By embracing our proven six-step model, IT organizations can deliver sustainable business impact by making quality 'a way of life.'

1. Accelerating Grassroots Adoption
of IT Quality Transformation
By embracing our proven six-step model, IT organizations can
transcend their centralized, audit-driven and reactive quality-
checking approaches and deliver sustainable business impact by
adopting a philosophy that makes quality ‘a way of life.’
Executive Summary
Is your organization experiencing low customer
satisfaction levels due to missed milestones? Are
production issues keeping decision-makers up
at night? Are you spending more on keeping the
lights on?
If you answered yes to any of the above, your
organization would likely benefit from a quality
improvement initiative. Because of their inherent
complexity, however, many of these programs
quickly lose momentum without any sustainable
gains. It takes planning, perseverance and col-
laboration to overcome the inherent challenges
of quality management initiatives, which include
incremental phases, multiple focus areas and the
involvement of numerous stakeholder groups.
This white paper highlights the critical success
factors, solution options and strategies for sustain-
ing business impact through a quality transforma-
tion initiative. We present a path for accelerating the
organization-wide grassroots adoption of a quality
initiative though a proven six-step approach: evalu-
ate, communicate, mobilize, pilot, adopt and sustain.
This six-step framework has enabled IT leaders
at numerous banking and financial services com-
panies with global operations to successfully
navigate the quality transformation journey while
meeting critical business and compliance needs.
The Need for Quality Transformation
CIOs across industries face numerous quality
issues, including a high number of production
incidents, delays in meeting crucial client com-
mitments and exceptionally high expenditures
on business-as-usual activities. Many technology
organizations make use of waterfall-type software
development lifecycle (SDLC) approaches that rely
on documentation and audits. However, because of
factors such as inconsistent and unrepeatable pro-
cesses, weak project management, a lack of tools
and irrelevant metrics, actual implementations
vary widely and lead to poor business outcomes.
In our experience, the missing ingredient is the
integration of quality into the “day-in-the-life” of
practitioners. For a quality improvement initiative
to be successful, it is necessary to:
• Involve all teams or business units of the IT
organization.
• Engage the IT associates who perform the
day-to-day activities.
cognizant 20-20 insights | december 2015
• Cognizant 20-20 Insights

2. EVALUATE
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22
33
44
COMMUNICATE
MOBILIZE
PILOT
Determine Current State,
Shape and Fitness
Create Awareness and Urgency;y;
Set Targets and Engage Stakeholdolders
Roll out Proofs of Concept;
Incentivize Early Adoption
Build the Right Team
2cognizant 20-20 insights
Six-Step Recipe for a Successful
Quality Transformation Initiative
Our six-step methodology can help IT organiza-
tions navigate the quality transformation journey.
This methodology is premised on sustained part-
nerships with all related stakeholders from the
get-go rather than as a management mandate.
Figure 1 defines and explain the six steps of
quality transformation.
Building Blocks for Quality Transformation
Figure 1
EVALUATE
COMMUNICATE
Assess current
state of IT process
and compare this
with best-in-class
industry standards. Create awareness and
urgency, set targets
and engage
stakeholders.
11
22
MOBILIZE
Build team of thought
leaders, influencers,
decision-makers,
change agents,
practitioners.
33
44
PILOT
Roll out pilots and
incentivize early
adopters to ensure
quick wins to build
momentum.
55
66
ADOPT
Enable broad-based
adoption by
simplifying and
automating
processes.
SUSTAIN
Integrate “quality” into
the day-in-the-life of
practitioners and measure
improvements.
Organizations should begin their quality trans-
formation initiative by evaluating the perfor-
mance of current systems and conducting a due
diligence exercise to determine existing vulnera-
bilities. This exercise can help identify and assess
gaps that exist between the current state and the
achievement of organizational goals and industry
standards.
Key considerations for assessing the current
state include:
• Conducting a maturity assessment. Rather
than engaging in an overall process maturity
audit, it is more effective to conduct a custom
assessment, leveraging various industry stan-
dards for specific process areas (see Figure 2,
next page).
• Choosing a self-assessment rather than
an external audit. By allowing grassroots
teams to assess themselves, organizations can
encourage these stakeholders to feel a sense of
ownership for the initiative and its outcomes.
A self-assessment-based approach is often
broader-based than an external audit and can
help spread awareness about the program.
• Assessing across the organization. An orga-
nization-wide assessment helps identify hidden
best practices that are used by different pockets
of the enterprise, as well as key areas of concern.
In-house best practices can potentially fuel the
first wave of quality standardization.

