Bases to cover

To establish an effective sustainable test delivery capability you need to address many diverse things, these include:

• Test model - The whats and whens and whos of testing and its interplay with delivery.
• Test capability operating model - How the test organisation is configured and its primary and supporting business processes.
• Finance - How finances will operate, budgeting, recovery and financial reporting.
• Staffing - Defining the skill and experience mix, getting great people for key roles, sourcing the wider team.
• Training - Aligning the way people work to consistently apply the operating model and underlying practices.
• Knowledge Development - Establishing the collective and individual bodies of knowledge around the things being delivered and the ways they are to be tested.
• Support Services Engagements - Negotiating and implementing service agreements with other parts of the organisation and outside suppliers.
• Environments - Provisioning the environments and their content. Creating the management and support wrap needed to make them effective test environments.
• Support Tooling - Putting in place the tools that will support the creation and use of test assets and the management of test activities.
• Status Reporting - Setting up a framework for progress and status reporting of test work.
• Outcome Analysis - Analysis and reporting of outcomes, ultimately did work achieve what was intended.
• Tracking Reports - Reports to track delivery internally.
• Performance Analysis - Reporting to track the cost and effectiveness of activities.
• Delivery Tools - Selection and deployment of tooling to support the execution of tests.
• Test Asset Management - High quality tests assets are valuable assets, effective management is required to preserve them and realise their value.
• Test Analysis - Practices to select the right things to test and to specify the right tests.
• Governance - How the overall operation will be governed to hold it together.
• Sustain & Improvement - Mechanisms and activities that ensure performance and effectiveness are sustained and improved.