How Business Process Assurance Can Enhance Quality When Applying Agile Methodologies
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• Cognizant 20-20 Insights
How Business Process Assurance
Can Enhance Quality When Applying
Agile Methodologies
As organizations operating in highly regulated environments become
digital, the assurance of enterprise business processes supported
by myriad technologies and methodologies can be challenging to IT
leaders. A structured approach that balances quality with speed can
help assure that digital business processes deliver significant value
to enterprises.
Executive Summary Business Process Assurance Defined
In today’s digitally transforming environment, IT BPA ensures that a set of end-to-end business
organizations have realized the importance of processes function as intended. It aims to
Agile development methodologies. The imple- identify defects before the code is deployed into
mentation of Agile has enabled enterprises to production, thereby ensuring that the cost to
modernize their business models to suit the end- repair a flaw is at a bare minimum and prevents
consumer’s ever-changing demands by making any negative impacts on revenue, reputation or
business processes nimble and speeding up customer satisfaction. BPA focuses on require-
development and deployment processes. ments and ensures business resilience, thus
providing adequate functional coverage. (For
However, the blinkered focus on speed has more on BPA, read our white paper, From ‘Zero
opened a Pandora’s Box by compromising Defect Software’ to ‘First Time Right with
integrity and increasing the risk to business. With Business’.)
Agile, business process assurance (BPA) helps
businesses navigate an increasingly complex and Business process validation can be performed at
regulated market by being resilient and nimble at various timescales:
the same time.
• Project basis: First-time deployment of new
This white paper explores the concepts of BPA, enterprise software systems.
provides key insights on Agile implementation
challenges and decodes how BPA assures Agile
• Periodic basis: Regular monthly, quarterly or
annual updates to enterprise software.
project success.
cognizant 20-20 insights | december 2016
• Continuous basis: Round-the-clock validation a competent team adept with specialized skills
of enterprise systems and process swiftness. in the respective domains and technology. BPA
includes the expertise of ex-industry veterans
BPA Mitigates Agile Challenges
and the knowledge of subject matter experts
Being a nimble and flexible methodology, (SMEs) who study and analyze each Sprint of
Agile supports enterprises in delivering faster Agile project changes.
releases, along with building efficiency in
change management. But Agile does come with • Tackling complexity of mature applications:
a whirlpool of practical challenges: disparate Complexities in application and an exponential
teams, fragmented deliverables and speed-over- increase in the number of lines of code lead to
integrity are just some. performance-related issues after go-live. With
an analytics-driven approach, BPA automation
BPA can overcome daunting Agile development supports multiple-Sprint regressions scenarios
challenges as follows. by identifying business-critical solar flares, and
ensures end-to-end process validation.
• User stories without acceptance test: Orga-
• Early detection of defects: When defects are
nizations that depend on Agile are focusing on
found at a later stage of an iteration, there can
“business acceptability,” which transcends user
be delays in post-production, thus becoming an
stories. Changes to a fragment of the business
expensive issue. Time spent fixing a bug equates
process may have a ripple effect on the rest.
to time taken away from producing customer
Stifling and constricted schedules during
value, and may be one of the reasons why Agile
change implementation often lead to business
teams are pushing for zero-defect products.
processes being ignored. By leveraging a com-
BPA proposes a comprehensive defect-tracking
prehensive business process with a contextual
mechanism by regularly updating the process-
view, BPA assures business continuity.
flow heat map with recent defect logs. It also
• Deficiency in expertise: The ideology behind deploys analytics to predict defects early in the
Agile is built on a time-boxed development of lifecycle, while designing the test strategy to
multiple small-duration iterations. This calls for validate business process flow.
Quick Take
Agile’s Lifecycle Automation
BPA implements automation methodologies that • Analytics-driven regression: BPA re-creates
complement test design, QA processes and ana- a robust regression test suite that validates
lytics-driven regression in a multi-Sprint strategy. business readiness with multiple Sprints by
using BPA asset repositories, scripts mapped to
• Test design and maintenance: BPA requires a outstanding defects and critical business flows.
test design automation tool (e.g., our ADPART These flows are identified through careful
tool) to accelerate test case generation, test analysis of nonconventional business inputs.
suites optimization, change management and
impact analysis, based on business process
flows.
cognizant 20-20 insights 2
Doing the BPA Six-Step
Agile Project A
Step 1
The complete set
of user stories for a
Sprint are studied
in detail in order
to understand the
scope and the func-
tionalities involved.
Business Process Assets Mapping
Step 2
Based on this
understanding, the
changes are mapped
to the business
process flow maps
maintained in
Business Process
Assets.
Impact Analysis
Step 3
The impact of
process change
within the Sprint
changes is identified.
cognizant 20-20 insights 3Redesign Test Suite
Step 4
The test suite assets
are enriched with
business-outcome-
oriented scenarios
to ensure that the
changes do not
impact the core
business processes.
Test Execution for Each Sprint
Step 5
Test execution of
all the Sprints is
conducted with an
end-user mindset to
validate all changes.
Regression Testing
Step 6
Post-test execution
of all the Sprints;
automated
regression testing
of end-to-end
business scenarios
is performed to
validate business
readiness.
Figure 1
cognizant 20-20 insights 4• No holistic view of the release: Agile focuses fraud scenarios, and are compliant with regula-
on “story cards,” or small pieces of a change. tions across the business process.
