Chapter 11. Testing and Training

Quality, budget (schedule and resources), and scope are the fundamental constraints on every ERP project. Most of the time, when the scope is increased and the budget stays constant, the quality gets compromised. One of the biggest mistakes that people end up making, especially on fixed-bid contracts, is that they reduce the testing budget when there is budget pressure.

I have heard this several times and would like to call it out. In many post-release postmortem meetings, I would hear, ''If I was to do this again, I would spend a hundred thousand dollars more on testing.'' You have the opportunity to do it right and not having to regret it later. Let's review the different phases of testing and their importance/execution:

• Test plan
• Unit testing and feature testing
• System integration testing
• User acceptance testing
• End-to-end testing

Similar to testing, training is another key aspect for the successful implementation of an ERP...