Test before You Update: Custom Automated Testing in Business Central SaaS
Microsoft is continually updating Dynamics 365 Business Central code to optimize performance, improve security, and provide more built-in features in the product. Business Central has two major releases every year – one in Spring and one in Fall – plus minor releases throughout the year.
However, enhancements made by Microsoft may break extensions written by you, your partner, or an Independent Software Vendor (ISV). Since you or your partner will fix the breaking code, testing of the code will be required.
How ArcherPoint can help
Professional software developers know that changing code in one place, no matter how trivial has the potential to break something else in the system. Although Microsoft performs a comprehensive suite of tests before releasing updated Business Central code, they can’t test customized code that you, your partner, or an ISV have written.
To help our clients avoid disruptions caused by breaking code, ArcherPoint’s Stay Current upgrade plans for Business Central help us proactively identify problems caused by the upcoming release and correct these issues before having your users test the refactored system. These corrections can include modifying your custom code or working with a third-party ISV to correct a problem in their code.
Unfortunately, the responsibility for conducting User Acceptance Tests (UATs) to ensure no issues remain before applying the new Business Central release into production remains with you, the end user.
The advantages of automated test scripts
Automated test scripts can ease the burden of UAT.
Microsoft applies over 40,000 test scripts to test their software before releasing it. Customers and their partners can extend these scripts to run on every new Business Central release in your custom environment. These automated test scripts are the missing ingredient to an overall upgrade subscription plan and are the final component to minimize end-user disruption.
Our Essential and Advanced SaaS Upgrade Plans include 2 or 4 automated test scripts, respectively, produced annually to ensure our clients experience better, faster upgrades with less disruption to their operations. We can also provide additional test scripts as requested.
Moving to a SaaS environment is advantageous in many ways, not the least that Business Central updates are automatic. But remember, “automatic” updates from Microsoft can become problematic for your organization as soon as there is a code conflict. ArcherPoint’s Stay Current plan proactively identifies code conflicts before each new major release. Code refactoring is handled before the new release as well. Again, the missing ingredient, automated test scripts, will minimize, if not eliminate, the need for UAT. Sounds like the wave of the future right?
Contact ArcherPoint to learn more about our upgrade plans for SaaS and on-premises Business Central deployments.