can be just as painful, especially when it has to be done quickly. Practices that don’t scale will need changing. Sourcing good people or alternative ways of delivering work has to be done carefully. Even then, having more people or capacity is one thing, effective utilisation is another.

Inappropriate scaling of an existing operation can cause much pain and a loss of effectiveness. A naïve approach can lead to this. Things can get very costly very quickly without growing the real capability.

Why we can help

We have built and grown many test operations. In major corporations, in medium size software product companies, supporting small software teams, to protect specific programmes. This experience spans many domains, financial services, retail banking, investment banking, telecommunications, accounting, defense systems, control systems and embedded software.

We have strong relationships with service provides and staffing solution companies that operate in the testing domain. We understand software, we understand test delivery, we know how to shape and high quality operating model and we know how to form them in the real-world. Out team has worked together for years and can provide the kernel of an operation whilst it establishes itself.

Building a test capability is a distraction for which most people do not have the right experience. It is a far bigger challenge then it at first appears. See this list of test capability service elements for an insight into what is involved. We take the problem way and provide the solution. You can focus on your core activities.

Your requirement

You need a software test capability for a specific long term programme. You need a capability to be a gate keeper on deliveries from a supplier. You want to consolidate ad hoc testing from across your organisation. Your existing test team needs to grow well beyond its current size. You need to start testing soon, very soon, and lack the capability or capacity to do it. You don’t test, but need to.

Ways we can help

Differences in the nature of the problem and the capability of the organisations mean approaches have to be tailored. Some examples of ways we could approach a problem include:

• Build, commission and transfer a completely new operation.
• Consolidate, enhance and handback existing capabilities.
• Accelerate the pace of internally sponsored change.
• Supplement your capacity in the interim whilst recruiting and backfilling to enable rapid growth.

Getting started

Avoidable delay creates unnecessary cost. Moving decisively and rapidly is often key. Start the ball rolling and contact us at enquiry@sqc.co.uk. We can discuss what you need today, what you need over the slightly longer term and how we can work with you to solve these challenges.