Assessing maturity

This is the capstone of the TCoE track. The earlier courses built the business case, the operating model, the standards, the tooling, the data and environment services, the metrics and the partner model. This one asks where the TCoE stands now, where AI belongs in it, and what the next 24 months should deliver. It starts with an honest assessment, because a roadmap built on a flattering self-image fails at its first checkpoint.

Two ways to assess

ISTQB's Advanced Test Management syllabus (CTAL-TM v3.0) describes two complementary approaches to test process improvement. A model-based assessment compares your practices with a reference model and shows gaps against good practice. An analytical assessment starts from your own data, such as root causes of escaped defects and the KPIs from sap-tcoe-406, and shows the gaps that actually hurt you. Use both: the model tells you what you are missing, the data tells you what to fix first.

The TMMi model

The Test Maturity Model integration (TMMi), maintained by the TMMi Foundation, is the most widely used model for test process maturity. It is staged: level 1 is initial and ad hoc, and each higher level adds process areas that must all be in place, together with those of the levels below, before the level is achieved. The process areas below are those of TMMi release 1.3, which most assessments and training still use.

TMMi is changing. The TMMi Foundation published the TMMi Framework Model v2.0 in June 2026. According to the Foundation and its exam partners, it integrates Agile and DevOps practices, adds guidance on where AI and automation support each process area using a people, process and technology view, replaces the separate generic goals and practices with a new level 2 process area, Implementation and Habit, renames a level 3 process area to Test Process and Integration, and is about 30% shorter. The Foundation states that assessments and certifications based on release 1.3 will not be available after August 1, 2027. Plan any formal assessment after that date on v2.0. Requirements for informal and formal assessments are set out in the TMMi Assessment Method Application Requirements (TAMAR), currently v1.3.

TMMi is not the only option. CTAL-TM also describes TPI NEXT, which rates 16 key areas, such as test strategy, metrics, tools and test environment, at four maturity levels and is not staged in the same way. Pick one model and stay with it for the roadmap's life, so progress is comparable.

Running an evidence-based assessment

Evidence means artifacts and records, not opinions: the test policy and strategy, test plans in SAP Cloud ALM, the readiness notes from sap-tcoe-405, KPI cards and council minutes, training records, review records. Interviews confirm how practices are really used, for example by asking a project test lead how the TCoE was involved in the Explore phase. Assessors rate how fully each practice and goal is implemented, from not achieved to fully achieved, and a process area is satisfied only when its goals are.

Contoso at the end of year 1

Read the result carefully. Because Test Environment is only partially achieved, Contoso is formally still at TMMi level 1, even though most level 2 work is strong and parts of level 3 are under way. That is a common pattern and a useful message for the sponsor: one weak area, test data and environments, holds back the formal rating and, more importantly, limits the value of automation. The analytical view agrees: the most serious escapes in year 1 clustered in procure to pay, where coverage and data recipes were weakest.