The Ultimate Guide to Testing in Workday

As a comprehensive enterprise management cloud platform, Workday empowers many critical business processes for organizations that rely on its functionality. Given that any disruptions in Workday’s performance can significantly impact a company’s operations and potentially result in losses, implementing regular testing is crucial to ensure its proper functionality and reliability.
Whether your company is planning to implement Workday or has already rolled out the system, adopting an efficient testing routine for your platform is essential. To learn how to do this, read this article.

Understanding the required types of testing

As an end-user of the enterprise management cloud system, you may find it confusing to determine exactly what areas should be tested, especially when the platform has already been validated by its development team.

In practice, every organization that implements business management software suites like ERP or CRM systems should assess whether the applications function as intended in their specific scenarios. Each company has its own data, requires particular configurations, and may also need customizations that can alter the default logic of the software. Therefore, products that perform seamlessly during tests conducted by developers may behave unexpectedly when implemented in different environments.

To detect inconsistencies and defects before they impact business processes, organizations should consider incorporating the following types of testing into their routines:

•  Regression testing to ensure no unwanted changes in Workday’s behavior occur after updates, configurations, or other modifications affecting the platform;
•  Functional testing to validate the performance of Workday’s functions;
•  Integration testing to assess the accuracy of data exchange between the Workday platform and other systems, including web services and APIs;
•  Performance testing to check the responsiveness, scalability, and stability of Workday under varying load conditions;
•  Security testing to ensure the platform’s security features, such as authentication mechanisms, data encryption, and access controls, are functioning correctly.

Leveraging automated testing

The scope of testing modern enterprise management systems can be extensive, especially for software like Workday, which undergoes constant optimization and regular updates. To ensure adequate test coverage and accessibility whenever needed, it is highly recommended to adopt a testing tool with advanced automation capabilities that not only execute tests but also generate reports.

To fully leverage Workday test automation, consider the following aspects:

1.   Selecting the right testing tool

While a variety of recommended tests for a comprehensive assessment of Workday encompass several types of testing, not all test automation products support each of them. Therefore, when selecting your testing tool, ensure that your test suite offers comprehensive functionality.

Additionally, consider the intuitiveness of the chosen product. The less coding it necessitates, the easier it will be for users without advanced technical skills to operate the software. Meanwhile, expert developers can enhance their efficiency by saving a significant amount of time.

However, be cautious of the limited customizability often associated with particularly user-friendly tools.

2.   Prioritize the scope for testing effectively

Automation allows you to execute a greater number of test cases within the same timeframe. However, the preparation of test scripts for automated testing requires effort, which naturally limits the overall testing scope. You will likely need to prioritize certain test scenarios over others, and the success of test automation hinges on effective prioritization. An efficient approach involves scheduling test script design and execution for scenarios critical to ensuring the performance, functionality, and reliability of Workday.

3.   Utilize the unique possibilities of automation

Automation enables testing of your Workday platform in ways not supported by manual testing. It is essential to leverage these capabilities for maximum impact. For example, automated tests can be executed without human supervision, allowing them to run during weekends or overnight hours. This flexibility, unavailable in manual testing, ensures continuous testing without disrupting regular business hours and optimizes efficiency and resource utilization.

Parallel testing, the practice of running multiple tests concurrently, is another valuable feature of automation that can expand the testing scope and accelerate the process.

Read more at: https://www.executiveautomats.com/resources/articles/workday-testing

Making the most out of manual testing

Simultaneously, it is crucial to invest manual effort in tests characterized by a more human-centric nature, variability, and complexity. These tests include:

•  Assessing functionalities, workflows, and configurations to ensure they meet business requirements and user expectations;
•  Examining the accuracy, integrity, and completeness of data supplied to Workday;
•  Validating the user-friendliness of Workday’s user interface;
•  Conducting ad hoc testing for quick validation of specific hypotheses and issue investigation;
•  Simulating real-world security threats, especially those involving social engineering attacks;
•  Testing Workday’s response to particularly unusual conditions not covered by automated tests;
•  Performing comprehensive compliance testing.

Testing Workday efficiently – conclusions

Regression testing, functional testing, integration testing, performance testing, and security testing are essential to address the unique needs and configurations of your organization’s Workday environment. By combining manual testing practices with an efficient testing tool that offers comprehensive functionality and intuitive usability, organizations relying on Workday can ensure its reliability and performance. This contributes to the overall success of digitalized business operations.