Disclaimer:
The articles in this blog post are those that I found interesting and
relevant to the topic of ERP and technology in general. I have no
commercial association with any of the entities mentioned in this
article. I may be following a few of these entities on LinkedIn and even
some of these entities may be on my LinkedIn or Social Media network.
These articles are selected purely based on their relevance to the
objective of this blog, to promote ERP. Finally, the summary is mine.
While I stay close to the points in the articles, I also elaborate a few
of them based on my understanding.
The Short URL for this post is http://bit.ly/ERP_Solution_Testing
The steps in ERP Implementation are:
5. ERP Implementation: ERP Project Management
6. ERP Implementation: Requirements Gathering
7. ERP Implementation: Solution Design
8. ERP Implementation: Solution Testing
9. ERP Implementation: End user training
10. ERP Implementation: RICE
11. ERP Implementation: Integration
12. ERP Implementation: Data Conversion
6. ERP Implementation: Requirements Gathering
7. ERP Implementation: Solution Design
8. ERP Implementation: Solution Testing
9. ERP Implementation: End user training
10. ERP Implementation: RICE
11. ERP Implementation: Integration
12. ERP Implementation: Data Conversion
13. Post Implementation Support and Stabilization
The topic for this week is ERP Solution Testing
The five articles selected cover a wide swathe of the topic. The first article discusses three reasons why the testing is lax in ERP implementations. The second article says that a good testing starts with good requirements gathering exercise. Detailed test scenarios are generated from the requirements gathering document. The third article, from Chapter 18 of book 'Control your ERP Destiny' written by Steven Phillips discusses the various phases of ERP testing. The article also discusses a few common testing pitfalls. The fourth article is a research paper on ERP Testing. It discusses different levels and types of ERP testing, various challenges faced in Testing, comparison between automated testing and manual testing etc. It also provides some great guidelines for ensuring that the ERP testing is successful.
The fifth article titled 'Beginner's guide to ERP Testing' is in two parts. I have summarized the part 1 of the article in this post. It is a great article and gives basic details of testing including different types of testing teams, different types of tests in an ERP implementation, and the critical areas to be tested. The article makes a point that it is important to test the accounting impact of every transaction by transferring the accounting entries into GL. The article also provides a great testing checklist.
The additional readings section lists another six articles including one from this blog.
Nice articles, all eleven of them.
1. The importance of ERP Go Live Testing : Third Stage Consulting Blog
https://www.thirdstage-consulting.com/the-importance-of-erp-go-live-system-testing/
The most important cause of ERP failure is that the system has not been tested thoroughly prior to go live. There are three reasons for this.
Many a time testing is not done at all. This happens in cases of system upgrade where the existing information and processes are ported into a new system. However despite the efforts by consultants to make two systems similar, there could be differences between systems. Or there could be product bug. So it is very important to test very thoroughly during a transition, however minor it may be.
There could be cases where testing is done by the wrong people. While the developers may be able to test the functionality of the application, they may not be able to test the exceptions and validations required. This can be done only by a functional consultant. ERP systems should be tested by people who know how end users are going to use the system.
Bad testing could include testing without a plan, testing only the 'optimistic scenarios', not testing for validations etc. This can be handled by getting more experts in the testing phase. Since ERP is an integrated system, any error in one part of the process can impact other parts as well. For example any error in Purchase Order process can impact material receipts, supplier invoices and payments and Creditors and Inventory balances in the GL. It is very important to undertake a system testing rather than testing individual parts of the process.
Good article. Thank you Sam Graham.
2. The 'Mantra' to attain effective ERP testing and implementation : cigniti.com
https://www.cigniti.com/blog/the-mantra-to-attain-effective-erp-testing-and-implementation/
The article starts off by saying that majority of ERP implementations fail due to ineffective testing. Since ERP systems integrate different business areas of an Organization, 'one shoe fits all type of testing' cannot be the answer.
There are different types of testing as shown in this diagram.