Each story card may be developed, and then
tested, to work perfectly, but applications, It is possible to infuse BPA into an Agile framework
systems and business workflows go beyond by designing user stories and acceptance criteria
the story cards. With disparate and segregated that are based on the prerequisite business
teams, it becomes difficult to create an and end-user outcomes. Figure 1 (pages 3
overview of the underlying user story that and 4) depicts a six-step BPA solution in an Agile
ensures all links are addressed. By focusing environment.
on the essentials required to conduct business
as usual, comply with regulations and guide
Agile’s BPA Best Practices
user behavior, BPA imparts the confidence a Designed to withstand turbulent environments,
business needs to make informed implementa- Agile is a team-based approach that gives the
tion decisions. ability to make decisions without the introduction
of risks. This principle intersects perfectly with
As the above points demonstrate, businesses
BPA’s methodology of continuous improvement,
can address key Agile challenges and ensure
ease of use and prevention of shocks. The best
successful delivery by incorporating BPA.
practices propagated by BPA for Agile are shown
in Figure 2.
BPA in an Agile Environment
Throughout the application of BPA, business Overcoming BPA Challenges in Agile
flows are progressively checked and monitored Implementation and Mitigation
by using representative data that confirms the
accuracy of business rules. It ensures that all • Inadequate right-skilled resources:
underlying transactions are being performed in >> Utilizethe subject matter experts/ex-audi-
the expected manner, even during exceptions and tors/ex-bankers to prepare the BPA assets
and to bring a business perspective.
Excelling with Agile BPA
E2E business process validation during
stabilization of Sprint/UAT Sprint/release.
User surrogacy: Ex-banker/ E2E business test assets
business analyst/business (global generic/regulatory/
tester model. client-specific) in each Sprint.
End-to-end view: E2E Shift left: Acceptance
business process tests shared /used at the
articulation along with start of the Sprint.
user story.
Business process Shift rght: Production
automation: Automated Issue analytics, most
business components for likely to fail (MLTF)
stitching together automated scores for improved
acceptance tests. test coverage.
BPA in Agile environment
Figure 2
cognizant 20-20 insights 5• Unavailability of business process assets Looking Forward
before project commencement: As enterprises pivot between legacy and digital
>> Leverage SMEs to customize existing BPA worlds, their IT organizations need to create
assets as per user’s client’s requirements. open, intelligent, “on-the-go,” network-driven
assurance ecosystems. These systems will drive
>> Up-skill
Agile resources through intensive
cost efficiency with automation, increase pre-
and quick training.
dictability through intelligent systems and help
• Lack of stakeholder understanding about implement analytics and industrialization through
business expectations: platform-led delivery models.
>> Implement a continuous change manage-
ment process to assess the impact(s) of As enterprises pivot between
changes; develop appropriate mitigation legacy and digital worlds, their IT
strategies that account for all changes. organizations need to create open,
>> Avoid scope creep. intelligent, “on-the-go,” network-
• Nonavailability of risk assessment and driven assurance ecosystems.
impact analysis:
>> Make an analytics-led risk assessment and In highly regulated environments, the stakes are
prioritize functionalities. even higher. As enterprises look to transform
their business models and adopt digital at scale
>> Redefine the forthcoming Sprints based on through Agile development techniques, they must
the criticality of the impact. keep a careful eye on regulatory compliance.
• Nonavailability of scenarios/tests covering
By embracing BPA, they will be better positioned
the enterprise-to-enterprise (E2E) perspec-
to meet regulatory mandates while accelerating
tive:
digital business readiness and resilience. Doing
>> Design scenarios covering impacted E2E so will allow them to maintain tight operational
business processes. controls and identify exceptions, as well as reduce
fraud and the cost of quality through reuse,
>> Design scenarios to cover the regulatory im- automation and optimization.
pact, and compliance-related tests.
Reference
• Steve Miller, “Common Challenges for Agile Testing Teams,” Smartbear, March 19, 2012, http://blog.
smartbear.com/sqc/top-5-common-challenges-for-agile-testing-teams/.
To learn more about ADPART, visit https://adpart.cognizant.com/.
cognizant 20-20 insights 6About the Authors
Nanda Kishore Divakarla (Nand) is a Senior Director within Cognizant’s Quality Engineering and Assurance
Practice. He has over 20 years of experience across the globe focusing on pioneering and executing
domain-based testing and business process assurance engagements for regulated industries. Nand is
currently spearheading the establishment and implementation of BPA services for Cognizant’s Quality
Engineering and Assurance Practice. He can be reached at Nandakishore.Divakarla@cognizant.com.
Narasimhan Venkataraman is a Senior Manager within Cognizant’s Quality Engineering and
Assurance Practice. As a banking technocrat with over 15 years of experience in the testing arena,
Narasimhan has been involved in large UAT programs for banks and financial organization across
the globe. He has strategized and adopted the best practices in the industry into the programs.
Narasimhan is currently supporting implementation of BPA services for Cognizant. He can be reached at
Narasimhan.Venkataraman@cognizant.com.
Jim Apicella is an Associate Director within Cognizant’s Quality Engineering and Assurance Practice.
As a process and TQM subject matter expert with over 30 years of experience in the testing arena, he
has been involved in large UAT programs for banks, financial organizations, insurance companies and
technology companies, both for-profit and not-for-profit, across the globe. Jim is currently the primary
point of contact for BPA services in North America for health care, insurance and other verticals. He can
be reached at James.Apicella@cognizant.com.
About Cognizant
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process
services, dedicated to helping the world’s leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in
Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfaction, technology innovation,
deep industry and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative workforce that embodies the
future of work. With over 100 development and delivery centers worldwide and approximately 255,800
employees as of September 30, 2016, Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes
Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies
in the world. Visit us online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on Twitter: Cognizant.
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