Workday® Release Best Practices
Workday Releases: The Basics
Twice a year Workday releases major feature updates designed to increase functionality and enhance user experience. Workday releases are named for the calendar year in which they become effective plus their release number, so the name for this year’s first release is 2022R1. The releases are typically delivered in March and September with a five-week preparation window reserved for setup and troubleshooting in Workday sandbox preview tenants. This year, the first release preparation window will begin on February 5th, 2022 and the feature release delivery will take place on March 12th, 2022.
Why Worry About It?
Release preparation requires a significant investment of time and resources, but it’s worth it! Each new release provides an opportunity to uptake new features to both improve user experience and maximize your return on investment. Some updates can also have a direct impact on existing functionality, meant to enhance capabilities or streamline process flows. While many features are opt-in, others are automatically available, potentially impacting the way your tenant operates once the features are delivered into production.
Organizations that plan in advance, have the right resources involved, and thoroughly test new business processes are more likely to have a successful rollout of new functionality while maximizing their Workday investment and minimizing risk. In this blog post we will take a look at five best practices to ensure your organization has a successful Workday release rollout.
1. Do the Research
Staying informed is key to successfully navigating a new Workday release. Luckily, Workday provides a plethora of resources to help you in your research.
The Workday Release Center is a one-stop shop for all release-related communications, documentation and notices. Located in the Release Information drop-down menu on the Workday Community home page, the Workday Release Center is updated for each release.
Every tenant also gets a ‘What's New in Workday’ report that outlines the changes that will be introduced with each upcoming release. It’s good practice to check out these new features in advance of the preview window to identify any that could impact your internal processes and also those that could potentially support your organization’s objectives. What’s New Videos are also posted on Workday Community to shed light on a handful of new high-impact features and changes.
If you don’t have the time or resources to comb through all of the documentation in order to determine which features are most relevant to your organization, Makse Group’s Release Management services can help! Our experts routinely analyze all of the release documentation and can help you develop a plan tailored to your organization’s unique needs.
2. Make a Plan
Once your organization knows what new features and changes are coming with a Workday release, hold brainstorming sessions with key stakeholders to identify what actions need to be taken in order to prepare. Your project plan should include a strategy for integrating new features into existing workflows, plans for training workers who will be affected, and a regression testing plan.
Workday provides a helpful Product Release Checklist in the Feature Release Guidebook, which contains recommended reports and audits to run before, during, and after the delivery of a new feature release. If you do not have the time or resources to put together a comprehensive release adoption plan, you can always take advantage of Makse Group’s Strategic Roadmapping and Adoption Planning services.
3. Assemble a Team
A successful support team is key to getting the most out of your Workday investment. This team is what will allow you to be flexible and strategic enough to respond to current business needs while looking towards the future. The ideal team should involve key stakeholders, a Workday update manager, subject matter experts, business analysts, and other IT representatives.
The Workday update manager is responsible for guiding your organization through the product release and should understand the configuration options and choices your organization has made, as well as underlying cross-application concepts like the business process framework, reporting, tenant setup, and security. Subject matter experts can analyze the new features for adoption and be key participants in execution testing, while the IT representatives can help to identify impact areas across regression and feature uptake, as well as participate in execution of testing.
Depending on the size and structure of your organization, however, you may not have the resources to spare for a dedicated release management team. Luckily, Makse Group is here to help with our Project Management services to ensure project success and support your teams.
4. Test Your Processes
Once the preview window opens and you’ve opted into new features, you can begin the testing process. A robust regression testing strategy is essential to ensure that all existing processes continue to work properly. Most important are your core processes and critical integrations such as single sign-on. Also remember to test critical reports to verify that embedded logic and calculated fields have not changed in unexpected ways.
However, given the scope, frequency, and complexity of each Workday release, it can be difficult for organizations to thoroughly test each new update, especially if their resources are limited or focused on other high-value projects. That is why Makse Group provides Workday Testing Support services to help ensure that your organization is prepared for the release and has mitigated potential issues.
5. Train Your End-Users
When all is said and done, do not forget to educate your staff on new procedures and UI changes. Workday provides several resources on Workday Community, including What’s New Videos, to educate users on key functionality from the new release, but these tend to be geared towards Workday administrators and generic process flows. End-user guides remain the best way to train your users on business processes unique to your company, and should be updated and distributed before the production release to be reflective of UI and process changes.
If your organization does not have the resources to spare for thorough change management, Makse Group also offers Workday End-User Training services. We’ll help provide everything from user guides to personalized training so your teams are ready for anything.
Summary
Workday releases major feature updates twice every year, with the next production release on March 12, 2022. To ensure a successful rollout of new Workday functionality, your organization should abide by the following best practices:
Stay informed and do your research before the release
Develop a release plan that defines timelines and deliverables
Designate a dedicated release manager and release team
Test both new and existing processes in advance of production release
Educate your staff on new processes and UI changes
And if you do not have the time or resources to ensure a smooth release rollout, do not hesitate to contact Makse Group about our Workday services, which include Release Management, Strategic Roadmapping, Adoption Planning, Project Management, Testing Support, and End-User Training.
