End-to-end testing officially kicked off on October 4 and the team has moved into Cycle 2 of the process. We talked with Jackie Tucker, Workday Lead in Finance Strategic Transformation, and Marnie Fulton, Senior Manager at Deloitte, working on the FST implementation project. Marnie and Jackie have a wide breadth of experience with implementations at other institutions of higher education and offer good insight on our progress and path forward.
Where are we exactly in the testing process?
We just wrapped up Cycle 1 testing which is essentially the foundation phase. We tested basic user scenarios and captured and repaired defects. This was a four-week process and went well. We are now in Cycle 2 which entails introducing more complexity and testing integrations. This entire process looks at about real-life 5,100 testing scenarios and some of those tests include multiple layers – we want to test each portion to identify any bugs that need to be worked out.
What is most important about testing?
The entire phase is integral to the success of Go Live in July. We want to know exactly what users will encounter in the system and that’s why we’ve leveraged real user stories. We push those stories through multiple scenarios to capture any issues and then correct them. Essentially, we are answering the question: What will our users see? We want to confirm that Workday is functioning for UVA as it was designed to and validate that data was converted correctly. The more we work out now, the smoother it all runs in July.
Does testing inform other parts of implementation?
Absolutely. Testing identifies exactly where we need to make adjustments to help everyone use the system most efficiently. We are finding out exactly how different information looks Workday than it did in Oracle. From there, the training team can integrate that information into their training programs and also develop a clear plan on the timing of training. It also informs the Workflow and Control Approvals area in that, for example, an award approval process may need to route slightly differently. We can see those new processes, identify defects, and correct them, and then work to ensure employees are ready to work with the system. Testing also helps us identify areas where there are change impacts and enables us to provide support to those areas well in advance of Go Live.
How does our testing compare with other universities you have worked with?
We are right on track at UVA with the testing process. As with other universities, UVA is providing enough user experiences to push our testing scenarios along and allow us to test the system as much as we can and correct unexpected or undesired outcomes. So far, we are on pace with validating accounting and addressing any of those issues in time for the next phase.
What's next?
We will continue with the hands-on portion of testing and if we continue to move along smoothly, we’ll move into user experience review in mid-February to confirm that everything we learned in end-to-end testing is applicable in real-life use of the system. This is also a critically important testing phase because it is where we invite a group of actual UVA end-users to test the system for themselves to make sure it is working as designed.
We will also have a test phase next spring that evaluates the impact of the Workday Financials implementation on the existing HCM/Payroll system and test any configuration changes made to HCM to accommodate the “layering on” of Financials. Finally, we will do some performance testing to make sure we will have the system response time that we need and expect.
The community hub is updated each week with the latest testing metrics to keep you all posted on the status of the testing scenarios. Find the Testing Tracker information here: https://communityhub.virginia.edu/docs/DOC-3611
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