Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE): A Brief History, and How It Can Be Modernized

The end goal of the Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE) is to drive the shift from fragmented, project-based QA efforts to a unified governance structure. It was a pre-Agile innovation to bring testing from the “background” to the center of the SDLC.
 

The arrival of Agile renders the traditional TCoEs obsolete. TCoEs operate as centralized but isolated units that are separate from the dev teams, while Agile emphasizes cross-functional team collaboration where not just devs and testers but also stakeholders work together closely.
 

And yet, according to the World Quality Report 2023 from Capgemini, up to 70% of organizations see the value in having a traditional TCoE. This raises a question: how can we innovate the traditional TCoE to make it relevant in today’s ever-changing tech scene?
 

Let’s read more and find out!
 

What is a Testing Center of Excellence?

A Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) is a centralized unit within an organization that focuses on managing and standardizing the software testing process. Its main goal is to ensure that testing across all teams and projects is efficient, consistent, and high-quality.
 

A Brief History of TCoE

1. Pre-Agile

In the Pre-Agile era, software development primarily followed waterfall models. The TCoE was the centralized hub of all testing activities. At this time, testing took place after the development phase. This makes the TCoE an independent unit that developers would hand over the code to after they were finished.

The challenge?

1. Defects could only be detected after the full code had been developed, leaving little to no time for troubleshooting.
2. There is little collaboration between team members and stakeholders.

That’s when Agile came along and changed everything.
 

2. Post-Agile

With the rise of Agile and DevOps, software development shifted to more iterative, collaborative, and fast-paced approaches. The nature of Agile requires the TCoE to adapt:

1. Agile calls for close collaboration between devs and testers, and following the shift-left movement, testing now happens continuously alongside development. 
   → The TCoE must also evolve to be more decentralized.
2. One of the core principles of Agile is “test early, test often”, which is inherently incompatible with the traditional TCoE in which tests are only run near the end of the sprint.
   → Post-Agile TCoEs must support tools, frameworks, and best practices for early testing.
3. Agile and DevOps require continuous testing, in which automation plays a critical role. The rapid pace of development calls for the use of automated tests that can be executed continuously in CI/CD pipelines, while manual testing is reserved solely for exploratory testing.
   → Post-Agile TCoEs must align with the speed and flexibility of Agile frameworks.

How To Build a Hybrid Testing Center of Excellence

Welcome to the Hybrid Testing Center of Excellence. 

It’s not about tearing down the old TCoE model, but about reimagining it to meet the needs of modern, high-velocity organizations.

Here’s the reality: centralized governance still matters. In a large enterprise, you can’t afford fragmented quality standards. You need consistent processes, shared tools, and oversight to ensure compliance and security, no matter how fast your teams are moving. But the days of isolated, centralized QA teams are gone. Development cycles are too fast, customer expectations too high.

What’s the solution? Decentralized execution. In a hybrid TCoE, governance stays centralized for quality oversight, but testing is embedded directly within your Agile teams. It’s about empowering your squads to test early, often, and in real time, without losing the big-picture view on quality that’s so critical to your enterprise’s success.
 

The Building Blocks of a Hybrid TCoE

1. Centralized standards with local flexibility: think of centralized governance like the North Star. It provides the direction—the quality standards, the tools, the frameworks—that guide all your teams. But your execution is local, meaning your individual teams are free to apply these standards in a way that fits their specific workflows. This balance ensures agility, without compromising consistency.
2. Shift-Left Testing to catch defects early: old models of testing at the end of development just don’t work anymore. It’s too costly, too late, and frankly, too risky. In a hybrid TCoE, we adopt shift-left testing—testing happens as early as possible in the development cycle. The beauty here is that defects are caught when they’re easier (and cheaper) to fix. Your Agile teams are running automated tests alongside their coding, ensuring that quality is baked into every phase of the SDLC.
3. Automation as the Backbone: make test automation the backbone of our hybrid TCoE. Automated tests run continuously within your CI/CD pipelines, offering instant feedback on code changes. This doesn’t just speed up releases—it builds confidence that every update will maintain the quality your customers expect.
4. Cross-functional collaboration: one of the most powerful shifts Agile and DevOps have brought is the breakdown of silos. In the hybrid TCoE, testers, developers, and stakeholders aren’t working in isolation. Instead, they’re collaborating from day one. Testers are embedded in development teams, ensuring that quality is a shared responsibility. This doesn’t just speed up testing—it leads to better products.