The Company
Pernod Ricard owns one of the most comprehensive portfolios in the spirits and champagne industry, with more than 200 premium brands distributed across 160 countries. The Group’s culture is rooted in collaboration and conviviality, with a strong commitment to acting responsibly and creating a positive impact on society and the planet.
Operating at this scale means managing a vast and diverse application landscape that supports global business operations. As digital initiatives continued to expand, ensuring consistent software quality across teams, regions, and projects became an increasingly strategic priority for Pernod Ricard’s IT organization.
The Partner
To support this transformation, Pernod Ricard partnered with Ouidou, an Atlassian Platinum Partner with deep expertise in agile practices, test management, and large-scale Jira environments.
Already responsible for the Atlassian ecosystem at Pernod Ricard, Ouidou played a pivotal role in structuring the transition toward unified test management. Their Xray-certified consultants worked closely with Pernod Ricard’s Testing Factory to define governance models, propose standardized testing practices, and guide teams through onboarding and adoption.
Beyond tooling, Ouidou brought both functional and technical expertise, ensuring that the solution was not only correctly configured but also aligned with real team workflows. This pragmatic approach helped teams adopt Xray progressively, while laying the foundations for long-term scalability and sustainability.
You can read their article about Ouidou and Xray in French.
The Challenge
Before Xray, test management at Pernod Ricard was highly fragmented. Teams relied on a variety of tools, including ALM, ServiceNow Test Management 2.0, SmartBear, Excel, and sometimes Jira, depending on their context and habits. There was no shared methodology or centralized governance, which made it difficult to gain a clear picture of testing activities across projects.
This lack of visibility created operational challenges. Tracking what had been tested, by whom, and with what results required manual effort and cross-team coordination. Onboarding new teams or consolidating reporting at program level was time-consuming, and existing test assets were scattered across multiple systems.
Moving toward a unified solution, therefore, required more than a simple migration. It involved aligning teams on Jira usage, recovering and restructuring existing test content, and introducing standardized practices without disrupting ongoing projects.
The Solution
Pernod Ricard chose Xray so they could integrate it with Jira to centralize and structure test management while remaining fully aligned with agile delivery practices.
With Ouidou’s support, the transition was carefully structured. Several implementation options were explored to balance standardization with flexibility, allowing teams to adopt a common framework while preserving what already worked well in their day-to-day processes.
Xray’s Jira-native experience proved key to adoption. Its tester-friendly interface and natural integration into user stories and defects enabled teams to quickly become autonomous, while benefiting from improved visibility and traceability.
“At Pernod Ricard, we needed a tool capable of centralizing test management while integrating seamlessly with our agile practices. Jira naturally became the solution for managing user stories and tasks, and Xray allows us to add an essential component: test management.”
Debanjan, Application Support and Testing Factory Lead, Pernod Ricard
To further strengthen quality management, Jira dashboards and Xray reports were combined with dedicated Power BI reporting. This made it possible to monitor quality indicators in real time and establish a shared, structured view of testing activities across teams.
How Xray Changed the Way Teams Work
With Xray in place, testing activities became significantly more structured and visible. Teams now collaborate within a shared repository, making it easier to follow testing progress, track defects, and understand the status of user stories without relying on manual updates or external documents.
The flexibility of Jira and Xray also allows teams to work seamlessly across different delivery models. Whether using Scrum or Kanban, testers can manage their activities within the same framework, while automated notifications keep stakeholders informed of changes and updates.
“Creating and managing user stories, tasks, and defects is very intuitive, which helps teams gain efficiency on a daily basis. Tracking progress is simple and provides real visibility.”
Debanjan, Application Support and Testing Factory Lead, Pernod Ricard
The Results
Since adopting Xray, Pernod Ricard has achieved clear improvements in the way testing activities are managed and monitored:
- Centralized test management across teams previously using disparate tools.
- Standardized testing practices supported by shared governance.
- Improved visibility into testing progress and quality indicators.
- Reduced manual effort through more structured processes.
- Stronger collaboration and greater team autonomy.
- Real-time quality reporting via Jira dashboards, Xray reports, and Power BI.
“These tools have helped us optimize collaboration and improve overall visibility on project status. Teams are now more autonomous and have a clear framework to track tests and ongoing fixes.”
Debanjan, Application Support and Testing Factory Lead, Pernod Ricard
Building a Sustainable Quality Foundation
Today, Xray, supported by Ouidou’s expertise, provides Pernod Ricard with a unified foundation for test management. By centralizing practices, improving visibility, and aligning teams around a shared framework, Pernod Ricard has strengthened its approach to software quality across projects.
“Thanks to the partnership between Ouidou and Xray, we benefit from guidance that helps us make the most of the solution and continuously improve the software quality of our projects.”
Debanjan, Application Support and Testing Factory Lead, Pernod Ricard
