An innovative collaboration with global software testing company Inspired Testing and the software quality team at Yorkshire Water, a major UK water utilities company, has earned recognition as a finalist for the European Software Testing Awards. This team has redefined testing services and delivered exceptional business value across complex organisational boundaries at the utility, earning it the nomination for Testing Team of the Year 2024.
The utility operates in a highly regulated industry where quality is paramount. It serves more than 5.5 million customers, delivers and maintains highly complex, integrated IT platforms and yet had no recognised quality assurance function 5 years ago.
“This is an industry where product quality is everything. Customers demand good quality, activists focus on poor quality, and regulators measure quality, all under the watchful eye of the media keeping the public aware of the utility’s quality rating,” explains Lesley Higgins, Managing Executive at Inspired Testing. “This is a highly complex technical environment, and the team’s achievements in transforming the business landscape is remarkable. This nomination highlights the power of collaboration and shared commitment to excellence.”
A disastrous software migration event led to the creation of a dedicated team to bring testing and quality assurance to the heart of the business. Now, every stage of a project’s lifecycle has relevant quality criteria that must be met.
These changes have led to myriad improvements within the business and to the Yorkshire Water customers, most notably a reduction in quality assurance costs of £1, 000,000 per annum. Inspired Testing plays a key role by providing expertise and guidance as part of a team guiding Yorkshire Water’s continuous improvement.
Key achievements include supporting the implementation of over 2,000 automated tests scripts, contributing to £ 350,000 in savings, the reduction of downtime by 86% through test environment management initiatives, collaboration on AI-driven test innovations promising to realise significant cost savings, and contributing to comprehensive knowledge sharing.
Winners will be announced at the European Software Testing Awards in London on 19 November 2024.
