HBOS has rolled out asoftware testingprogramme across
three of its four major IT departments in a programme to designed
to reduce the number of errors in thousands of applications it
builds every year.
The bank has begun using industry-standard
Testing Maturity Model
(TMM) in its corporate IT and insurance and investment
divisions, following a successful pilot in retail banking in
2006.
The project is likely to lead to major savings by helping HBOS
catch software errors early. According to analyst firm Ovum, the
cost of fixing bugs increases exponentially at each stage of the
development process. Half of errors are found at the requirement
specification stage of development, it said.
The programme, which focuses on software quality management and
testing, will help HBOS avoid the problems associated with software
failures in live environments, enable it to benchmark its
processes, and make it easier to repeat the model across the entire
company.
John Cantley, senior project manager of HBOS corporate IT, said
the ability to identify software defects early on was an important
advantage of TMM.
"TMM struck us as a model suitable for detecting defects early
and ultimately in preventing defects," he said. "If you take
defects out of the process early on you can accelerate software
development and testing."
TMM takes into account other stages of the development process
such as preparation, requirement specification, design and
coding.
HBOS hired TMM specialist consultancy Experimentus in 2006 to
help it adopt the TMM methodology. Allan Woodcock, head of retail
IT central testing team, said it chose Experimentus because it was
an expert in TMM, which is a rigid framework.
"Interruptions in service can cost thousands of dollars per
minute in industries that rely on financial dealing systems," said
Ovum.
Bola Ratibi, principal analyst at Macehiter Ward-Dutton, said
financial services companies can make huge losses if software
fails.
"The cost of replacing and fixing technology is high, and it
also damages your reputation and brand."
Ratibi said few companies have openly said they are using TMM.
The project should pay financial dividends and enhance HBOS'
reputation, he said.
Julian Clarke, director at Experimentus, said HBOS is one of the
first major UK banks to use TMM. "There are a lot using Capability
Maturity Model (CMMi) but it does not go into the required detail
for software testing and quality."