Problem Statement

Pain Points and Challenges

Before initiating the review, the energy company highlighted several existing pain points affecting their testing capabilities:

• Limited Test Coverage
  Testing predominantly focused on standard scenarios ("happy-path"), with minimal coverage of edge cases, negative scenarios, and critical non-functional aspects, increasing the risk of undetected defects in production.
   
• Testing Responsibility Overload
  Testing tasks were primarily undertaken by Product Owners (POs) and developers, who lacked formal testing expertise. This resulted in inconsistent testing quality and impacted overall productivity.
   
• Absence of Unified Quality Governance
  No formalised, centralised testing strategy or governance model existed, leading to inconsistent testing methods across teams and difficulties aligning quality practices with strategic business goals.
   
• Integration and Accuracy Gaps
  Testing often did not adequately verify data accuracy and integration points between systems. The lack of structured integration testing increased the risk of errors in production and reduced confidence in overall system reliability.
   
• No Established Contract Testing
  Contract testing to validate service interactions between systems was absent, increasing the potential for integration issues, compatibility problems, and overall system instability.

Current Situation

Currently, the company’s approach to software testing remains largely reactive, marked by several ongoing challenges:

• Informal Testing Practices and Limited Governance
  Testing methods remain informal, without structured quality governance or standards, causing variability and inconsistency in test processes across different teams.
   
• Minimal Non-Functional Testing
  Essential non-functional testing, particularly performance and scalability, is sporadic or absent. This has occasionally resulted in performance issues being identified only after deployment.
   
• Challenges in Test Data and Environment Management
  Lack of structured management of test environments and data affects test reliability, limiting accurate verification, particularly for integrated systems.
   
• Overburdened Roles without Dedicated Testing Focus
  Product Owners and developers continue to handle testing without dedicated support or formal training, reducing both the effectiveness of testing activities and efficiency in product development.

Approach and Recommendations

Inspired Testing proposed implementing a robust Quality Governance Framework to directly address these issues. Key recommendations included:

• Formal Quality Governance
  Introduce structured governance with clearly defined roles, such as a Quality Practice Head (QPH) and dedicated Quality Engineers (QEs), supported by a Quality Steering Committee to ensure consistency and accountability.
   
• Comprehensive Test Strategy Development
  Establish structured, documented testing strategies, including tailored, risk-based approaches for both functional and non-functional requirements, ensuring consistent and thorough test coverage.
   
• Enhanced Test Automation
  Broaden the scope of test automation to cover end-to-end, regression, and non-functional testing, integrating automated tests within CI/CD pipelines to provide faster feedback and reduce manual effort.
   
• Integrated Testing Environments
  Develop test environments closely aligned with production configurations to support realistic testing scenarios, enabling accurate validation across multiple product streams and system integrations.
   
• Contract-Based Integration Testing
  Adopt contract testing methods to verify interactions between systems, significantly reducing the risk of integration issues and increasing overall system reliability.

Expected Outcomes

By implementing these recommendations, the energy company can expect significant improvements in software testing maturity:

• Achievement of TMMi Level 3 maturity,
  establishing standardised, repeatable, and documented testing processes across all teams.
   
• Broader test coverage,
  particularly in non-functional areas such as performance and scalability, ensuring software reliability even under demanding conditions.
   
• Improved testing accuracy and consistency,
  reducing production defects and increasing operational alignment.
   
• Enhanced integration testing practices,
  including robust contract testing, reducing system instability, production incidents, and integration-related errors.

Benefits to the Client

The recommended improvements offer substantial value to the organisation:

• Greater Product Reliability:
  Thorough, structured testing processes will significantly reduce defect leakage, ensuring reliable software performance in diverse operating scenarios.
   
• Enhanced Team Efficiency:
  Introducing dedicated testing roles relieves Product Owners and developers, allowing them to refocus on primary tasks, thus improving overall team productivity.
   
• Alignment with Strategic Goals:
  The structured quality governance framework ensures quality activities consistently support strategic business objectives, enabling sustainable growth and customer satisfaction.
   
• Culture of Continuous Improvement:
  Regular quality metrics, automated reporting, and governance reviews foster ongoing evaluation, adaptation, and continuous improvement of quality practices, ensuring the company’s software quality keeps pace with evolving business demands.

Post-Implementation Impact

These changes positioned the energy company to confidently support future developments with consistent, high-quality software, reinforcing both internal team efficiency and external customer trust.