Are your Users Experienced? How to use change management practices within testing to positively improve your overall Workday experience

?If you have taken on the challenge of integrating a cloud-based solution like Workday into your Organisation, then you need to think differently and re-evaluate how key project elements like change and test management support your Workday implementation. 

Based on my 20 years of helping Organisations to adapt to the challenges of our digital age are some thoughts on how to adjust your thinking on how change practices can positively influence how Workday testing delivery.

Changing the mindset of what is the purpose of testing? 

Workday is different from other HCM & Financials solutions, and therefore, testing needs to viewed differently. The assumption on any implementation is that you should not change any more than 85% of the configuration to suit your business. It is, therefore, critical that you shift the focus of your testing effort from the system verification to the business validation.

Equally, test automation is a game-changer in how testing is managed. If configured correctly, automated products like Smart can reduce up to 80% of the manual effort in evaluating security issues as well as the bug fixes and configuration changes that occur post-go-live. 

The realisation that you do not need to mobilise teams of people to negative test the system mitigates a significant compliance risk and provides the freedom to think about testing differently.

Change & Test Management - align their key strengths.

These two critical elements of any successful project have more in common than you might imagine. They are both focused on validating the assumptions the business is making as part of the project and helping to get the organisation ready for what is to come.

Combining the technical knowledge of testing with the business knowledge of the change, you have a powerful mix. Align the storytelling, training, engagement and readiness skills in any effective change practitioner with the systematic, analytical and technical skills of a good Test Manager.

This should not be interpreted as the creation of a single generalist approach; rather, it is about empowering both capabilities to work more closely on a day to day basis. Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best, and anything that reduces duplicated effort and improves the experience of those involved should always be encouraged.

Test the end to end experience of users in how they will access HR and Finance via Workday.

Workday isn't the change; it is the catalyst. If you agree with this basic premise, then testing can play an invaluable role in helping to evaluate the ability of users to access and use the functionality, processes and tools at their disposal. If the objective of the project is to ensure HR and Financial services are delivered effectively, there mustn't be a disconnect between the people, process, structures that feed into Workday.

Workday is an intuitive and easy to use solution; often, the business processes that feed into it aren't. Use the combined power of change and testing to help your HR and Finance teams understand how they will work differently. In doing this, you will help the business and Workday users refine their working practices and make the necessary adjustments to their policies, structures and procedures. That will deliver the change, not Workday.

User acceptance is no longer the benchmark - test the readiness of the users and their ability to work differently.

Change the mindset of what you are trying to achieve in the final phases of your testing approach. Workday will be live in your business in a few weeks; this is the time to practice full end to end processes in a safe environment and assess the readiness of the Organisation and its users.

Integrate what is best in testing practices and change. Use the User Readiness Approach process as an opportunity to allow the HR and Finance teams, managers and employers to get to grips with what is ahead of them, evaluate the effectiveness of the materials they have to support them and their overall readiness to work differently.  

Change doesn’t stop at go-live - this is where the hard work really starts.

This argument isn’t just about the pre-go-live delivery of Workday. It is just as important after go-live. As a cloud-based solution Workday is constantly changing, and testing and change capability must be embedded into your post-deployment functions. Don’t just believe me, Workday themselves indicate that 43% of your post-deployment effort should be on feature adoption, analytics and enhancements.

The message I give to every organisation is that they need to build testing and change capability into their teams or have access to these skills. If they don’t, they will get left behind. Workday doesn’t stand still, so neither can they.

And finally...

We need to view Workday testing in a different light. The world has changed, automation is making the validation of the system, security, integrations less risky, and solutions like Workday are easier to use than their predecessors. If you accept this premise, then perhaps its time to deliver this critical function differently and bring change activities to the fore and focus on the experience your people will when accessing HR or Financial services in a different way.