Jason Knight
Executive Director, PIPC
1. How long have you been working in the IT industry?
I’ve been working in the industry for 15 years, starting my career at PA Consulting Group and having now spent 7 years at PIPC, a global management consultancy.
2. What advantages has partnering with AppLabs given PIPC in delivering M&A and integration projects effectively?
PIPC focuses on the ‘hands-on’ execution of business strategy and business change and a key element of that is safeguarding the quality of IT delivery. Having a trusted partner such as AppLabs can really strengthen our client propositions, enabling seamless delivery of an end-to-end business solution.
3. Do you think organisations give quality management and testing a significant enough role when integrating systems?
Testing is typically the last component in the project lifecycle that is focused on and it invariably gets condensed at the end of the programme. Additionally, companies often don’t put the right procedures in place (or the right capability) around testing and that’s when failures tend to occur. All this increases the importance of having a trusted partner that can flex to accommodate changes in complex IT projects. Having the ability to deploy an experienced and pragmatic project management capability from PIPC together with a high quality test capability from AppLabs is a mix we need to make more of.
4. What do you think is the hottest issue in the technology industry at the moment that will impact the way organizations approach quality management and testing?
Anything that involves business and technology integration activity is particularly hot at the moment, especially with the increase in M&A activity in recent years. PIPC is currently playing a leading role in the delivery of five such integration programmes, where testing is an integral part to the success of the engagement.
Linked with this, cross-border business integration programmes bring with them an increased level of complexity, especially when taking into account the people, business and IT infrastructure dynamics. These require an even greater level of programme management discipline and rigour and an increased focus on the end-to-end testing programme, not least of which to ensure compliance with the relevant regulatory bodies. It can be a real headache!
5. How do you think the testing industry will look in the next five years? What would you like to see happen in that time?
I would like to see more specialist testing management consultancies like AppLabs, partnering with niche management consultancies like PIPC. Ours is a marriage of convenience, and together we are able to provide a one stop solution for organisations.
6. What is your mantra/golden rule that would define your thoughts on the importance of implementing a problem free IT project?
Well, it’s less a mantra and more a misconception that is widely held in the industry: the common downfall being the belief that ‘one size fits all’. In fact it’s very rarely the case and often this approach (one adopted by many of the big consulting firms) leads to catastrophic project failure, as we’ve seen recently with some of the large jobs in the public sector. And it’s the same for a testing strategy, which should be completely bespoke to each and every IT project as every IT platform has different nuances. A rigorous programme of testing has to be well thought through and implemented from the outset.
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