Testing Peoplesoft

I found an interesting paper here about a tool for creating automated testing for Peoplesoft. The tool is called Newmerix Automate!Test™. It's principle benefits are saving time, not just in testing Peoplesoft but also in creating documentation, procedure narrative and policy language.

Even though BPD (Business Process Documentation) significantly reduces the development time, you still have to manually execute the test script which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. For instance, some years you may have six to seven tax updates that effect HR Management Systems (HRMS). The payroll process is lengthy – involving more than 80 tasks and input fields. A conservative estimate of the testing phase would require 10 users to spend two hours each testing the payroll process each time a tax update is implemented, resulting in 140 hours of testing annually. This estimate assumes that all users complete the process without a hitch. What happens, if just one user discovers a problem 10 minutes into the test? The PeopleSoft developer has to fix the problem and the user starts testing over again from square one, increasing the time it takes to rollout the update to production. Not to mention that application users are pulled away from their core job responsibilities each time a change is made to the application.
In addition to the long hours associated with manual testing, thoroughness is another concern. Do you know for certain, if end users are testing all permutations of payroll data? Most users focus on their areas of concern and test accordingly, leaving some sections unconfirmed upon rollout.
To guarantee best business practices, testing must be thorough while making the best use of resources and time. Automated testing is required to make this happen.