SESI/SENAI SP Success Story: Quality Assurance for System Structuring and a Test Center of Excellence

When it comes to managing systems, Quality Assurance must be part of their development, identifying flaws and opportunities for improvement. With that in mind, SESI/SENAI SP, one of the largest professional education institutions in Brazil, reached out to Atomic Solutions to develop a quality standard for its software, with a deep dive into QA culture for all of its development teams.

The result of this partnership was the creation of a structured TCoE (Test Center of Excellence) to ensure the quality of deliveries across the proprietary systems of SESI and SENAI São Paulo.

This is yet another Atomic Solutions success story for you to explore!

Partnership with SESI/SENAI SP

Between August and October 2025, Atomic Solutions worked alongside several squads from SESI and SENAI-SP to structure the Quality Assurance (QA) area, ensuring a consistent development standard for systems across every area of the institutions.

Beyond structuring and integrating the teams, the project also involved creating extensive documentation defining best practices, with a focus on reducing bugs in production environments and, as a result, delivering a better user experience.

To make this happen, one of Atomic Solutions' missions was to build the desired structure through the TCoE, also known as the Test Center of Excellence.

What is a TCoE?

The TCoE (Test Center of Excellence) is a strategic Software Quality (QA) governance structure responsible for defining, standardizing, and sustaining testing practices throughout the organization.

It is an initiative that can be applied at different levels of maturity, from companies that already have a QA structure in place to those that have yet to begin any Software Quality practices.

Its goal is to ensure consistency, predictability, and efficiency in the quality process, regardless of the product or technologies involved.

Its main responsibilities include clearly defining roles, standardizing processes and technologies, governing testing practices, and providing technical support to teams, while promoting the proper use of manual, automated, and non-functional tests integrated into the development cycle. Within the quality strategy, the TCoE is responsible for:

• Defining QA standards and best practices for the entire organization.
• Supporting and empowering teams through training, guides, and technical support.
• Ensuring quality visibility through clear metrics and indicators.
• Identifying opportunities for continuous improvement in testing processes.
• Ensuring alignment between technology, product teams, and business areas. Implementing a TCoE strengthens the organization's quality culture, increases delivery predictability, and contributes directly to operational gains, reduced rework, and lower costs throughout the development cycle.

Challenges and Goals

At the start of the project, we identified a low-maturity scenario in Software Quality, marked by the absence of standards and QA governance across the SESI/SENAI-SP squads.

Testing activities were carried out in isolation, without common guidelines, which made it difficult to ensure consistent validations and traceability of deliveries.

There was also no structured test automation strategy, and the recording of test cases and defects did not follow a defined standard, reducing visibility into the validation activities being performed. Another notable challenge was the lack of dedicated QAs in many squads. In those cases, validation was handled by the developer themselves or by the business area. Even on teams that did have a QA, the quality area was often not seen as strategic, which impacted confidence in the testing processes. On top of that, the lack of a structured process, including the absence of a clear regression testing scope definition, meant that validations were concentrated at the end of the development cycle, resulting in rework, delays, and, in some cases, critical features going unvalidated.

Given this scenario, implementing the Test Center of Excellence (TCoE) became essential to establish standards, strengthen QA governance, and drive cultural change.

Throughout the project, the definition of processes, the rollout of automation, and the training delivered all contributed to consolidating quality as a strategic pillar, bringing more predictability, safety, and efficiency to deliveries.

How the Project Unfolded

From day one, Atomic Solutions worked to understand how the SESI/SENAI-SP environment operated and how internally developed systems were being tested, identifying the best approach for kicking off the project.

This made it possible to decide which tools would be adopted, which rules would connect every area and department, and how tests would be executed from software conception all the way through delivery and project closure. This kind of structuring opens the door to advanced practices, such as scaling performance tests, which ensure greater robustness and reliability of the systems. After this initial research, Atomic Solutions built a diagnosis of SESI/SENAI-SP's main teams and the systems where Quality Assurance would be applied, and from there, a plan was structured for implementing the project based on how the teams and systems worked. Within that scope, it was essential to define the right scenarios for applying automated tests vs. manual tests, ensuring efficiency and quality wherever needed.

The project began on a smaller scale, involving two teams for the full diagnosis, and as it progressed with the writing of tests, the definition of which tools would be needed to structure QA became clearer.

The project lasted 3 months and included in-person visits to understand the teams' routines and develop QA in the best way possible. Everything was aligned taking into account SESI/SENAI SP's needs and the client's expectations based on the institution's governance. With QA fully structured, Atomic Solutions delivered training to the remaining SESI/SENAI teams, immersing them in the culture and explaining how the quality assurance process works.

Results Achieved

Drawing on its expertise and excellence in QA, the solution Atomic Solutions delivered was the creation of the Test Center of Excellence, which sets the guidelines for the development of the desired product.

Thanks to its expertise in applying and structuring tests and automating processes, it was possible to raise SESI/SENAI's QA maturity level, driving a true cultural shift. As a result, the project brought significant advances to the organization, such as improvements in the information validation process and the expansion of automation, ensuring the longevity of the TCoE.

If you want a well-built Test Center of Excellence focused on Quality Assurance for your systems, Atomic Solutions can help you in the best way possible. Talk to our specialists at Atomic Solutions and learn more!