When it comes to delivering Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions and service support, we are the experts, so whether implementing a new solution or providing remote outsourced IT services, our teams are there to support your business priorities.
In this opportunity, we are pleased to introduce Roxana, our testing lead at Dynamo. Roxana has been the one responsible for improving testing processes, both manual and automated, helping to guarantee systems with as few bugs as possible. She and her team also help to make sure that version updates go as smoothly as possible.
As testing is often overlooked, we wanted to take this instance to highlight the importance of it, and who better to do this than our own testing lead.
Q&A
Thank you so much Roxana for letting us interview you. Could you start by giving us an overview of your role as the leader of testing at Dynamo, including your main responsibilities?
Of course. As the leader of testing at Dynamo, my role involves coordinating, promoting, and supporting testing activities crucial for the success of ERP implementations. I evaluate clients’ current situations, understand their testing needs and challenges, and propose tailored solutions. This involves collaborating with project managers, the CTO, architects, and functional consultants to ensure the testing strategy aligns with the client’s business and goals
As for my responsibilities, I am responsible for formalizing testing strategies, analyzing test cases, supporting the Dynamo team to collaborate on testing objectives and also training clients. This includes standardizing concepts and best practices using Microsoft tools, proposing relevant metrics, and enhancing the use of test plans in Azure devops for logging test executions and metrics.
Right now, at Dynamo, we prioritize staying updated not only with Microsoft’s best practices but also with the industry standards. Our current testing strategies focus on manual functional testing, we are implementing automated testing with Microsoft’s RSAT tool and planning to incorporate performance testing. The goal is to create reusable and automated processes, helping to assure successful ERP implementations, facilitate version updates execution, and optimise costs.
Why do you think it is crucial for companies that implement ERP solutions to have roles like yours?
My role is essential because an ERP system, being highly configurable and customizable, presents many opportunities for errors during configuration and development. To mitigate these risks, it’s crucial to have someone on the team who ensures that industry best practices in testing are followed and who can effectively lead the testing strategy. Without this role, the likelihood of failures significantly increases, making it indispensable.
What do you think are the main benefits of testing for a company?
The main benefits of testing for a company include ensuring a more robust and stable system with fewer errors.
During the solution build phase, testing leads to fewer issues, resulting in smoother development, higher-quality deliverables, and significant cost reduction. Detecting and fixing problems early in this phase reduces the overall cost, as it is much cheaper to resolve issues before they become embedded in the system.
After going live, testing continues to provide value by making updates easier and faster, reducing both the time and cost of future changes. Additionally, it opens the possibility of automation, further streamlining processes and lowering long-term maintenance costs.
How does Dynamo manage the complexity of testing in large implementations?
At Dynamo, we manage the complexity of testing in large ERP implementations by focusing on automation and reusability. When working with multinational companies, the larger the organization, the more critical it becomes to optimize the testing process for both time and cost savings.
Our approach starts by developing a set of generic test cases that address common functionalities across different branches or subsidiaries, providing broad coverage while minimizing duplicate efforts. While these generic test cases ensure consistency, we also tailor specific test cases to meet the unique requirements of each subsidiary, ensuring that local variations and specific needs are thoroughly tested.
Automation is central to this process. By automating reusable test cases, we greatly reduce the time and cost of testing. In large, multinational implementations, the benefits of this approach are amplified, as each automated test case can be reused across subsidiaries, delivering significant time and cost savings.
However, It’s crucial to maintain a balance between automation and manageability. As the number of test cases grows, maintenance can become complex. To prevent this, we focus on keeping the test suite streamlined—small enough to be manageable, yet scalable and reusable across the organization.
What would you say the greatest challenge of testing in ERP is?
The greatest challenge in ERP testing is the sheer volume of test cases. Given the vast scope of Dynamics 365 F&O, the more functionalities the ERP covers, the more extensive the testing coverage must be.
In multinational companies, the complexity increases as each subsidiary has its own specific needs. A test suite might contain a minimum of 400 test cases but can grow to over 2,000, making it increasingly difficult to manage. Therefore, the key challenge is keeping the test suites as lean as possible while maximizing reuse and automation to ensure efficiency.
The points discussed above provide a glimpse into the role that testing plays at Dynamo and why it is a crucial component of our ERP implementations. If you’d like to explore how our tailored testing services can address your business’s unique challenges, we’d be happy to discuss further. You can click here to reach out!