As you’re probably aware, Adobe will stop supporting Flash by the end of 2020. UKG Workforce Central (WFC) customers need to be Flash-free before then. They can achieve this by upgrading to a newer version of WFC or by migrating to Workforce Dimensions.

In either case, testing your UKG system is critical. Whether you introduce new modules or features/functions, or you do a ‘like for like’ upgrade, things can still break. Sometimes it’s in the pay rules and policies, other times it’s integration to or from your UKG system.

In this article, we provide best-practices and resources to help you develop a solid test plan for your UKG system.

Key Considerations for Testing Your UKG WFM

1. Testing Scope and Plan

When it comes to a technical upgrade, understanding the differences between the existing version and the version that you’re moving to is critically important and is the first step in defining the scope of testing. These differences between the two versions of the software will be specific to each customer and require a thorough review of all the release notes.

If you introduce new features and functionality with the upgrade, a careful assessment of the system and organizational impacts will be required to determine a regression testing strategy for proper test coverage.

2. Testing Cases

Do you have test cases from the last regression test or upgrade? If so, what percentage is relevant?  Have they been properly maintained and kept current? If you don’t have any test cases, or you have some but are concerned they are inaccurate, you’ll need to consider the next step for supporting your testing efforts.

Pro Tip: Did you knowTestAssure offers a test case library of best practices and test case templates based on previous customer rollouts? It’s a fantastic resource –- get in touch to find out more.

3. Where Should Testing Take Place?

Whether you’ve decided to upgrade or migrate, your regression testing requires a dedicated QA environment. It’s essential to understand whether there are currently any business changes underway and which environment is reserved for upgrade testing. You must also have a process to support production during the upgrade.

4. Who Executes the Testing?

Three primary questions will define the answer to this important question:

• Which resources or subject matter experts (SMEs) have the necessary knowledge and need to be involved in the testing effort?
• How much time should they devote to the testing upgrade?
• Do you have a dedicated QA team?  If so, how familiar are they with testing the solution you choose?

5. Testing Timeline

The testing timeline will depend on whether you choose to introduce new features that add business value, or if you decide to move to UKG Workforce Dimensions. Either way, we recommend you create a UKG Testing Strategy as part of your project planning.

If you’re upgrading UKG Workforce Central, you can move into an expedited planning, test case writing, and test case execution cycle. The timeline for this process depends upon:

• Versioning (version variance)
• The presence of existing testing or regression test cases
• The availability of testing resources and the extent of their product knowledge
• The use of test case automation
• The extent of the new features introduced

Depending on how you answered the timeline dependencies, you may be able to reduce the testing timeline between one to four weeks.

What If You Can’t Upgrade Quickly Enough to Meet the 2020 Deadline?

The UKG Community is an excellent resource if you’re concerned that your upgrade testing process will extend beyond 2020. There are options to block browser updates, but you should only use those after you’ve reviewed the potential impact on all systems in your organization that may be dependent on Flash.

If you are unable to meet your timelines due to resource constraints or testing timeline issues, TestAssure can help. We can work independently from your configurations and chosen strategy to build a fully automated regression test bed.

This process, which can run in a few hours, ensures our customers have full transparency and confidence in their upgrade. In practice, we’ve seen our customers reduce their upgrade testing process by 75% to 90%, depending on their testing strategy.

Conclusion

Understanding the best approach to moving to a Flash-free UKG solution is a time-sensitive and important organizational decision. The degree of impact on your company depends on the choices you make. No matter your strategy, a thorough testing plan and approach is critical to a smooth deployment.

We realize that testing can be a resource drain for your team, a cause for project delays, and most definitely, throw-away work if you’re not doing automated testing. And that’s why we’re here to help.

TestAssure is committed to providing UKG customers with test strategy, planning, and automation to help you minimize the impact of your system changes, reduce your risks, and help you move faster with confidence.  

Contact us today for a test drive.