Troubleshooting Document for Patch Certification Issues

Issue 1: Patch Disrupts Business Operations

Description: After applying a patch, certain critical test cases are failing.

• Possible Causes:
  • Inadequate pre-patch testing of core business functionalities.
  • Test cases not updated to account for new patch features.
• Solution:
  • Use Opkey’s impact analysis tool to identify affected test cases and prioritize fixes.
  • Run regression tests to ensure that you test all the processes of the module before completing patch certification.

Issue 2: Missing or Incorrect Stakeholder Notifications

Description: Stakeholders were unaware of critical changes in the update, leading to misaligned expectations.

• Possible Causes:
  • Incomplete or insufficient communication about the patch’s impact.
• Solution:
  • Inform stakeholders in advance about upcoming updates, detailing features, known issues, and changes.
  • Include stakeholders in pre-update meetings to clarify changes to modules, roles, or interfaces.

Issue 3: Failed Test Cases During Sanity Testing

Description: Several test cases fail during pre-patch sanity testing, although they were working previously.

• Possible Causes:
  • Outdated test cases not reflecting recent system updates.
  • Misconfigured test environments or access issues.
• Solution:
  • Update test cases to ensure they are aligned with the latest system configurations.
  • Ensure required access credentials and correct data configurations are in place before running tests.

Issue 4: Post-Update Functionality Breaks

Description: Certain functionalities break after the patch is applied, even though they were working during pre-patch tests.

• Possible Causes:
  • Insufficient regression testing, especially for high-risk areas.
• Solution:
  • Conduct thorough regression testing of high-impact business processes before deploying the patch to production.
  • Collaborate with functional teams to identify critical test cases covering frequently changed areas and integration points.
  • Ensure tests are automated for stability and efficiency
  • If issue persists, inform customer of the errors so they can raise a service requests or SR to their ERP to fix the issue. Rerun the related test cases when the issue is fixed to verify it. 

Issue 5: Security Role changes post patch update

Description: Security roles changed after the patch is applied, restricting user access.

• Possible Causes:
  • Patch update may alter role permissions or module dependencies.
• Solution:
  • Run the security roles validation test case to generate post patch security roles files. Compare the files with pre-patch security files to generate a security role validation report. The report will provide details to understand the changed roles post the patch update.
  • Validate access controls post-update and modify security roles as per the report to ensure functionality.

Issue 6: Regression Suite Execution Delays

Description: The regression suite is taking too long to execute, causing delays in certification.

• Possible Causes:
  • Large number of test cases or sequential execution of tests.
• Solution:
  • Divide the regression suite into smaller, module based test suites, running them in parallel to reduce execution time.

Issue 7: Traceability and Issue Tracking

Description: Difficulty in tracking issues and test failures after the patch is applied.

• Possible Causes:
  • Lack of clear traceability or documentation of changes and test results.
• Solution:
  • Use Opkey’s test run and reports section to track test progress and failures.

General Best Practices:

• Sanity Test Suite: Ensure it covers key transactional screens and dependent test cases to verify existing functionality.
• Regression Test Suite: Regularly review and update it to include critical functionalities and address recent changes.
• Stakeholder Communication: Keep stakeholders informed at all stages of the patch update process.
• Automation: Automate test cases for efficiency and reliability.