A successful go-live requires planning and testing your Workday deployment
Workday is a cloud-based service where all users are using the same software version. You will decide how you want and need Workday to be configured to fulfil your business (and maybe legislative) requirements throughout the early stages of your deployment process. Included in this is how Workday communicates with both your internal and external systems.
Testing is done to ensure that your instance of Workday has been configured to meet your unique requirements, not to test the Workday product itself.
You will have the assurance that your configuration is appropriate for its intended use and prepared for live operation if you test it throughout the deployment project.
1. Faster, Cost-Effective Workday Testing
Organizations frequently work to keep the deployment of a cloud-based HCM like Workday on schedule while also carrying out the necessary testing to guarantee a reliable, error-free deployment that inspires confidence in its users.
Workday testing is essential for ensuring that your production tenant will function properly and generate a significant return on investment, whether it is at initial deployment or after go-live when validating versioned and non-versioned upgrades. Every workday is tested; the decision as to who conducts the testing is yours.
2. The primary testing methods used on your Workday platform are listed below:
2.1 Workday Security Testing
Security testing is crucial to guarantee that all data, both inside and outside of your Workday system, is safe and secure, regardless of how many updates or changes the platform undergoes. Checking configuration capabilities for role- and user-based security in Workday entails making sure that permissions are in line with your company’s security needs.
2.2 Workday User acceptance testing (UAT)
By ensuring that your Workday platform is developed and maintained correctly, UAT aids end users in validating your Workday system.
Even though by the time UAT is completed, the majority of the system’s bugs and issues will already have been fixed, examining your Workday processes and development is crucial for providing insightful criticism and boosting Workday’s visibility both within and outside of your organization.
2.3 Workday Integration Testing
Collaboration between your internal Workday team, your IT team, and any external vendors or partners you may have been necessary for integration testing. It entails testing integrations to make sure your Workday system’s third-party integration tools are functional and the data being inputted and output between those systems is consistent with system requirements.
2.4 Workday Continuous Testing
End-to-end testing, which is sometimes overlooked in favour of pre-implementation preparation, really necessitates ongoing Workday system upkeep and updates for the duration of the whole employee and business life cycle.
End-to-end testing enables customers to confirm that their entire chain of operations functions as intended right away, ensuring planned and scheduled testing activities as well as improved business processes each step of the way.
2.5 Workday Parallel Testing
An essential component of streamlining corporate operations is connecting disparate systems in your organization, such as HCM and Payroll.
Workday Payroll Parallel testing aids in coordinating Workday integrations and internal and external payroll processes. This is particularly help-ful for businesses who use Workday for payroll requirements and another legacy system for other organizational requirements.
The systems’ compatibility and interoperability testing guarantee that Workday processes adhere to the same configuration standards as those set forth in your legacy application.
2.6 Workday Continuous Testing
End-to-end testing, which is sometimes overlooked in favour of pre-implementation preparation, really necessitates ongoing Workday system upkeep and updates for the duration of the whole employee and business life cycle. End-to-end testing enables customers to confirm that their entire chain of operations functions as intended right away, ensuring planned and scheduled testing activities as well as improved business processes each step of the way.
3. 12 Steps to Successful Workday Update Testing
3.1 Recognize the significance of Workday update testing.
Processes frequently cross paths since Workday is a workflow-based solution rather than a transactional one (as do security groups or settings).
Workflow-based means that occasionally, changes made in one place in your configuration can have an impact elsewhere. Although Workday extensively evaluates all its software before it is made available to customers, each one has a different configuration, so surprises occasionally happen.
Your goal when dealing with changes made during the update window is to test your configuration as extensively as you can so that you are confident it will continue to serve your end users’ needs after the changes go live in production.
3.2 Plan carefully
Your team must create its updated test strategy and test plans four to six weeks prior to the start of the preview period. Utilize this time to determine precisely what needs to be tested, how you will accomplish it (the strategy), and the testing-related details (the plan), so that you are ready to go when the preview window opens.
3.3 Create your update test plan
What you aim to test and why are specified in your test strategy. We propose a risk-based strategy that prioritizes the following when determining what to test:
• Testing of your functionality that has a high risk or high effect to business as usual. What procedures would cause serious problems if they suddenly failed to function as expected? These frequently contain intricately customized business processes (BPs), complicated security configurations, and linkages linked to financial risk, including third-party payroll.
