Client Overview

Yorkshire Water serves 5.5 million customers and employs around 5,000 people. Operating within a heavily regulated environment, it manages critical water and waste systems, ensuring the delivery of safe, reliable services across Yorkshire. The company relies on complex IT infrastructures and a vast network of partner suppliers to meet its health, safety, and regulatory obligations.

Lee Harris, Head of Technology at Yorkshite Water came into the business 4.5 years ago. At the point of his arrival there was no Quality and Assurance and Test practice; testing was essentially undertaken by the Development teams. Project Delivery Performance was poor with a culture of late delivery and a fair degree of quality issues (although that was hard to quantify).

Since then, the team has established a practice which is now recognised as the Organisation’s primary source for establishing quality within a project. They remain independent of the delivery teams having the ability to challenge at peer level on each project. They have strengthened their depth and breadth with the onboarding of leading QA and Test partners who operate as an extension of the internal team, with the same culture and behaviours as the wider Organisation.

“We have seen a leap in performance over the last few years since we began measuring the quality of deliveries, time, cost, and quality. The team continue to innovate, through automation and more recently the targeted use of AI within their operating model to good effect. Having worked across numerous organisations in my tenure as Head of an IT Department, this Test and QA practice is better than any other I have been associated with”, says Lee Harris, head of Technology, Yorkshire Water.

Problem statement

In 2019, a failed SAP migration revealed major weaknesses in the water utility’s quality assurance framework. Testing was fragmented and handled by developers and business analysts, leading to inconsistent results, lack of transparency, and inadequate accountability. The organisation lacked a standardised approach to testing, and quality assurance costs were high with limited oversight. Yorkshire Water required a comprehensive QA solution to instil a robust, proactive, and cost-effective approach to quality.

Solution

Inspired Testing introduced a structured, scalable quality assurance framework to Yorkshire Water, targeting three core areas:

• Governance and Transparency
  A dedicated Test and Quality Assurance team was formed, establishing an independent verification process. Inspired Testing integrated QA at every project stage through the "Stage Gate" governance framework, ensuring quality standards were met from inception to post-warranty.
• Process and Tool Optimisation
  Inspired Testing centralised test data and environment management, reducing siloed approaches. A Community of Practice was created on SharePoint, centralising documentation and standards. Key initiatives included automating over 2,000 test scripts (contributing to £ 350,000 in savings) and implementing Test Data Management (TDM) tools, which improved regulatory compliance and defect reduction.
• Innovative Technology Integration
  AI-driven testing solutions were introduced to streamline testing workflows, consolidate test packs, and prioritise critical cases, achieving significant savings in time and resources. Performance testing and AI-enhanced test automation were embedded, allowing early problem identification and efficient resource allocation.

Before Improvement

Prior to this transformation, Yorkshire Water's QA was handled sporadically, with no dedicated function or standards. Testing was developer-led, lacked independence, and suffered from limited transparency, causing cost overruns and inefficient project deliveries. Regression testing was lengthy, often delaying projects, and unplanned test environment downtime was a regular issue.

After Improvement

After implementing the various solutions, Yorkshire Water experienced an:

• 86% Reduction in Downtime: Test environment downtime dropped significantly, from 50.8 lost project days to just 7 days within five months.
• £1 Million Annual Cost Savings: Streamlined QA processes led to significant cost reductions.
• Improved Defect Leakage Rates: Average defect leakage per release decreased from 2.19 to 0.67 between FY 2020/21 and FY 2024/25.
• Faster Regression Testing: Automation cut regression testing time from weeks to hours.

Benefit to the Client After Implementation

The joint approach between Inspired Testing and the Yorkshire Water teams, empowered the water utility company with a reliable, scalable QA framework that facilitated faster, high-quality project delivery while reducing operational costs. The QA team’s reputation grew within the business who was now seen as an enabler of efficient project delivery and a champion of quality standards.

The improvements fostered a quality-focused culture, equipping Yorkshire Water with the tools, processes, and mindset to meet ongoing regulatory demands and deliver reliable services to its customers.