Parameterizing Decision Factors on Centralization of Software Testing Organization : A Practitioner’s Perspective

This paper is a practitioner’s view of impact of different parameters like Centralization, Offshoring, Productivity mprovement, Quality and other process improvement on Return on Investment calculation for a CTO (Centralized testing Organization). This analysis can help IT QA(Quality Assurance) management to quantify Return on Investment from different parameters of operation and decide on where to invest for optimum benefit. Return on Investment is one the critical factors that any large / small organization chooses before investing. At all the stages of the project life cycle, Return on Investment calculation is a must - that is at business requirements to design, development, testing and implementation phase. In today’s world, independent testing has become very important. The organization needs to do a proper due diligence on selecting testing model, process, time to market, cost etc. For these the organization needs to understand the criteria for selecting the right model for testing which gives the maximum return on investment. This study analyses different parameters and their impact on Return on Investment. This paper does not elaborate on how to establish a CTO. Rather this is an attempt to quantify results after due consideration of various focus areas like - lower cost of operation by offshoring and centralization and savings through Productivity Improvement thru Automated Test Case Execution, savings through Process and tools standardization etc. to implement different parameters within a CTO. The findings are based on authors’ experience of implementing CTOs for reputed clients and implementing that across big size portfolios. The constraints for pure development projects, product testing projects or open system projects may vary in nature. For example scope and benefit from automation may be very high for product testin projects or open system projects but not so for legacy mainframe based maintenance projects.