Less than quarter of organisations (24 per cent) get sufficient and timely notice of quality assurance issues according to research on quality assurance in IT change projects. This is in spite of the fact that such issues mean that many projects are only then delivered on time because firms put more human resource or budget into them or reduce the scope of the project to compensate.
The research, undertaken by IDC and sponsored by Capita Assurance and Testing also showed that nearly a third (32 per cent) of projects don’t measure the effectiveness of quality assurance even though the 68 per cent that do, demonstrate significantly higher levels of satisfaction with the projects concerned.
Conducted among 60 large organisations in the public and private sectors, the research looked at IT programmes that support business change, the attitude towards quality assurance and testing, and the impact on the organisations’ customers when things went wrong.
Other findings indicate that respondents did not seem to recognise the importance of quality assurance with just 18 per cent saying they used a specialist quality assurance company. This is despite the fact that more than 80 per cent believe that any delay in project delivery would have a commercial impact. Additionally the distinction between quality control and quality assurance is not well understood.
Sean Rowlands, director of managed services for Capita Assurance and Testing, commented: “With the economic recovery still fragile, it seems certain that IT will need to play a key role in driving efficiency. But if organisations discover quality issues late, they can be forced to cut back the scope of the project because they can’t afford late delivery. Alternatively, they can incur avoidable, additional and unbudgeted costs – which are the opposite of the effect intended.
“Organisations need to look at new ways of undertaking quality assurance and testing - enabling them to react quickly to issues and have systems in place to deliver programmes on time and with the full functionality. It really is a case of prevention being better than the cure.”
The research was carried out among UK organisations with revenues of £200m or above, central government agencies and institutions. Respondents from the 60 organisations that took part all held responsibility for IT quality assurance/programme assurance within their organisation.
-ends-
Capita Assurance and Testing helps private and public sector organisations at all stages of test maturity to achieve optimum levels of systems quality at the desired cost. It offers independent systems quality assurance and testing solutions ranging from managed services delivered on and offshore to consulting and recruitment services and provides the full spectrum of functional and non functional testing skills as well as strategic quality assurance and governance expertise.
Further information on Capita Assurance and Testing can be found at: www.capita-at.co.uk
The Capita Group Plc is the UK’s leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions. With 36,000 people at more than 300 sites, including 59 business centres across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and India, the Group uses its expertise, infrastructure and scale benefits to transform its clients’ services, driving down costs and adding value. Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2009 of £2,687 million. Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at: http://www.capita.co.uk