The Ultimate Guide to Maximizing Your ERP Investment by Shifting Left

What is Shift Left Testing?

Shift-left testing is a software quality approach that moves testing activities earlier ("to the left") in the development lifecycle. Instead of waiting until the end of an ERP project to test for defects, shift-left testing integrates quality checks from the earliest stages—requirements, design, and development.

Key characteristics:

• Early involvement of testers and QA teams
• Continuous feedback loops
• Emphasis on prevention rather than detection of defects

Why Shift Left Testing Matters for ERP Systems

ERP implementations are complex, involving multiple modules, integrations, and business processes.

Traditional late-stage testing often leads to:

• Costly defect remediation
• Project delays
• Increased risk of business disruption

By adopting shift-left testing, organizations can:

• Identify issues early, when they are cheaper and easier to fix
• Reduce rework and project overruns
• Ensure higher quality and smoother ERP go-lives

Core Principles of Shift Left Testing

• Test Early and Often: Integrate testing into every stage, from requirements to deployment.
• Automate Where Possible: Use automated testing tools for regression, integration, and performance tests.
• Collaborate Across Teams: Involve business analysts, developers, testers, and end-users in quality activities.
• Continuous Feedback: Use iterative cycles to catch and address issues quickly.
• Focus on Requirements: Validate requirements and business processes before development begins.

How to Implement Shift Left Testing in ERP Projects

• Involve QA from Day One: Include testers in requirements gathering and design workshops.
• Define Clear Acceptance Criteria: Ensure all requirements are testable and measurable.
• Leverage Test Automation: Automate repetitive and regression tests to increase coverage and speed.
• Perform Early Integration Testing: Validate interfaces and data flows as soon as components are available.
• Adopt Agile or Iterative Methodologies: Break the project into sprints or phases with continuous testing.

Best Practices for Shift Left Testing

• Create a Test-Driven Culture: Encourage all team members to consider quality their responsibility.
• Document Test Cases Early: Develop test scenarios alongside requirements and design documents.
• Use Realistic Test Data: Mirror production data to uncover integration and data quality issues.
• Monitor and Measure: Track defect trends, test coverage, and cycle times to drive continuous improvement.

Cut ERP Costs with Opkey's Shift Left Testing and Avoid Go-Live Surprises

• Opkey’s ERP Lifecycle Automation Platform enables early-stage process discovery, helping teams create a baseline business process model to guide Shift Left Testing.
• Test ERP configurations early with Opkey’s Config Agent to streamline deployment workflows, reduce costs, and mitigate risks.
• Automate UAT early in the ERP lifecycle to shorten feedback loops, accelerate testing cycles, and improve validation accuracy.
• With Opkey’s Shift Left Testing, you can build automated regression suites early, ensuring you’re fully prepared for safe, rapid updates immediately after go-live.
• Opkey’s AI-powered Impact Analysis helps you understand business process changes during updates and create a risk-based test suite that can be executed autonomously.
• Don’t wait until the update is live to test. Instead, simulate and certify patches ahead of time using automated, reusable scripts.
• Set up reusable compliance test scenarios with Opkey, so every ERP update is automatically checked for audit and security requirements.