Company DetailsIndustry: Construction | Engineering | Land Development Company size: 1,001-5,000 employees Services provided: Ways of Working uplift, Quality Assurance (QA) Support and Delivery, Automation Strategy and Implementation, Test Planning and Execution |
The situation
BMD Group a leading Australian an engineering design, construction and land development company, operates across various industries including civil engineering, urban development, mining services, and rail infrastructure. The company’s portfolio of projects spans road, bridge, airport, port, residential and commercial development, and infrastructure development for the resources sector.
Cprime Elabor8 were initially engaged to perform a Ways of Working uplift across the Business Systems domain. During this engagement, it was identified that the development team needed QA support, leading to a subsequent QA delivery engagement.
The company utilises an in-house developed application overseen by multiple product owners, each responsible for managing distinct services within the application. This resulted in a fragmented approach to development, as there was only one development team managing these sometimes conflicting requirements.
The challenge
The organisation had been following a legacy testing practice, which resulted in irregular delivery cycles, an increase in production incidents, disruptions to business operations, a heightened risk profile, and impacts on profitability.
BMD set an aggressive target of a 50% reduction in production incidents for the following fiscal year, with Cprime Elabor8 providing support to achieve this target.
The process
We identified early on the need for a deeper culture of quality and guided the team in growing a quality mindset from the beginning. This helped the team adopt testing, and automation practices aligned to their unique context.
As capability grew, a structured framework for QA activities was established, including test planning, execution, and reporting, addressing the aforementioned challenges.
Collaborative workshops were held to bring the business and technical sides together. These workshops were instrumental in translating business objectives into technical quality goals that the team could prioritise and execute. Regular testing iterations were introduced to foster an environment of continuous feedback and progressive quality enhancement.
Eliminating waste and reducing production incidents played crucial roles in driving efficiency, enabling the design and development of the automated testing framework. With fewer fires to put out in the production environment and a renewed focus on value-adding activities, the team was able to allocate more attention to refining their development and testing processes.
The results
As a result of optimising the QA function and fostering a bond between the business and development, the organisation could confidently rely on the automated processes. These processes helped maintain a high standard of quality, which directly contributed to a sustained low rate of production incidents. This positive feedback loop of quality improvement and incident reduction underscored the importance of automation in achieving and maintaining excellence in software development and delivery.
BMD had set a target to reduce production incidents by 50% by the end of the fiscal year. However, with the assistance of Cprime Elabor8, they surpassed this goal, achieving an impressive 80% reduction in production incidents.
With automation in place, developers were able to get fast feedback on their contributions, creating trust in the automation and resulting in a stable and more frequent release cadence. The release cycle dropped from an erratic four weeks to a consistent two weeks. Automation freed the team from the ‘churn’, giving them more capacity for strategic initiatives.
With this increase in development team efficiency, the business saw smoother operations and a decrease in critical system risk. This in turn grew business confidence and predictability, and users gained a more consistent experience.
Final thoughts
A robust testing strategy, especially one centred on automation, is crucial for software reliability and efficiency. It enables faster release cycles, maintains quality standards, and allows businesses to respond quickly to market demands, ultimately serving as a strategic asset for enterprise agility and innovation.
