Considerations for ERP and HCM Users
Once you’ve decided that automated testing makes sense for your organization, there are still potential barriers to automating your software testing that you should be aware of. Transitioning to an automated testing strategy often comes with the need to deal with common pitfalls that can make the transition period stressful. Below, we’ll go into some considerations all ERP and HCM system users should be thinking about when considering testing automation.
1. Costs – Choosing an automation system or suite could potentially entail licensing fees if 3rd party tools are used. As an alternative solution, leverage built-in frameworks or open-source platforms that require more development for full usability.
2. Level of Effort – The development of scripts to tailor to your companies’ business processes is a full-fledged recording effort that requires consultants, technical, and functional staff working together. This can be an unforeseen expense that should not be overlooked and needs budget approval and/or allocation.
3. Integrations – If an integration exists, the automation software must be able to bridge that integration and be capable of performing tasks in both applications. This can be quite the undertaking if the testing tool cannot automate both systems (this is sometimes an issue if dynamic DOM object identification is used).
4. Flexibility – If changes occur during the upgrade/update process, test scripts might need to be tweaked which could warrant further script development efforts. With some tools like the PeopleSoft Test Framework, supplementary features have been created by Oracle to overcome this impact and make scripts forward compatible and easy to alter for upcoming releases.
5. Security – In any test situation, security is of the utmost importance. Securing test data, users, and passwords can be a tricky endeavor and requires a deep understanding of the automation system and the target testing system. Altering the way your non-prod environment represents data and users might need to be addressed.
6. Data Strategy – How data is imported, defined, or scrambled before a test cycle with automation requires a well-defined strategy for the test. Data staging, having an intermediate storage area used for data processing, is a necessary aspect of automation.
7. Reviews – How functional users review and approve the testing cycles with automation is another critical component that must be addressed and baked into the development cycle.
The barriers to entry for testing automation may seem ample, but with the proper amount of forethought and a proactive approach to navigating these challenges should yield the result your organization is looking for. For more information on test automation including a comparison of automated vs. manual testing, check out this piece “Automated vs. Manual Testing: How Do They Stack Up?” here on the Elire blog.
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