3. cognizant 20-20 insights 3
Code Quality
Service Delivery
TestingProgram and Projects
Requirements &
Scope Management
Information Management
Build and DeploymentOrganizational
Architecture and Talent
Vendor Management
The COBIT framework from ISACA provides a
set of generally accepted measures,
indicators, processes and best practices, to
assist in maximizing the benefits derived
through the use of information technology,
and developing appropriate IT governance
and control in a company.
• Service desk
• Incident management
• Problem management
• Configuration management
• Change management
• Release management
ITIL is a group of methods that are focused on
managing and handling different aspects of
information technology, such as operations,
infrastructure, and development.
CMMI is a collection of capability maturity
models from Software Engineering Institute
and Carnegie Mellon University that are
used as an approach to improve business
processes within an organization.
• Project monitoring and control
• Project planning
• Requirements management
• Supplier agreement management
• Measurement and analysis
• Product & process quality assurance
• Configuration management
• Planning and organization
• Delivery and support
• Monitoring and evaluation
CAPABILITY MATURITY MODEL
INTEGRATION (CMMI)
CONTROL OBJECTIVES FOR INFORMATION
AND RELATED TECHNOLOGY (COBIT)
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
INFRASTRUCTURE LIBRARY (ITIL)
Organizations need to set the right targets,
communicate these goals and convey a sense
of urgency for the need to transform. Targets
should be easy to communicate, relevant and
time-bound. Examples include:
• A 15% to 20% reduction in testing effort
through early detection of defects in the devel-
opment phase over the next 24 months.
• A 50% to 60% reduction in the impact of
outages on customers through improved
regression testing, release risk impact analysis
and proactive monitoring over the next 12
months.
• A 70% to 80% increase in on-time delivery
through standardized estimation, toll gates and
project management over the next six months.
These targets are highly functional because they
help spark motivation, improve alignment between
ongoing and upcoming initiatives across the orga-
nization, provide a filter to evaluate how the orga-
nization is doing, and create a rationale for the
changes the organization will have to navigate.
Awareness and communication are required
not just at the start of an initiative, but also at
every step of the way. Figure 3 illustrates ways
to ensure a closed feedback loop and stakehold-
er engagement throughout the transformation
journey.
Custom Assessments Leveraging Industry Standards
Collaboration Techniques
Figure 2
Figure 3
COLLABORATION
Monthly
newsletter
Progress review
sessions
Social collaboration
portals with blogs,
polls
Lunch-and-learn
sessions
EVALUATE
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22
33
44
55
66
COMMUNICATE
MOBILIZE
PILOT
ADOPT
SUSTAIN
Determine Current State,
Shape and Fitness
Create Awareness and Urgency;y;
Set Targets and Engage Stakeholdolders
Roll out Proofs of Concept;
Incentivize Early Adoption
Enable Broad-Based Adoption bybyb
Simplifying and Automating Procescesses
Integrate Quality into
the Day-in-the-Life of Practitionerers
and Demonstrate Executivee
Sponsorship to Sustain Chahange
Build the Right Team
(ITIL is a registered trademark of Axelos
Ltd., which licenses the use of ITIL intel-
lectual property and manages updates to
the framework.)
(CMMI is a registered trademark of
Carnegie Mellon University.)
(COBIT is a registered trademark of ISACA.)

