Exavalu

Success StoryQuality Engineering Assessment: Crafting a strategic roadmap for success for a large P&C insurer

A large P&C insurance company in the mid-west was concerned about their Quality Engineering practices. Moving things to production was taking a lot of effort, including using business resources to complete all the necessary testing. Even with all the testing some defects were slipping into production. And due to a lack of metrics, they couldn’t see where the problems were.

Challenge

1

The lack of solid metrics meant there was not an easy way to pinpoint what areas needed improvement. The carrier had decided to embrace Agile and Behaviour Driven Development (BDD), but it hadn’t really taken hold yet. Some teams were trying to write all the BDD scenarios for the entire 6-month project on day one. Other teams weren’t writing scenarios at all. The carrier also wanted to be more consistent with tool usage. Some entered all their defects in the system, some entered only a portion of them. Some teams put test cases in the tool, some kept them in spreadsheets

The churn around testing practices, the amount of effort testing was taking, coupled with the lack of metrics, meant a lack of confidence about what was being put in production and a growing rift between business and IT.

The Difference Exavalu Delivered

  • What the carrier needed was a way to know exactly where they stood with their quality engineering practices and a plan for how to move forward. Exavalu proposed a 10-week assessment. This assessment was broken down into three sections: Discovery, Current-state Assessment and Target State Definition and Roadmap.
  • During the Discovery phase, Exavalu interviewed Business and IT stakeholders to understand their vision for product quality. We also interviewed team members that were responsible for making that vision a reality. Exavalu also performed a deep dive into all quality assets, from requirements, to test cases, to automation all the way to defects and their resolutions.
  • The Current-state Assessment documented how the current processes were or were not working and what gaps they had from industry standards. The assessment pointed out opportunities for improvement and prioritized them in terms of benefits and effort, identifying quick wins and long-term initiatives.

Benefits

1

The assessment provided the customer with the knowledge of where they were, showcasing what they were doing well and where there was room for improvement.

2

The report showed which businesses units needed to increase test automation, which ones needed support on their development methodology, and where their existing tools could be better leveraged. It also pointed out gaps in skillsets requiring training or bringing in additional resources

3

The target roadmap provided the customer with a plan for the next year and beyond. The plan included when various aspects should be started, what aspects relied on others to be completed, and most importantly, what results could be expected from following the plan.