The testing process of your new Human Capital Management (HCM) solution has many benefits, the most obvious being the isolation of any errors within the system that can be identified early on and well before you go live with your new solution. Other benefits include the additional familiarity and functional hands-on usage that you will experience throughout the testing process. By the completion of the successful testing phase, the testers and other assigned reviewers will have become intimately familiar with every component within their new HCM solution.
Provided that you have first prepared a testing strategy and planning document, you are in a good position to now design and prepare the testing scenarios and scripts from which your testers will execute the tests within your new HCM solution. As a guide to designing and preparing the scripts, consider the following items in the checklist below to support the thoroughness of these designed tools from which to conduct the testing:
- Tester’s Profile: Tester’s name, role and the device (laptop, workstation, iPad) that they’re using to perform the tests, and the date on which the script was tested or retested.
- Test Case Pre-Conditions: May include access to an internet connection, use of a specific supported browser, sufficient HCM training of testers within specific modules, accessibility to the system version appropriate to the test, or access to Word (or similar application) to copy and paste error messages or anomalies as they’re discovered, for example.
- Test Case Scenario: Briefly describes the scenario that you are testing, i.e. Hiring a new employee; changing the employee benefits classification and plan to family coverage; Terminating the employee and initiating workflow to recover company-issued property and process final pay, etc. Create a numbering system to identify these scenarios and underlying test cases within logical groupings for future reference.
- Testing Steps: List the individual steps by number, under each scenario, from which to execute the test, i.e. list the module to launch, the menu item to click, the page(s) to access, and fields to update, and then saving the changes to complete each task within the scenario. Be specific and deliberate in your instructions to avoid ambiguity.
- Test Success or Failure: Simply, a means to denote whether the execution of the navigation, the inputs, processing and outputs as performed, all worked as expected within the test.
- Tester’s Comments: Provides an opportunity for the tester to share any other relevant details that may need to be explained with the review team and vendor - perhaps oddities in the data, usability challenges, incorrect calculations, for example, that may need to be addressed and corrected before a retest.
- Test Scenario Format: Excel spreadsheets are commonly used to arrange and logically organize the testing scenarios and corresponding steps within the individual scripts from which the testers will work. The use of separate tabs for each module or functional area allows for ease-of-use within the testing and review process. Summarizing the success of the individual and cumulative tests can also then be done within a front-page summary tab within the worksheet to support the reporting results of the testing process.
Alternatively, inquire with your HCM vendor to see if they may have a database or other available tools already designed which are dedicated to storing your designed test scenarios, testing results, discovered defects and other issues for which they will provide resolution and support.
With some proactive organization of your testing requirements and design of the tools that you will use, you will be in a good position to ensure a thorough and efficient testing phase for your HCM implementation project.
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