4. cognizant 20-20 insights 4
33
44
55
66
MOBILIZE
PILOT
ADOPT
SUSTAIN
Set Targets and Engage Stakeholdolders
Roll out Proofs of Concept;
Incentivize Early Adoption
Enable Broad-Based Adoption bybyb
Simplifying and Automating Procescesses
Integrate Quality into
the Day-in-the-Life of Practitionerers
and Demonstrate Executivee
Sponsorship to Sustain Chahange
Build the Right Team
44
55
66
PILOT
ADOPT
SUSTAIN
Roll out Proofs of Concept;
Incentivize Early Adoption
Enable Broad-Based Adoption bybyb
Simplifying and Automating Procescesses
Integrate Quality into
the Day-in-the-Life of Practitionerers
and Demonstrate Executivee
Sponsorship to Sustain Chahange
Build the Right Team
Sample Transformation Team
Figure 4
Roles Organizational Roles Responsibilities
Sponsors Chief information officer, chief quality officer
and IT senior management team.
Set quantifiable quality goals for the
organization and incorporate them as part
of performance management. Espouse the
need for quality transformation. Incentivize
adoption of best practices. Monitor and
control progress.
Thought Leaders
and Champions
Highly motivated employees who understand
the need for a quality initiative and are willing to
pioneer quality as a way of life.
Publicize and advocate best practices. Lead
by example. Deliver quick wins and early
successes.
Influencers Teams that have successfully adopted best
practices and demonstrated strong results.
Highlight the benefits of successfully
adopting standard processes.
Practitioners Members from ground-level teams
(project managers, team leads).
Ensure best practices are followed by all
day-to-day projects.
Catalysts HR, communications, external
consultants.
Assist in developing marketing materials.
Conduct workshops to socialize the
initiative/ best practices.
It is critical to establish a team with clearly defined
roles and responsibilities, as well as support from
senior leadership. A successful quality trans-
formation initiative requires a sponsor that will
not only drive and own the initiative but will also
develop a guiding team of senior executives, key
line managers, human resources and strategic
planning. Sponsors must align with transforma-
tion objectives, overcome obstacles and serve
as advocates who communicate the reasons for
the urgency and change. Management teams
must partner with supporters and change agents
across the organization and groom them to be
ambassadors of the quality transformation.
When organizations face issues such as bandwidth
constraints, availability of skills and access to
best-in-class industry standards, they can engage
subject matter experts who possess the required
experience to introduce best practices and
broaden awareness during the initial phases of
planning and rollout (see Figure 4).
By selecting the right pilot project, organizations
can lay the foundation for successful implementa-
tion of the initiative. Identifying pilot candidates
entails the following:
• Select quick-win opportunities based on self-
assessment results.
• Identify opportunities that will highlight
major benefits of the program. Such successes
can be used as a trigger for the adoption of
best practices.
• Leverage teams that follow best practices
to define and standardize processes for pilot
focus areas. Having internal references for
success lowers resistance to change. Organi-
zations may also need to consider infusing the
team with experts to leverage industry best
practices and standards.

5. 5cognizant 20-20 insights
To ensure widespread adoption, organizations
need to educate teams on the benefits of the new
processes — including simplification and automa-
tion — and develop effective incentives. Guiding
principles to ensure successful adoption include:
• Incentivize and drive early adopters by making
quality improvement a part of annual KPIs.
• Establish milestones along the way and
celebrate with rewards and recognition.
• Track adoption through a metrics program.
Adoption should be voluntary and driven
through healthy competition.
• Realign roles to improve the focus on quality.
Senior developers and solution architects
should be assigned to validate the correct use
of design patterns and reusable components,
and test managers and production support
leads should participate in requirements
reviews. To avoid hand-off gaps, teams should
conduct 360-degree reviews of deliverables.
The final stage in every initiative is making sure
that the defined processes are sustainable and
to integrate them into the organization. Ways to
facilitate successful integration include:
• Emphasize the benefits of the initiative. Ease
of adoption and value gained drive sustainability.
• Utilize periodic tracking of strategic and
operational metrics to show alignment with
organization goals and incremental change in
performance and process maturity.
• Socialize the progress and outcomes with
the teams through posters, luncheon sessions,
newsletters, e-mail communications, etc.
• Include key result areas aligned with quality
initiatives in the performance reviews of deci-
sion-makers.
• Deploy support groups to advance adoption
and sustainability of the processes.
• Engage lagging business units by conducting
knowledge-sharing sessions and promoting
the adoption of tools and best practices.
• Celebrate wins with the team. Rewards and
recognition are as critical as the overall initiative.
Once quality becomes an integral part of the
culture, the organization can begin to transition
responsibility for sustaining change from the
focused work groups to the rest of the enterprise.
Quick Take
A major global bank kicked off an organization-
wide quality transformation initiative with the
direct participation of its senior leadership
team and 100-plus influencers across the globe.
• Primary sponsor: Group CIO
• Program owner: Chief quality officer
• Steering committee: Executive team made
up of CIO direct reports with ownership
of individual workstreams, such as
requirements management and release
management, covering end-to-end software
development and service delivery.
• Workstream leads: Self-motivated line
managers with growth potential and
leadership capabilities.
• Workgroup members: Peer groups of
developers, testers, project managers and
business analysts, spread across geogra-
phies and application areas.
• Quality champions: One to two practitio-
ners per geography or application area,
responsible for socializing best practices
and standards across all workstreams.
This structure resulted in a matrix that
engaged the entire organization, with multiple
stakeholders taking ownership of various parts
of the initiative.
Structure for Success
55
66
ADOPT
SUSTAIN
Incentivize Early Adoption
Enable Broad-Based Adoption bybyb
Simplifying and Automating Procescesses
Integrate Quality into
the Day-in-the-Life of Practitionerers
and Demonstrate Executivee
Sponsorship to Sustain Chahange
22
33
44
55
66
COMMUNICATE
MOBILIZE
PILOT
ADOPT
SUSTAIN
Shape and Fitness
Create Awareness and Urgency;y;
Set Targets and Engage Stakeholdolders
Roll out Proofs of Concept;
Incentivize Early Adoption
Enable Broad-Based Adoption bybyb
Simplifying and Automating Procescesses
Integrate Quality into
the Day-in-the-Life of Practitionerers
and Demonstrate Executivee
Sponsorship to Sustain Chahange
Build the Right Team

