The Testing Centre of Excellence (TCoE) at His Majesty's Courts and Tribunals services (HMCTS) had the privilege of being part of an incredible day of learning and collaboration at the QA Town Hall, run by Solirius. Our Test Lead Elizabeth Jones explains what we got up to.
Firstly, what is the Testing Centre of Excellence (TCoE)?
The purpose of the TCoE is to establish a centralised hub for standardised testing and quality processes across the organisation. We promote continuous improvement by fostering cohesive testing practices and ensuring that all members have access to the necessary resources and support.
Through our dedicated platform, we offer a space for the testing community to connect, collaborate, and share knowledge with access to a wide range of resources, including document templates, best practices, and training materials, all to enhance testing capabilities.
The three main goals of the HMCTS TCoE are:
Standardisation: To establish a centralised model where testing and quality processes are standardised across the whole of HMCTS. This centralised model will serve as a unified framework that sets clear guidelines, best practices, and standardised methodologies for testing and quality assurance activities.
Efficiency: To streamline workflows, reduce redundancies, and enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of our testing efforts.
Community: To connect testers from all jurisdictions and create a testing community. By sharing experiences, knowledge and training, we can bridge the gap in understanding and expertise, ultimately enhancing the quality and effectiveness of our testing processes across the entire organisation.
What did we do at the QA Town Hall?
The TCoE at HMCTS had the privilege of participating in an incredible day of learning and collaboration at the QA Town Hall, run by Solirius.
It was a full day packed with insightful sessions, attended by 47 participants eager to enhance their knowledge of testing practices and get hands-on experiences with our workshop.
Keynote speaker Christine Pinto: Playwright & AI in test automation talk
Christine is a respected figure in the QA community and delivered an engaging talk, sharing her expertise in automation engineering globally through insightful articles and presentations. She gave us an in-depth look into the capabilities of Playwright and how AI tools can significantly enhance automation frameworks.
The session covered practical ways AI can assist with coding, optimising test coverage, and ways AI can help improve the quality, reliability, scalability and security of our tests. We explored various AI tools that streamline development, reduce repetitive tasks, and boost efficiency, empowering teams to stay ahead of the curve.
We discussed essential guidelines to protect sensitive data, learning strategies to ensure that confidential information is never shared with AI tools, thus preventing potential data breaches and maintaining robust data security.
TCoE: Accessibility & screen reader testing workshop
This hands-on session run by Ayesha Saeed (Accessibility Testing Lead), Philena Bremner (Accessibility/UX Consultant) and Piya Patel (Junior Accessibility Tester) highlighted the importance of accessibility in software testing. Attendees practised live screen reader testing of multiple websites and learned the essential steps to ensuring applications are inclusive for all users, bringing greater awareness about improving product and service accessibility standards.
We then covered how to integrate axeCore into automated Playwright tests, a crucial step in ensuring earlier accessibility visibility (shift-left) by automatically detecting WCAG2.2 violations when the CI/CD build pipelines are run. Attendee's learned how automation can help to scale accessibility testing and build more inclusive and user-friendly digital services.
Showcasing the Testing Centre of Excellence (TCoE) Website
Myself (Elizabeth Jones - Test Lead) and Abigail Smith (QA Engineer) showcased the HMCTS TCoE website which has over 230 users, and is designed to be a one-stop resource for QA professionals. We demonstrated how the platform can support testers with access to tools, templates, and expert advice, promoting efficiency and continuous learning.
Crime Test Practice Lead: Show and Tell by HMCTS Crime department: Improving testing processes
We also had an insightful session from James Widdowson (Crime Test Practice Lead) from the Crime Team at HMCTS who showcased their journey to enhancing testing efficiency and reducing defects through a transformative approach. They shared valuable, actionable strategies for creating a streamlined, collaborative testing environment, detailing how they developed a reliable automation pack compatible with the existing Serenity framework.
Their transition from Jenkins and Gerrit to Azure and GitHub, alongside the integration of API checks to verify message processing, substantially increased stability. As a result, they now run over 600 automated UI tests, achieving a pass rate consistently in excess of 90%, highlighting the positive impact of robust automation practices on quality outcomes.
A big thank you
A special thanks to the day's organisers and session hosts— Elizabeth Jones, Tom Bowker, Gareth Davies, Nimesh Patel, Josh Gray, Christine Pinto, James Widdowson, Abigail Smith, Ayesha Saeed, Piya Patel, Philena Bremner and Jake Gowler — for making this event such a success. Your hard work truly made this an engaging and impactful experience.
Finally, we would like to extend a big thank you to PA Consulting for generously hosting the event! We truly appreciate your support.
The QA Town Hall was an incredible day of learning, collaboration, and growth for all involved. Thank you to all the participants for attending and actively contributing to the success of the event. We can’t wait for the next one!
Contact information
If you have any questions about our Quality Assurance services, or if you want to find out more about what other services we provide at Solirius please get in touch.
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