What is Test Resource Management?

Our Founder and CEO writes about Test Resource Management: a new class of solution, aimed at the unique needs of test organizations in engineering, manufacturing, and quality.

Test Resource Management, Working Together Better

Test Resource Management is a new category of solution focused on helping organizations significantly invested in test (knowledge, people, processes and equipment) become a source of competitive advantage to their enterprises

Test Resource Management (TRM) is a set of practices pioneered by The Sente Group with our Scireo solutions enabling test organizations (i.e. those organizations significantly invested in test knowledge, processes and equipment) to move with greater velocity, higher quality and lower cost.

We developed TRM to help our customers compete in their market space. They have always been after lowering costs, but in the last 5 to 10 years their focus has increasingly shifted to moving with greater velocity. When we speak with them about their dissatisfaction with their current organization performance, what is always revealed are: old practices and methodologies, that, while once competitive, are now not sufficient for the pace of the markets and are deeply embedded in their organization.

Time has institutionalized these outdated practices and methodologies and made them invisible to everyone in the test organization. They are “…how we do what we do…”

Unquestioned by all but the most inquisitive. These old practices and methodologies perpetuate the “over the wall” coordination, incomplete communication and equipment hoarding that are at the root of the organization’s lack of velocity. Independent, single purpose tools and spreadsheets have developed around these practices reinforcing them while increasing costs and delays.

To increase speed and reduce cost requires processes working together seamlessly – integrated. Not the independent tools with disconnected data sources and workflows, that make the enterprise rigid when today’s marketplace requires resilience and speed.

Test Resource Management practices and tools integrate functionality across historical organizational boundaries that span the larger enterprise.

With TRM, changes in project schedules will show cascading effects on test resources (employees, suppliers, assets etc.) that must be understood so constraints can be identified, contingencies planned and unnecessary costs eliminated. Conversely, equipment downtime issues require a quick assessment of potential schedule impacts now and in the future as well as analysis of same or similar equipment availability across departments, divisions or the enterprise to maintain or improve schedule outcomes.

This integrated tool suite becomes a new structure that makes increasing operational velocity possible – but it’s not enough.

The TRM software tools help you lead a transformation across your organization because you now have access to an integrated, multi-purpose, ubiquitous tool set that contains the “single version of the truth” you require to build the trust and collaboration that leads to speed and growth.

Users of the new software will require training in the new tools, to understand what they make possible – outcomes that previously couldn’t be achieved. We can help you with this. Successful adoption of Test Resource Management practices and tools will mean your test organization is beginning its journey to increased competitiveness and will become a source of competitive advantage to your organization by increasing speed to market, lowering costs and freeing up capital to be invested in new products and capabilities.

Typical results are improved responsiveness and cycle time by 25% to 30%, reduced investment capital requirements from 35% to 75% with up to 50% reduction in operating capital required to support test, improved customer and employee satisfaction.

With these results employees are more capable of innovating and with resources freed up investments can be made to turn those ideas into growth for the company and individuals.

• 40% reduction in equipment obsolescence risk
• 30% improvement in responsiveness
• 50% reduction in operating capital