Streamlining System Upgrades in ServiceNow with Automated Testing
Anna Thorsen
For many enterprise businesses, ServiceNow is an operational backbone. But twice a year, panic unfolds. ServiceNow release two major mandatory upgrades requiring extensive testing. And more often than not, functional and regression testing gets postponed or left behind.
When these tests are postponed or skipped, it leaves businesses open to risk. In these key moments, system administrators and developers face pressure to complete functional and regression testing at speed.
To be able to test these updates in time, businesses need to test sooner. Automation brings the promise of removing the barriers that keep people from testing early, but businesses don’t always have the tools on hand to help them achieve quicker results.
In this article we cover:
- What businesses gain from upgrading ServiceNow faster
- Why businesses struggle to update ServiceNow
- How no-code automation helps you update ServiceNow at speed
Why businesses should upgrade ServiceNow faster
ServiceNow releases quarterly patches and two major updates per year, with the latter being mandatory. Whether it’s an upgrade or patch update, businesses need to run regression tests.
With these upgrades, businesses stay current and can take full advantage of the innovation made available through the releases. This helps users to deploy new products and keep high levels of security, performance, and availability for customers.
Why businesses struggle updating ServiceNow
Businesses operating in high-risk environments can experience incredibly costly failures. Hence, their tests need to be thorough and robust to reduce risk.
With any updates, a test case is likely to break or a bug could arise in an instance, especially in cases where ServiceNow is heavily customized.
Below, we list common challenges businesses face when updating ServiceNow:
Manual testing is error prone and takes time
The slightest change in an application can alter the existing functionality of your ServiceNow instances. For any update, you ideally need to run all your regression tests which takes weeks to perform manually.
The tester has to document the error, discover what’s causing the error, and fix the error. We’re only human, and as such, when we perform repetitive tasks like this, we’re prone to making mistakes.
Additionally, not all teams have the available and dedicated resources to test and monitor the application in its entirety. In this occasion, IT process managers rely on specialists within the organization to manually test.
It’s in situations such as this that system administrators need to consider their options: cut out regression testing and add vulnerability to these critical operational processes, or find an automation tool that will bring efficiency to functional and regression testing.
Read more: Why You Need ServiceNow Automated Testing
Lack of developer resources to automate
As we’ve established, system administrators and developers are held back by regression testing needed before major releases. They are often delayed, or don’t perform the testing at all. The outcome of this is that business users can’t take full advantage of the upgrades.
Automation helps to remove some of the burden, however most, but not all, automation tools require programming knowledge to build and maintain.
To make automation more accessible, the skills needed to build and maintain automated tests should be reconsidered. An automation tool that doesn’t require coding means that people who know the processes best can also automate them, rather than being dependent on developers.
High maintenance of automation test cases
Those already on the automation journey with a code based automation tool will know that it requires dedicated developer resources to maintain.
You can’t create a test and leave it to run without human interference. Just like you don’t buy a car and never get it serviced. Scripted automated tests require maintenance every time changes occur in processes, applications or environments.
On top of that, scripted test cases take much longer to decipher when a test breaks, or a bug is discovered.
The key is to find an automation tool that is easy to use, easy to maintain, and flexible in that it can test any aspect of ServiceNow, even when it has been customized. It should also take a short amount of time to execute tests and uncover errors.
Read more: ServiceNow Automated Test Framework for Non-coders
Benefits of using no-code test automation for ServiceNow
Roll out automation faster than ever before
With out-of-the-box automation for ServiceNow, you don’t need to create an extensive framework to support automation. Simple, visual building blocks make it possible to test anything, from complex customized ServiceNow instances, to testing across integrations.
Automate end-to-end tests across integrations
Create end-to-end tests in one place and across technologies using Leapwork's no-code automation platform. Automate your integrated applications like Citrix, Mainframe, and Windows applications.
No matter how many customizations you have on ServiceNow, you can automate across IT operations, functions and departments with our REST API, ensuring you have the flexibility to cover your automation test needs.
A tool for business experts and technical experts
Testers, whether they are business experts or technical experts can easily and quickly build, create and maintain test cases. You’ll have more time to take full advantage of the new functionality of ServiceNow upgrades with our secure automation.
Read more: How to Automate ServiceNow: Test and Process Automation
Fast troubleshooting
A video recording of the run, a debug version of your design canvas, and an activity log with debug information provide visual documentation to help you discover bug fixes earlier and reduce your system security risks.
On-demand webinar: Learn how to dramatically increase the speed of testing your ServiceNow upgrades, and how to solve the common problems faced by enterprises around the globe with our automation specialist.