Test Automation for Microsoft Dynamics 365
Microsoft Dynamics 365 has become vital for modern enterprises to function effectively, whether it’s integrating business-critical workflow activities, third-party applications, or back-end systems.
To guarantee that your Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform supports the rigors of meeting business objectives every day and the user interface (UI) functions as expected, you must thoroughly test it.
But first, specific challenges must be overcome and best practices followed to guarantee your Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform is fit for purpose.
Challenges faced when testing your Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 product suite comprises complex web applications containing dynamic object IDs, nested iFrames, and deep object trees. Scripts created by tools that solely test these elements at the object layer are fragile and often break.
- Switching between Microsoft Dynamics 365 applications will cause changes in the UI and markup language, resulting in more broken tests.
- Testing tools that identify web elements in the code for UI functionality require highly skilled engineers and considerable resources to create a robust ID locator strategy. Not all organizations have the capabilities to do this.
- Changing UI functionality across different Microsoft Dynamics 365 application versions demands constant test maintenance, wasting resources on fixing existing tests at the expense of new scripts being created.
- Updates, version releases, and maintenance upgrades to the core application and product suites require continuous verification and validation to ensure custom business rules remain intact. This requires additional effort from test engineers.
- Microsoft Dynamics 365 has integration and compatibility problems with some web browsers — specifically Internet Explorer and Firefox — leading to testing issues.
- Office 365 products, applications from AppSource, and a host of external systems are frequently integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365, requiring robust end-to-end testing across a broad range of user journeys.
Best practices for testing Microsoft Dynamics 365
Bring together IT and the business for every configuration
To maximize the performance of your Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform, custom workflow activity and user journeys can be built-in. Business Analysts, who understand business logic, must work with developers and system integrators to create business rules that are incorporated with these critical workflows.
Verify and validate a variety of user experiences
Numerous test cases must be created to cater for different ways Microsoft Dynamics 365 will be used across your organizations. It’s important to test across multiple technologies and modern UI workflows because devices such as tablets and mobile devices use touchscreen technology rather than employ PC attributes.
Throw in the integration and compatibility issues that Microsoft Dynamics 365 has with Internet Explorer and Firefox, and it’s critical your testing plan incorporates cross-browser testing as well.
It is essential that modern enterprises test this way because functionality must remain the same for someone working from a home office, in the field, or in a warehouse. This is especially true when defining input and output parameters and adding custom activities to support business logic when using a workflow assembly, for example. These specific commands and actions must be verified in the code and be validated at the UI level.
And because Microsoft Dynamics 365 is highly customizable, with many ways to achieve common tasks, it’s important to conduct exploratory testing to cover the multiple paths a user can take along custom workflow activities.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 testing must include integrations
Microsoft Dynamics 365 can combine ERP and CRM features, along with the integration of its own day-to-day tools from Office 365, such as Word, Outlook, and Excel.
Additional third-party applications that add functionality, support business growth, and drive innovation can also be found in Microsoft’s AppSource.
End-to-end testing is a vital step in any framework to ensure all integrations, such as Microsoft Outlook, Jira, or Slack, support custom workflow activities across your Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform and every external system.
Automate to keep pace
Upgrades that break tests. Complex UI. Regular updates to custom workflow assemblies. Multiple integrations. Your Microsoft Dynamics 365 capabilities (and dependencies) constantly expand to support business agility as your enterprise tries to scale.
If you are trying to manually test all these updates and new configurations, everything is slowed down: productivity, innovations, as well as the ability of your Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform to support business outcomes.
Introduce test automation to ensure updates and system improvements happen fast enough for your teams to outperform your competitors.
Keysight’s Microsoft Dynamics 365 testing strategy
Keysight’s Eggplant test automation solution is well-positioned to meet the challenges of testing your Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform. Keysight Eggplant’s testing capabilities include:
Model-based approach
Create one model and test any browser, device, and operating system, as well as auto-generate test cases for custom workflow activities built on business logic. You can also test any version of Microsoft Dynamics, as well as Office 365 products and third-party applications.
No code/low code approach
Bring IT and the business closer together so anyone can carry out software testing by using a no-code/low-code approach. Anyone, regardless of technical ability, can benefit from auto-generated test flows to design a user journey by easily clicking through a test model.
Test any technology at any level
Intelligent testing systems should be able to interact with any text or image on a screen to validate the UI. Eggplant can also use objects for scenarios where data needs to be extracted from a table, plus it can make back-end API calls to verify updated data is correct.
AI-assisted automation
AI-assisted automation helps expand test coverage for custom workflow user journeys that manual testing would struggle to uncover. Keysight Eggplant also monitors real user journeys in order to understand exactly how Microsoft Dynamics 365 is used. These insights are then used to auto-generate future tests.
Test from the user perspective
Automate testing to ensure your Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform is functioning as expected. Test not only what you think users will do but everything they can do. Don't only rely on the code being verified; validate the UI with Eggplant's intelligent computer vision to be sure no false positives are returned.
Find out more and discover how Keysight's Eggplant can reduce test maintenance, maintain business continuity, and future-proof your Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform.