Installation QA Approach - LawsonGuru.com

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Tammy

Basic Member

Posts: 11

12/13/2007 12:40 PM

Hi Everyone!

I am a Lawson newbie working for HDSupply in Orlando Florida. My assignment (if I choose to accept it - grin), is to establish structure around the installation of CTPs,MSPs, upgrades etc to Lawson. We are currently on 8.0.3.

My question to the forum is...
Do you have a best practices approach to analyzing what is changing in a CTP, MSP etc and formulating a test plan from that?

My approach so far - and I've only installed one bundle of CTPs so far - is: 1)run a source_version_report to identify what modules have changed
2)review with the users as to which of the changing components are in use
3)and this is where I am struggling - how do I comb through all the patch notes to determine what has actually changed in THIS CTP/MSP?

It seems that Lawson CTP/MSP notes are cumulative. I am sure this is because - in theory - the module itself contains changes that bumped the version from 2.0 to 2.1 and also to 2.2. But I am only interested in knowing what changed from 2.1 to 2.2.

Some have suggested the best way to approach testing this is to come from the user side first. Identify what are the critical paths for HR/Payroll, identify most frequently used forms and start a postive list and go from there.

I appreciate anything you can throw at me! Trying to get my arms around how to determing what to test for a CTP/MSP install.

Thank you all - Tammy Smith

John Henley

Posts: 3353

12/13/2007 1:47 PM

Hi Tammy, welcome to the world of Lawson (you might want to run now!)

What I suggest to clients is this:

- Only install those CTPs which are absolutely required/identified as solving a specific problem for your users. In other words, you don't just install every CTP that comes out. As for testing, when a CTP is installed, it will compile the affected forms...so that is what needs to be tested. You can see what gets compiled by looking at the patchcompile.log in the /Admin folder for the product line, e.g. $LAWDIR/prod/Admin. Some CTPs may be very simple--one form; others may be drastic, changing a library or invoked code which is pervasive. In that case, you'd really want to do a full system test...not easy to do, I know.

- For MSPs, I recommend a full system test, including posting / closing programs, etc.

etu

Veteran Member

Posts: 50

12/13/2007 2:12 PM

Welcome to the Lawson World!

The approach we take for CTP and MSPs are

1. for CTPs, solve an Issue identified by the user. Other words, we DO NOT patch the system just because Lawson put out a new patch. This way, you already know which program(s) used by your folks are affected by the CTP.

2. MSPs, these should be treated as Mini-Apps Upgraded. This means FULL system testing of all programs and process your folks use.

Yes, the best approach is to let the users ask for fixes.

Greg Moeller

Veteran Member

Posts: 1498

12/13/2007 2:56 PM

I agree fully with what John and Eric have said here, but there are specific screens that Lawson techs have recommended to always apply the CTP if one is available. MA70 and MA75 come to mind... but perhaps you don't have the MA system code. I'm sure there are others that Lawson would recommend keeping up to date with as well that you do have.

k-rock

Veteran Member

Posts: 142

12/13/2007 8:00 PM

In a former life, I eventually came to realize that everything should be tested everytime you touch Lawson (CTP, MSP, ESP, upgrade, new module, etc.). While this seems like overkill, it actually reduced confusion among users. All users know exactly what needs to be tested, no time is wasted in determining what is or is not tested. Nothing is missed, if you test everything, nothing should slip through the cracks. This philosophy forced us in Finance to keep our test scripts current and streamlined. Our goal was to be able to test all Financial functionality and data in 2 days. This timeline can easily be worked into nearly any work schedule.

Keeping relatively current is also helpful. If you are really only applying 1 MSP vs. 3 MSPs and an Upgrade, there should be that much less change to the system. Read the documentation carefully, the info is there if you look for it.

John Henley

Posts: 3353

12/13/2007 8:16 PM

I agree with full testing for MSPs and upgrades, but I don't think 2 days worth of testing is feasible (although it would be nice!) when installing CTPs.

k-rock

Veteran Member

Posts: 142

12/14/2007 1:07 PM

The company had a policy of trying to only installs MSPs and ESPs except in the case of a production issue that was an emergency. I think I only ever did full testing for 1 or 2 CTPs. Considering all of the planning that normally goes into a patch, 2 days isn't really all that long.