PepsiCo is a world leader in convenience snack foods and beverages, with 2004 revenues of over $29 billion and over 153,000 employees. PepsiCo brands are available in nearly 200 countries and territories.
Becky Wanta, PepsiCo’s Global Chief Technology Officer, launched an aggressive four-year plan to renew the PepsiCo IT infrastructure, tools, methods, processes, skill sets, and culture to facilitate greater agility in the marketplace and reduce overall costs. PepsiCo engaged Software Development Technologies (SDT), a recognized expert in software testing, to architect and accelerate the creation of the Software Test Centers and to lead PepsiCo IT in developing the requisite skills, methods, processes, tools, and culture changes required to ensure operational integrity. Included in this plan was the delivery of an enterprise-wide testing facility to host application readiness testing, to validate functionality and performance prior to introducing a new application or significant change into the production environment, and to provide Technology Laboratory facilities for new product and process exploration, vendor demonstrations, proof-of-concept trials, and training.
Working closely with the PepsiCo team, SDT conducted an evaluation of the software development and testing processes, organization and technologies. The resulting outcome was agreement to a series of key goals, which included:
A systematic testing approach across the IT development and deployment life cycle. This approach needed to accommodate and be extensible for outsourced and/or offshore development.
The creation of a dynamic (flexible) methodology for managing the test environment.
A testing framework that is responsive to PepsiCo's iterative development process and time-to-deployment goals.
Approaches that span the IT life cycle driving quality upstream and holding developers more accountable for testing.
Effective knowledge transfer (mentoring, coaching, and training) and the ability for PepsiCo to be self-sufficient running test centers.
Emphasis on test design in order to create effective test cases and achieve increasing degrees of test coverage.
The ability to run both manual and automated tests.
SDT partnered with Ms. Wanta to design an enterprise-wide testing facility to host application readiness testing in a strictly controlled environment as well as provide a Technology Laboratory for new product and process exploration, vendor demonstrations, proof-of-concept trials, and training. SDT launched and implemented the creation of these Test Centers, working with PepsiCo IT to develop the requisite sequential steps to 1) Assess, 2) Architect, and 3) Implement the methods, processes, tools, skill development and culture changes required to ensure operational integrity.
SDT continued its defined plan by implementing pre-defined and customizable testing methodologies and testware including both technical review & inspection for early defect detection and unit, integration, function, system test, and user acceptance test approaches. Additionally, SDT provided proven, ready-for-delivery (or customization) training for all aspects of testing and professional engineering services for the customization and implementation of a PepsiCo-specific Test Architecture, Strategy and set of Test Methods. Another key was the implementation of a set of Test Automation Tools and approaches to support the PepsiCo Test Labs, as well as the definition of job roles and appropriate training and mentoring.
A centralized, consistent roles-based testing organization (including test architects, designers, automation engineers, test executors and managers) has been established yielding improved coverage and testing throughout the life cycle.
Key personnel have been trained and mentored in their specific roles, and on a more complete and efficient testing process.
An integrated, automated testing solution based on SDT's third generation test automation solution, Unified TestPro, was successfully deployed.
A new test environment including test labs was successfully implemented.
The CTO now has confidence that new and existing IT development projects will be deployed with a higher level of quality, fewer post-release defects, and the knowledge that investments have quickly demonstrated a significant return.
“With Software Development Technologies’ proven methodologies, cutting-edge technology and experienced consultants, we rapidly developed and implemented a clear strategy and testing framework that is both efficient and repeatable. Using SDT’s testing approach, there is now a centralized infrastructure to rapidly test and deploy our highly customizable global systems. This will greatly reduce our manual testing workload and maintenance costs, allowing us to leverage other less technical resources for test creation across the organization. SDT has implemented practical solutions, which build on and improve our existing infrastructure, while implementing new approaches that streamline our processes. The resulting lower costs, higher quality and strong teamwork more than justify the investment”
Global Chief Technology Officer, PepsiCo
Let’s discuss how we can help you achieve similar results with our proven methodologies and expert consulting services.
