Lesson 5 of 6
Writing the charter
9 min
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A business case gets the TCoE funded. A charter tells everyone what it is allowed to do. Without one, the TCoE either becomes a pool of testers anybody can borrow, or a gatekeeper that projects route around. The charter is short, signed by the sponsor, and reviewed every year.
What goes in a TCoE charter
| Section | What it says | Contoso wording (abridged) |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Why the TCoE exists, in one sentence | Make every change to Contoso's SAP landscape safe to release, with evidence, at a predictable cost. |
| Mandate | What it owns | Testing standards, the regression pack, test data recipes, the test release calendar, SAP Cloud ALM as the system of record for tests and defects |
| Services | The catalog, by reference | Core and demand services as published in the service catalog |
| Decision rights | What it decides, recommends or is consulted on | See the decision rights table |
| Exclusions | What it does not do | Unit testing, business acceptance, security penetration testing, performance engineering beyond agreed checks |
| Engagement | How work comes in and how projects use it | One front door through the demand process; weekly triage; catalog rates for projects |
| Governance | Who it reports to and who resolves conflicts | Reports to the CIO; quarterly quality council chaired by the CIO |
| Success measures | How value is judged | The scorecard with baselines and targets |
| Review | When the charter is revisited | Annually, and after any major change in scope or deployment |
The sections of a TCoE charter, with abridged Contoso wording.
Decision rights: the section that matters most
Most charter disputes are about who decides. Write decision rights explicitly, and distinguish between deciding, recommending and being consulted. The single most important line is about release: the TCoE does not approve or block production imports. It gives a readiness assessment, which is presented as given, and the accountable owner decides. Any decision to proceed against the assessment is recorded with the name of the person who accepted the risk.
| Decision | TCoE | Accountable owner |
|---|---|---|
| Testing standards and templates | Decides, after consulting process owners | TCoE lead, approved by the quality council |
| Test tools and the system of record | Recommends | CIO, through the quality council |
| Regression scope for a release | Decides the recommended scope | Release manager (Luis) accepts any reduction |
| Release to production | Gives the readiness assessment | Process owners and the release manager |
| Business acceptance | Provides evidence | Process owner, such as Dan for finance |
| Priority between competing requests | Proposes | Quality council when requesters disagree |
| Partner test deliverables | Defines acceptance criteria and reviews evidence | Contract owner |
Contoso's decision rights. The TCoE informs the release decision; it never owns it.
Exclusions protect the TCoE
Exclusions are not a sign of weakness. They stop the slow drift in which "testing" becomes every task nobody else wants. Contoso's charter says that developers own unit testing and ATC results, process owners own business acceptance, Nadia's security team owns penetration testing and authorization reviews, and Theo's integration team owns interface monitoring in production. The TCoE supports each with standards and evidence, but does not take them over.
How projects engage
The engagement section turns the charter into daily practice. Every request comes through the existing demand process, so the TCoE sees the same pipeline as IT. Projects above an agreed size get a named test architect from the start of the Explore phase, and their test strategy follows the TCoE template. Smaller changes use self-service templates and are spot-checked. Partners working on Contoso projects must use SAP Cloud ALM for tests, results and defects, and that obligation goes into their contracts.
What would you do?
Two weeks before a feature pack stack update, the order-to-cash team asks the TCoE to "just run UAT for us this time, our key users are busy." The charter excludes business acceptance. What should Priya do?
- The charter states purpose, mandate, services, decision rights, exclusions, engagement, governance, success measures and review.
- Decision rights distinguish deciding, recommending and being consulted; each has one accountable owner.
- The TCoE gives a readiness assessment as given; owners decide on release and are named when they accept risk.
- Exclusions name who owns unit testing, acceptance, security and production monitoring.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Which charter wording gets the TCoE's role in production releases right?
2. Why should exclusions name the team that owns each excluded activity?
3. Who is accountable for business acceptance of a finance change in Contoso's charter?
4. What should be confirmed before the sponsor signs the charter?