• Testing of upgrades and improvements that may have an impact on the functionality you have turned on right now.
• New functions or features that Workday automatically activates and prioritizes based on their impact on your business and configuration.
3.4 Create a test strategy
A strong test plan outlines the “what” (scope), “when” (schedule), “where” (tenants), and “who” in detail (staff). It outlines the following, and you must get your key stakeholders to approve the plan:
• The dangers that testing is intended to reduce (this will come from your test strategy).
• Exactly what you want to test to reduce those risks (for instance, you might have stated in your strategy that the eligibility for benefits throughout the recruiting process is a high-risk area that must function when the update goes live).
3.5 Create a plan for your update test
The objectives of your tests are specified in your test strategy. We advise using a risk-based strategy that places the following tests first when selecting what to test:
• Testing of your business-as-usual functionality that carries a high risk or high effect. Consider what procedures would be problematic if they suddenly failed to function as intended. The business processes (BPs) and security setups that are highly customized and complicated, as well as integrations linked to financial risk, including third-party payroll, are frequently included in these.
• Testing of upgrades and additions that might have an impact on the functionality you’ve now turned on.
• New features or functionality that Workday automatically activates, giving them a higher priority based on their impact on your business and configuration.
3.6 Convene the troops
You’ll have a clear understanding of how testing will affect other sections of your organization once you’ve laid out the activities of your test plan. Since the testing necessary during the five-week preview window often involves multiple departments, it’s crucial to ensure that everyone involved is aware of:
• What their role and responsibilities in the process are;
• Why this testing is crucial for protecting your Workday configuration;
• The testing, reporting, and documenting procedures, as well as the important dates that must be adhered to.
• How communication is carried out.
3.7 Concurrently test your sandbox and sandbox preview tenants.
When our clients properly test their sandbox and sandbox preview tenants’ side-by-side over the course of the five-week timeframe, they have the most success. We strongly advise that you simultaneously refresh both tenants from production.
For the first week of the preview window, Workday sets up this refresh by default. Workday then provides you with an easy A/B comparison so you can see exactly which processes the Workday update has affected and that require your attention. This strategy is beneficial since it expands your pool of test executors and decreases the amount of detail needed to properly document your tests.
3.8 Ask for updates for your preview tenant.
Throughout the five-week trial period, Workday sends software upgrades to your sandbox preview tenant every week, not only on the first day.
So that sandbox and sandbox preview are in sync during the update window, it is a good idea to plan additional preview data refreshes from production (Workday will do this upon request after week one).
3.9 In week one, testing security, reporting, and integrations begin.
Always begin with security, reporting, and integration testing when using a sandbox-to-sandbox preview comparison strategy, as these features are frequently business-critical and are more sensitive to data changes within the tenants than business processes. We also advise you to think about freezing both tenants’ rents.
The freeze will reduce the possibility of data or configuration tampering, promoting confidence in results comparisons amongst tenants.
3.10 In weeks two through five, add BP testing and regression testing.
Every week during the preview window, Workday publishes fixes, as you would anticipate with any significant software update. It is therefore preferable to save your energy and postpone BP testing until week two of the window, when they release their first set of fixes. Additionally, BP testing will generate and modify data. You should wait to perform BP testing until your integration and report testing is through (again, assuming you’re utilizing a sandbox-to-sandbox preview comparison approach).
3.11 Track and record
Utilize the tracking and documenting tools available. Traceability of tests and outcomes is frequently lacking in manual test teams.
Undocumented testing increases uncertainty and risk because there is no reliable way to track advancement or potential roadblocks.
3.12 Bring in automation
When it comes to update window testing, test automation can make a significant difference.
Our Smart Test automated testing platform can boost test coverage by over 400%, detect 200% more flaws than manual testing, and minimise hands-on labour during Workday update testing by 90%.
Conclusion
Your business can make sure that your Workday production tenant is operating effectively and providing the optimum user experience by using the appropriate testing platform and service. Additionally, you may have faith in your data and contribute to smarter business decisions with the correct platform in place. Learn more about how TestDel and Collaborative Solutions can benefit your company and how to streamline Workday testing to get greater business results.
