Strategy and planning are the first steps in setting up a testing project, though often they are not taken seriously; sometimes they are missed altogether. What you can do is use a simple RACI Matrix and populate it with all the necessary data, so it helps you see who is who. Point out the test manager responsible for this project, name a consultant who will provide expertise on the configuration. See who makes sure you’ve got everything you need on the environment: the workflow, dimensions, main accounts as well as anything else that will let you do business process testing well. You also have the subject matter experts and the team know what the testing scope is as well as the IT department, who can be informed when and how to perform data migration. What’s the next step? Automation. Let’s see how.

Enter Executive Automats — a tool that makes automation manageable. EA can be treated as a single centralized point where you’ve got all your environments, all test accounts as well as all your test cases. Everything in the system is flexible and can be configured. This includes bug reporting and room for developers to make changes.

Executive Automats is a sophisticated, though simple, tool, and anyone on your team can use it – you don’t need to hire specialists who understand the coding – your local team can do everything and maintain the tool easily. As mentioned above, EA is Microsoft certified and license based while RSAT Dynamics 365 is a free Microsoft solution. And that’s where D365 RSAT advantages over EA end.

EA is the perfect RSAT alternative as it has multiple functions to address specific testing needs, which includes functional, regression, smoke, performance, security as well as workflow tests. RSAT D365, on the other hand, is limited to specific use cases with limited workflow testing. With EA you record, play, and manage your testing in one place as opposed to a mixed tool from Microsoft relying on RSAT together with 365 FSCM, TskRec, LCS as well as Excel. With EA there are also the by-products as mentioned previously – up-to-date process documentation, performance testing, and well-defined security roles – all these are unavailable in RSAT 2.0. Ok, to be fair, security roles can be defined in RSAT, but the detail level is different – poorer. What’s more, RSAT testing is limited to Dynamics 365 FSCM, while EA can be used elsewhere. Finally, once Executive Automats are up and running, you are provided with dedicated customer support for EA.

RSAT can only be used with D365FO while Executive Automats can be used to test other applications such as XCarrier, Veeva, Sharepoint, and others. With EA you can test D365 CPOS with peripheral device simulators, test grouping scripts into projects, test user and access management, run performance tests, create business process documentation based on recordings as well as use internal APIs to integrate your testing solutions with other platforms.

To sum it up, the needs of the community have been converted into Executive Automats. Although there is a Microsoft automated testing solution, the EA tool wins hands down as it addresses all automated testing needs, does everything in one place, documents processes, defines security roles, and can be used beyond MS D365 FSCM. Ultimately, EA is an investment that pays off.