The magic ‘Mantra’ to attain effective ERP testing and implementation = Analyzing requirements + Defining the testing needs + Specifying testing goals + Stating business objectives + Describing the testing strategy
A good testing starts at the beginning of the project with good requirement planning. This will ensure that all the requirements are covered under the test plan. Next is to set the testing goals. This will ensure that required team is in place to do the testing. The other points to be considered include sufficiency of test scenarios and their prioritization, creation of testing environment, conducting different types of tests mentioned in the above diagram, reporting of results and corrective action and acceptance criteria
Nice article.
3. Proper ERP Testing is essential for ERP Implementation : Steven Phillips on Searcherp.com blog
https://searcherp.techtarget.com/feature/Proper-ERP-testing-essential-for-successful-implementation
This is an excerpt of chapter 18 from the book Control your ERP Destiny by Steven Phillips. Author says that inadequate testing is a double whammy in that unidentified issues will crop up after the go live and it also reduces the learning by the consultants.
The different test phases are shown in the diagram below.
CRP focuses on testing individual modules while ICRP focuses on process flows across the modules. A typical ICRP may cover up to five different business areas. Some of the common pitfalls during testing are:
4. Practical guidelines for successful ERP system testing:
http://www.jatit.org/volumes/research-papers/Vol27No1/2Vol27No1.pdf
The best part of this series on ERP Top5 is the opportunity to review research papers on various aspects of ERP. This research paper reviews papers on ERP Testing to identify common challenges, failures and proposed solutions. It also presents a set of guidelines to successful ERP Testing. Depending on its criticality, testing occupies almost 50% of total ERP Budget.
The paper is divided into five parts. The first part of this paper presents the testing levels and types of ERP systems. The second part discusses Manual and Automatic testing. The third part lists the obstacles and challenges during ERP testing. It also provides suggested solutions collected from previous literature. The forth part presents the relationship between the ERP testing and the quality of the system. The fifth part lists number of best practice methodologies and guidelines for success ERP testing.The paper concludes with a case study.
Most ERP implementations will have Six types of testing, User Testing, System Testing, Load Testing, Stress Testing, Parallel Testing, and Security Testing.
The four levels of testing are Unit Testing, Services Testing, Integration Testing and System Testing. Integration testing has five levels, these are Transaction Testing (Single Transaction, eg. creation of a purchase requisition), In-stream testing ( Covers a chain of transactions, for example, conversion of a requisition to an approved Purchase Order), Cross-stream testing (Testing the P2P Cycle), Regression Testing and User Acceptance Testing. System Testing covers the entire business process as it will be used in production.
The levels of testing are depicted in the diagram below.
The topic for this week is ERP Solution Testing
The five articles selected cover a wide swathe of the topic. The first article discusses three reasons why the testing is lax in ERP implementations. The second article says that a good testing starts with good requirements gathering exercise. Detailed test scenarios are generated from the requirements gathering document. The third article, from Chapter 18 of book 'Control your ERP Destiny' written by Steven Phillips discusses the various phases of ERP testing. The article also discusses a few common testing pitfalls. The fourth article is a research paper on ERP Testing. It discusses different levels and types of ERP testing, various challenges faced in Testing, comparison between automated testing and manual testing etc. It also provides some great guidelines for ensuring that the ERP testing is successful.
The fifth article titled 'Beginner's guide to ERP Testing' is in two parts. I have summarized the part 1 of the article in this post. It is a great article and gives basic details of testing including different types of testing teams, different types of tests in an ERP implementation, and the critical areas to be tested. The article makes a point that it is important to test the accounting impact of every transaction by transferring the accounting entries into GL. The article also provides a great testing checklist.
The additional readings section lists another six articles including one from this blog.
Nice articles, all eleven of them.
1. The importance of ERP Go Live Testing : Third Stage Consulting Blog
https://www.thirdstage-consulting.com/the-importance-of-erp-go-live-system-testing/
The most important cause of ERP failure is that the system has not been tested thoroughly prior to go live. There are three reasons for this.
