A Tier 1 investment bank was seeking to improve its testing processes and was keen to implement Brickendon’s specialized, award winning approaches. The bank engaged Brickendon to implement the bespoke approaches and to train its own staff to use the Brickendon processes efficiently and effectively. The result was the reduction of a three-week testing cycle to six hours and a 95 per cent reduction in testing cost per release.
Client Challenges
The client had many challenges these included:
The bank was rolling out an eFX platform to 28 countries using local testing teams.
The core delivery team of more than 140 Business Managers, Project Managers,
Business Analysts and Developers was having difficulty engaging with the local testing
teams. As a result, several problems were encountered, including:
Drawn-out testing processes. The bank had a three-week testing cycle per location
Low-quality testing with multiple release failures per country
Lack of accountability — no one individual or team within the organisation was taking
responsibility for the process
Lack of continuity and consistency across the different sections and areas of the
business, including regional discrepancies
No blue-print for testing practices in the business
Large numbers of people involved in each process, increasing the risk of human
error.
Brickendon Solution
Brickendon provided management and governance plus four test teams to deliver
Brickendon’s award winning testing frameworks/solutions:
BEAPS: This is an innovative Agile Test Execution solution designed to handle
complex test planning/execution issues when the delivery teams are spread across
multiple geographical locations and have different delivery cycles
TestOps (customised to project environment): This allows the testing team to take full
control of the whole process from end-to-end: requirements, through development,
testing and into production. It is no longer the responsibility of several different
teams, who hand over the process at different stages. The testing team is fully
accountable for everything that happens in the process and the end result is much
more efficient and effective.
SATS: Brickendon’s Simplified Automation Testing Tool efficiently tests complex
product workflows. SATS feeds different types of data into data capture systems and
reconciles it with various reconciliation points in the workflow such as the data base,
interface systems and middle- and back-office systems.
Client Benefits
The benefits realised by the change implemented by the Brickendon team achieved
all the outcomes defined at the outset and were achieved within the timeframe
and budget set out in the project brief. The annual savings were put at $12 million
USD after Brickendon’s frameworks were implemented. These included:
Phase 1
Initial time reduction in the test cycle. Within one month, Brickendon
reduced the test cycle from 15 days per location to just 5 days.
Production roll backs reduced.
Delivery output per location increased along with the faster release time.
Phase 2
Test cycle per release reduced from 5 days in phase 1 to under 6 hours. This
was achieved within 6 months
Elimination of production release rollbacks.
Significant reduction in cost. Brickendon delivered a 95 per cent reduction in
testing cost-per-release with high quality testing.
Peace of mind that the whole process has been sufficiently and succinctly tested, with
accountability falling to one team.
A massive decline in production issues: improving bank’s reputation and business.