6. 6cognizant 20-20 insights
Looking Ahead
To deliver a sustainable business impact from
quality transformation initiatives, IT organi-
zations need to generate awareness and set
specific actionable goals across all levels of the
enterprise, not just for their quality assurance
teams. Quality goals must be championed by peer
groups of IT practitioners and enabled with tools
and automation that improve productivity and
consistency.
Taking the first step is half the battle. By following
through with the six steps of this proven
framework, organizations can ensure a successful
quality management initiative.
Quick Take
Our work on quality improvement initiatives
has yielded the following examples of simplified
processes and associated benefits.
• Static code analysis and unit testing for
code reviews. These tools significantly reduce
the time and effort required for manual code
review processes without any compromise to
quality.
• Engagement of business stakeholders on
requirements quality and demonstrating
traceability with the delivered code. The
impact of requirements quality on functional-
ity can be demonstrated by testing the require-
ments on wireframes or simulations.
• Building of automation platforms. A standard
automated build platform across the organi-
zation reduces the time and effort spent on
making code changes by eliminating the need
to reinvent the wheel.
• Use of automated tools for standard status
reporting. Doing so reduces the time required
for preparing status reports for senior
management.
• Project lifecycle workflow systems. These
systems reduce the need for manual auditing.
• Incident management and escalation
workflows. The use of process management
tools for standardizing the tracking and fixing
of incidents provides an analytics ability for
root-cause analysis.
Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

7. About Cognizant
Cognizant (NASDAQ: CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business
process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping the world’s leading companies build stronger busi-
nesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant combines a passion for client satisfac-
tion, technology innovation, deep industry and business process expertise, and a global, collaborative
workforce that embodies the future of work. With over 100 development and delivery centers worldwide
and approximately 219,300 employees as of September 30, 2015, Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-
100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 2000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing
and fastest growing companies in the world. Visit us online at www.cognizant.com or follow us on Twitter:
Cognizant.
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About the Authors
Saptarshi (Rishi) Mukherjee is an Assistant Vice-President of Consulting within Cognizant Business
Consulting’s Strategic Services Practice. Rishi is engaged in business development and execution of
multiple consulting engagements across the banking/financial services and insurance industries. He is
also responsible for creating consulting frameworks and publishing articles in Cognizant forums. He can
be reached at Saptarshi.Mukherjee@cognizant.com.
Vinit Sharma is a Senior Manager of Consulting within Cognizant Business Consulting. He has nine-plus
years of experience successfully leading and managing large IT performance and process improvement
initiatives, program management and change management for various clients. Vinit holds an M.B.A.
from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, and a bachelor’s degree from BMSCE Bangalore.
He can be reached at Vinit.Sharma2@cognizant.com.
Kajal Aggarwal is an Engagement Manager within Cognizant Business Consulting’s Strategic Services
Practice. He has 12-plus years of consulting experience in IT and business process improvement,
strategic and operations metrics, cost optimization and portfolio rationalization. He holds an M.B.A.
from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi, and a bachelor’s degree from the National Institute
of Technology Karnataka, India. He can be reached at Kajal.Aggarwal@cognizant.com.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Akila Rajasekaran for her contributions to this white paper.