A $95 billion ‘Big Bang’, delivered with certainty

Sector: Superannuation · Testing & governance

A leading Australian superannuation fund — managing over $95 billion for more than a million members across 135,000 employers — set out to move administration providers in a single "Big Bang" cutover across eight concurrent streams. In a highly regulated, member-centric business, that demanded exceptional quality assurance. Avocado provided the testing leadership, independent governance and regulatory assurance to make it happen. The program went live in April 2025, with members on the new platform by June.

The challenge

The transformation was large, sensitive and technically complex. Eight parallel project streams delivered functionality through seven distinct production pathways, and the fund needed to assure regulators and members of data integrity, risk management and full compliance. The organisation's in-house testing was largely feature-focused and lacked cohesive, program-level integration — so synchronised governance and coordinated milestone tracking were essential.

The approach

Avocado's strategy was rooted in program-level execution, independent governance and regulatory assurance — while uplifting the organisation's own testing maturity along the way.

• Comprehensive testing led by Avocado — end-to-end, UAT and performance — moving the fund from isolated feature testing to integrated, program-level quality assurance
• An independent governance framework overseeing vendor delivery, with stage gates for test planning and reporting that raised the quality benchmark across the program
• Stakeholder communication and regulatory assurance — translating technical outcomes into clear, trusted reporting for executives and regulators
• A critical intervention: when the vendor had not planned performance testing, Avocado raised it as a key risk and executed performance validation via integration testing — identifying scalability issues the vendor then fixed before go-live
• Testing maturity uplift through hands-on training, lifecycle tooling and automation frameworks

The outcome

• The program went live on schedule in April 2025, with members accessing the new platform by June
• Platform stability protected at go-live and beyond, thanks to the performance risk Avocado surfaced and resolved
• What began as a single test lead grew into a six-person team spanning governance, execution and BAU integration
• A cultural shift from feature-driven testing to cohesive, program-level delivery — with quality and compliance embedded in daily practice
• Avocado retained as a trusted long-term partner for compliance and lifecycle assurance

"Avocado has been able to consistently provide the client with insight and input to manage significant program risks inherent with delivering a program of this scale."

When risk is high, experience matters. Speak to our team about how we can support your next transformation.