- Testing has not been done
- Testing is done by the wrong people
- Testing is done badly.
Many a time testing is not done at all. This happens in cases of system upgrade where the existing information and processes are ported into a new system. However despite the efforts by consultants to make two systems similar, there could be differences between systems. Or there could be product bug. So it is very important to test very thoroughly during a transition, however minor it may be.
There could be cases where testing is done by the wrong people. While the developers may be able to test the functionality of the application, they may not be able to test the exceptions and validations required. This can be done only by a functional consultant. ERP systems should be tested by people who know how end users are going to use the system.
Bad testing could include testing without a plan, testing only the 'optimistic scenarios', not testing for validations etc. This can be handled by getting more experts in the testing phase. Since ERP is an integrated system, any error in one part of the process can impact other parts as well. For example any error in Purchase Order process can impact material receipts, supplier invoices and payments and Creditors and Inventory balances in the GL. It is very important to undertake a system testing rather than testing individual parts of the process.
Good article. Thank you Sam Graham.
2. The 'Mantra' to attain effective ERP testing and implementation : cigniti.com
https://www.cigniti.com/blog/the-mantra-to-attain-effective-erp-testing-and-implementation/
The article starts off by saying that majority of ERP implementations fail due to ineffective testing. Since ERP systems integrate different business areas of an Organization, 'one shoe fits all type of testing' cannot be the answer.
There are different types of testing as shown in this diagram.
 |
| DIFFERENT TYPES OF ERP TESTING |
The magic ‘Mantra’ to attain effective ERP testing and implementation = Analyzing requirements + Defining the testing needs + Specifying testing goals + Stating business objectives + Describing the testing strategy
A good testing starts at the beginning of the project with good requirement planning. This will ensure that all the requirements are covered under the test plan. Next is to set the testing goals. This will ensure that required team is in place to do the testing. The other points to be considered include sufficiency of test scenarios and their prioritization, creation of testing environment, conducting different types of tests mentioned in the above diagram, reporting of results and corrective action and acceptance criteria
Nice article.
3. Proper ERP Testing is essential for ERP Implementation : Steven Phillips on Searcherp.com blog
https://searcherp.techtarget.com/feature/Proper-ERP-testing-essential-for-successful-implementation
This is an excerpt of chapter 18 from the book Control your ERP Destiny by Steven Phillips. Author says that inadequate testing is a double whammy in that unidentified issues will crop up after the go live and it also reduces the learning by the consultants.
The different test phases are shown in the diagram below.
CRP focuses on testing individual modules while ICRP focuses on process flows across the modules. A typical ICRP may cover up to five different business areas. Some of the common pitfalls during testing are:
- Failure to unit test custom programs in advance
- Inadequate test coverage including inadequate exception testing.
- Allowing consultant to do most of the testing
- Test systems not reflecting production
- Using data conversion programs too early: Author recommends that data be entered manually during earlier phases of testing. The reasons are that, one, too much data will impede the testing, two, we will not be able to decide if testing issues are due to data conversion and three, during the initial rounds the data requirements are yet to be finalized.
- Not fully testing interfaces and software modifications
- Failure to do regression test: Every time you make changes to a software program or configuration it is imperative to do the full cycle testing.
4. Practical guidelines for successful ERP system testing:
http://www.jatit.org/volumes/research-papers/Vol27No1/2Vol27No1.pdf
The best part of this series on ERP Top5 is the opportunity to review research papers on various aspects of ERP. This research paper reviews papers on ERP Testing to identify common challenges, failures and proposed solutions. It also presents a set of guidelines to successful ERP Testing. Depending on its criticality, testing occupies almost 50% of total ERP Budget.
