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| Case Study |
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Establishing 'Quality Assurance
Office' using Build-Operate-Transfer model |
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In collaboration with Patni, a leading employee benefits
marketer transformed its entire quality organization into a
high-performance, cost-effective function The
Client
Headquartered in Missouri, the client is one of the largest
marketers of employee benefits in the United States. It is one
of the four major business units of a Fortune 500 company, which
is a leading provider of specialized insurance and insurancerelated
products and services.
The Challenge
The client had embarked on an accelerated modernization program
to upgrade the entire application portfolio by using a suite
of packaged applications tailored for the Insurance domain.
Though the client could institute a strategic approach for people
and technology issues, they faced difficulties in addressing
IT process challenges.
The existing set of IT processes were loosely defined and not
institutionalized. The Verification & Validation process as
well as defects data capture mechanism was not formalized in
the organization. More significantly, the awareness level of
the IT organization on process requirements and compliance was
inadequate.
To support such a large scale modernization program, the client
recognized the need of repeatable and defined processes that
would improve software quality, reduce cost of rework and provide
the management better visibility across projects. In addition,
since this program was on an accelerated mode, the client wanted
the process improvements to be deployed in an aggressive time-frame.
This required process understanding, definition and implementation
to be done using a fast and iterative methodology.
While the client had initiated several Software Process Improvement
initiatives in the past, these initiatives failed to realize
the desired benefits due to inadequate buy-in of the IT personnel
involved. To address these issues, the client decided to seek
the expertise of a partner who could help to set up a high-performance,
cost-effective Quality Assurance Office (QAO) with the objective
of driving continuous improvement across IT processes.
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The Solution
The client engaged Patni to assess, define and deploy all relevant IT processes through a
Quality Assurance Office (QAO). The QAO was an integrated function within the client
organization that would establish and lead all Quality related initiatives. The processes
defined by QAO needed to support and ensure success of the modernization program. Over
a period of two years, this entire engagement was executed through a Build-Operate-
Transfer (BOT) model. Some of the important IT processes that were successfully defined
and implemented during this period were Demand Management, Project Execution,
Verification & Validation, Change Management, and Defect Management.
The QAO comprised of a Quality Manager and four process specialists from Patni. The
primary function of the QAO was to establish a process framework using tollgate
methodology and ensure project compliance to Quality Gate process by providing necessary
facilitation and monitoring through appropriate metrics / dashboards.
The QAO was involved in driving the following initiatives:
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Introduction of best practices (Requirements Traceability Matrix,
Quality Probe, etc) to improve quality of project execution |
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Establishing Inspection rigor and strengthening stakeholder reviews |
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Implementing a Test Management process and usage of tracker (testing)
for capturing and tracking defects |
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Data analysis and Defect prevention (DP) through an initiative named
Project Analysis & Learning (PAL) to systemize all DP activities. PAL
ultimately aimed at enabling proper coordination of all DP activities at
the organization-level |
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Ensuring SOX compliance by fulfillment of IT General controls and
entity controls. |
The Benefits
Leveraging Patni's proven experience in software development processes, the client
was able to establish a fully functional QAO. This QAO engagement laid the foundation
for all future process improvement initiatives for the organization. Through complete
outsourcing of its Quality function, the client gained multiple benefits including access
to industry best practices and subject matter experts with proven expertise. This
enabled the client to drive significant improvements in IT process maturity levels
A clear focus on product quality resulted in reduced defects and rework. The new
processes improved cycle-time and predictability across projects. There was an
enhanced management visibility across projects, and acceptance of processes and
practices within the IT organization
As a result of this process improvement solution, four major releases of the
modernization program were accomplished within the target time-frame.
Consequently, the entire transition to the client team was deemed greatly successful. A
major spin-off benefit was improved compliance efficiency of SOX IT control
objectives; especially in control categories like project lifecycle, change management
and testing.
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