Dynamics 365 has so many different elements it can be hard to figure out how to pair it with test automation. Here’s a guide to all things testing!
Microsoft's the name and integration's the game! Dynamics 365 is a trending business application platform that helps with nearly all things business, and test automation is indispensable when it comes to making sure that your product is at its highest state of quality. Manual testing of all the attributes just can't keep up with the demands of such a high-powered tool. But what exactly can be tested and what are the best ways to do it? P.S. if reading isn't your preferred way of learning, then check out our video on using Virtuoso with D365!
We'll start from the bottom with what D365 is. This question isn't as simple as it appears, since it's actually multiple things rolled into one super-application. It's a combination of Microsoft Dynamics AX, their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application, and Dynamics CRM (Customer Relationship Management) along with Artificial Intelligence tools and productivity applications. With D365, you can manage customer support chats, build low-code webpages, organize and present data, and generate insights with AI. That's a lot of functionality rolled into one tool!
So now you might be wondering what can be automated to test that everything is working correctly in D365. After all, if it handles the entirety of your business application, then one thing going wrong could crash the whole thing.
All Microsoft apps have a synchronized login, so it's important to be sure that when a user's credentials or roles have been updated in one place, they've properly synced across all Microsoft tools. You need to test that the login to D365 is always working so you can verify that product features and updates are working properly for different users that have different roles.
Ah, forms. Whether you're in Sales creating a new contact, Marketing working with a website form, or pretty much any part of business, you've had the displeasure of troubleshooting forms. If only it could be automated... oh, wait! You can absolutely automate the testing of forms in D365, and all kinds, too! Simple text fields, drop-downs, dates, option fields, and even look-up fields. You can test even the most complex of forms to make sure that you get the most accurate data possible, without which D365 cannot work to the fullest of its capabilities.
Now that you've got the data, you need to make sure you can use it! D365 integrates with so many apps that data needs to be able to be read and analyzed without being changed. Automated tests that read and verify that data to make sure that it matches its source can save a lot of hassle in the future.
After you've tested multiple things in D365 that come together to create a complex web application, you need to be sure that you test the app itself! Automated testing that can handle dynamic data, run integration testing, test for quality, and so many other things - but we'll come back to that in a bit.
There are a few extra bits and bobs that need to be considered when testing D365, so it's a good idea to keep some best practices in mind.
Complex web applications normally have different types of users, some with different permissions than others. Good test automation needs to be able to test from these different points of view to make sure that a user with, say, a free account can't suddenly find themselves with premium account capabilities. Something else to think about is the device that the user is using (enter the importance of cross-browser testing). Whether using a mobile device, a touchscreen, or a Mac, you need to be 100% sure that your web app performs the same across them all. Only by having all these variables in mind can you be sure that you're testing through the eyes of a user.
The more involved the web app, often the more updates it gets. Not necessarily large feature updates, but smaller bug fixes and patches. And the more updates there are, the more tests are needed to make sure that an update in one area doesn't break something in another area. Therefore, scalable test automation is the key to ensuring that you can run as many tests as you need to check that your web app is picture-perfect.
With D365 being hosted both by Microsoft and in the cloud, accessibility to all information is key. Test automation that gives all users access to results will streamline the transfer of information. This access can also improve collaboration between Devs and the QA team.
D365 is a business-critical system that requires Continuous Testing to go along with the monthly releases. Testing needs to be reused and able to handle dynamic data without breaking. To properly test D365, there needs to be the ability to automate large regression packs quickly as well as keep up with the frequent changes with each release. It can be difficult to find a tool that delivers such power while keeping the authoring process streamlined and efficient. But that's what the rest of this article is going to help with!
Based on those best testing practices, it seems pretty clear that a do-it-all business tool needs a do-it-all testing tool. There are automation challenges like scalability and test maintenance that need to be contended with are always going to be present in such a complex application. Among the dozens of automation tools out there, how do you know which one is the right tool for the job?
Well, imagine that every one of your critical and highly variable business processes running on D365 had a best friend. A bot that executes data-driven, self-healing, plain English tests that correspond to every business process which you could run every day. A totally autonomous and unattended little buddy to tell you everything is up and working and business is good. This is where Virtuoso comes in - we have all kinds of bots!
Remember those testing practices we mentioned? Well, Virtuoso can scale easily from ten tests to ten thousand tests through cloud usage. Parallel tests for all! Plus, if a bug is discovered, the QA team can send a link to the Devs to recreate the bug just as it was found - after all, DevOps can't fix the bug if they can't see it! Our self-healing bot also erases the "bugs" that often pop up with dynamic objects but it's actually just the tests breaking. Let's not forget about cross-browser testing either! You can select your device and browser of choice to make sure that your web app runs smoothly across all combinations. We even offer API testing to ensure that your front-end application is connecting to your back-end systems. Plus our super-smart AI bot enables you to write everything in Natural Language Programming, so your non-techy business teams can both author and understand all the tests involved. Ready to give us a try? You can either book a demo or sign up for a free trial and see the power for yourself.
