For a Test Centre of Excellence, the Stipulation is Excellence!
Writing by Sanju Pillai on Tuesday, 6 of July, 2010 at 5:27 am
Downward price pressure is predicted to dominate most of the negotiations during the year and for some time into the future by nearly all analysts, including IDC, Gartner and Forrester. What the expert analysts are in agreement is also that the ability to drive validation into the front end of the software development life cycle (SDLC) by leveraging third-party expertise in test strategy, tools, and frameworks, in other words, Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE), approach will gain traction.
TCoE is today a red ocean and providers will have competition from various other players in the market. Over and above, one significant source of competition today is the mindset of prospects who will weigh the option of ‘Build Vs. buy’.
Forrester is of the opinion that organizations should NOT look at building an in-house TCoE in comparison to outsourcing the same. Reasons attributed are the following:
1) For these organizations on one hand, testing and quality are seen as critical elements in ensuring successful project delivery. On the other hand, they are not necessarily seen as important enough to be funded as a permanent organization. Without a centralized testing function, testing practices can become disjointed, redundant, or left to the development organization to handle.
2) Centralized internal testing can be expensive
3) Test-driven development and Agile processes appear to be in conflict with centralized TCoEs in house.
4) In-house testing organizations will find it difficult keeping up with technology changes.
Since testing is now seen as mission critical, smart organizations will proceed cautiously in their engagement with outsourcing testing to a TCoE. Organizations that make the decision to outsource their testing needs rarely jump directly into a wholesale TCoE. The evolution toward a TCoE is a gradual one. For example, outsourcing usually starts when an in-house testing organization is ill equipped to handle newer technologies or lacks the bandwidth to take on more testing projects in quick succession (as brought on by Agile development). The relationship begins as staff augmentation.
Category: Industry, Offshore Software Testing, Test Center of Excellence (TCoE)
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