The paper is divided into five parts. The first part of this paper presents the testing levels and types of ERP systems. The second part discusses Manual and Automatic testing. The third part lists the obstacles and challenges during ERP testing. It also provides suggested solutions collected from previous literature. The forth part presents the relationship between the ERP testing and the quality of the system. The fifth part lists number of best practice methodologies and guidelines for success ERP testing.The paper concludes with a case study.
Most ERP implementations will have Six types of testing, User Testing, System Testing, Load Testing, Stress Testing, Parallel Testing, and Security Testing.
The four levels of testing are Unit Testing, Services Testing, Integration Testing and System Testing. Integration testing has five levels, these are Transaction Testing (Single Transaction, eg. creation of a purchase requisition), In-stream testing ( Covers a chain of transactions, for example, conversion of a requisition to an approved Purchase Order), Cross-stream testing (Testing the P2P Cycle), Regression Testing and User Acceptance Testing. System Testing covers the entire business process as it will be used in production.
The levels of testing are depicted in the diagram below.
 |
| LEVELS OF TESTING |
The challenges relating to ERP System testing can be grouped into three. Input Data, Testing Activities and evaluation of Output data. The input data challenges include availability and size of data as well as the need for resources. First challenge is in freezing of test scenarios. It is important to get a sign off on the test scenarios before testing starts. Automated testing requires fewer resources. Test Data Management is a critical area in ERP Implementation.
The article also provides some best practices for testing. This involves prioritizing the test objectives, using flexible approaches for testing, having SMART requirements, designing test cases that force defects to appear early in the cycle and creating a custom test metrics as per the enterprise etc.
Nice document. Highly value adding. Do download and read. It is only 8 pages.
5. The beginner's guide to ERP System Testing
https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/guide-erp-testing-sap-testing-1/
This article is in two parts. I am summarizing the part 1. You can see part 2 in 'Additional Reading' below.
Different ERP systems cater to different market segment and the scope and scale of testing as well as the types of testing will differ based on the application and the client. For example, if you are implementing ERP for a large enterprise, performance and load testing are very important apart from functional testing. For a small enterprise, you may need to do only functional testing. Domain knowledge is important for testing in case of some industries like Pharma.
There should be two testing teams, 'Core Testing Team' to test the base ERP software and 'Implementation Testing Team' to test the processes as applicable to the customer. These two teams can be comprised of the same set of members.
The article lists an exhaustive set of testing in ERP. These are:
- Functional testing
- Data Handling testing
- Integrity testing
- System testing
- Security testing
- Reliability testing
- Adaptability testing
- Scalability testing
- Usability testing
- Performance testing
- Load testing
- Interface testing
- Interoperability testing
- Regression testing
- Infrastructure testing
- Image testing
- Installation testing
- Parallel testing
There are two critical areas to be tested in ERP. One is the functional testing of the business flows, other is the complete testing of the custom code including its integration with ERP Software.
One of the key areas that is normally missed is the accounting impact of various transactions. Every test case should have an item of transferring the accounting impact to General Ledger and reviewing the Trial Balance.
The article also give a very detailed of Testing Checklist.
Check out this article. It is really good.
Additional Reading
1. How to prepare test plan and write test cases for ERP Implementation
https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/erp-testing-sap-testing-test-plan-part-2/
2. ERP Integration testing best practices
https://www.allstarss.com/blog/erp-integration-testing-best-practices/
3. Prioritization and ranking of ERP Testing Components
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283561033_Prioritization_and_Ranking_of_ERP_Testing_Components
4. ERP Implementation: Is testing a waste of time
https://www.erpfocus.com/erp-implementation-is-testing-a-waste-of-time-92.html
5. Ten reasons why external consultants can add value to UAT and Enterprise Application Implementation (PDF Download): Venkat Mantripragada
http://hosteddocs.ittoolbox.com/VM042607.pdf
6. The importance of UAT in ERP Implementation: ERP-Consultancy Blog
https://erp-consultancy.blogspot.com/2007/04/importance-of-uat-in-erp-implementation.html
No comments:
Post a Comment