QA Manager at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Working with recordsets and the ability to plug them into scripts is very easy and very powerful
Pros and Cons
  • "The ease of use is superior to anything on the market. It's very easy to integrate. We've been very impressed with the tool. Because we primarily use the configuration with SAP, the integration is pretty seamless. But we have used our own in-house VB app as well, and it's worked very well with that."
  • "We love the Capture 2.0 feature. It seems to work very well."
  • "The ability to work with the data, with recordsets, and plug those into the scripts is very easy and very powerful. We use it extensively."
  • "In the past, when we've tried to automate some of our web apps, it has not been as robust. If there were one thing that could be improved, it's interaction with web applications. The issue we were running into is that it was harder to identify the objects than it is with some of the other architectured applications."

What is our primary use case?

We have developed some end-to-end regression testing scenarios that we've found pretty valuable, so we have created a bunch of processes in Certify, linked them together, and we use them every week - sometimes more than once a week - in regression testing.

How has it helped my organization?

We used another tool for many years. It became unworkable because of the length of our scripts and how many of them there were, and how they were linked together. They became cumbersome in the other tool. It's much easier in Certify, and Certify can handle them, no problem.

In addition, our organization is implementing Agile, we're moving towards continuous development, and I don't see how we could do that, in any imaginable way, without Certify. We're able to import our changes weekly, based on the results in Certify. And we're confident that because of having tested the main business processes, fairly rapidly, within one day, we can tell whether the imports are going to break anything.

It has absolutely enabled us to automate and save time. The weekly imports of the changes allow the developers to plan on a weekly cycle, which increases the speed of their development. They don't have to wait for a release or anything else, they can test their changes quickly and get the results the next day. They know that they're able to import with no problem.

Finally, it has helped us cut test maintenance time. 

What is most valuable?

The idea that it's not language-specific is really nice. Keywords and the drag-and-drop functionality are great. The ease of use is superior to anything on the market. It's very easy to integrate. We've been very impressed with the tool. Because we primarily use the configuration with SAP, the integration is pretty seamless. But we have used our own in-house VB app as well, and it's worked very well with that. We've really not seen any problems whatsoever with integrating.

We love the Capture 2.0 feature. It seems to work very well. As for how long it takes to create documentation using it, we do not get into the documentation so much. That end is not as useful to us. But it's built-in if we ever needed it. We're not USDA or anything like that so we don't have a super need for documentation right now.

Also, the ability to work with the data, with recordsets, and plug those into the scripts is very easy and very powerful. We use it extensively.

What needs improvement?

In the past, when we've tried to automate some of our web apps, it has not been as robust. If there were one thing that could be improved, it's interaction with web applications. The issue we were running into is that it was harder to identify the objects than it is with some of the other architectured applications. That's the nature of the beast with the web as well.

Buyer's Guide
Worksoft Certify
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Worksoft Certify. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
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For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable.

We have had some issues. We would be unable to log in, in certain situations. But they've all been self-inflicted, changes that we've made on our side that have prevented us from being able to use the tool at times. Once we got those resolved, we were fine.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's fairly easy to scale, which is a nice thing. Once you create what I will call a sub-process, if you want to use that sub-process in many other processes, it's really easy to use. For us, that's what makes it scalable. You can use that same process wherever you need it. The use of the recordsets just allows us to be able to change the data that make it unique and that make it easily maintained. It's very easy to scale. It simplifies our workflow.

How are customer service and support?

Worksoft technical support is very helpful, very knowledgeable. Whenever we've had an issue, they've responded very quickly. We don't actually have very many tickets, but whenever we've had them in the past, I've just gone into the portal and I get an email back, usually the very next day. I've never had to escalate an issue.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We were using Micro Focus UFT. It became completely unworkable for us. Our end-to-end processes were just too cumbersome for the tool to handle. It got worse and worse to the point where we had to say, "You know what? We have to change tools, this is not helping us." That's when we investigated Worksoft, and we were very pleased with how it worked.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was pretty straightforward.

The last time we did it, for the upgrade into version 10, it just required me and one other person on the database side, and then the technical person from Worksoft. It was fairly easy. It took just a couple of hours. At that time, we were just upgrading. The basic architecture was already there so it didn't really require a project plan or anything like that. Once we got it set up, it was just a matter of migrating what we already had in UFT.

What was our ROI?

There have been several times where it has highlighted an important issue. Some of the defects we've found have been high-impact defects that would've really been costly had they made it to production. There are other times where, because we were able to test with Certify, we knew within a day whether there were gaps in the way we configured a change, things that we had missed that we wouldn't have been able to find if we didn't have the ability to test quickly.

That one defect we found easily saved us $1,000,000. That was just one. Over the years, the amount of money that it has saved us is certainly in that range.

The ability to test quickly has enabled us to develop quickly. We've been able to capture lots of savings in terms of projects that have been delivered faster because we can test faster.

There are savings on a lot of fronts because of this solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We would purchase more licenses right now if they were cheaper. Pricing is a little bit of a hindrance.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We didn't look into any alternatives.

What other advice do I have?

It's a highly powerful tool. It's very customizable. It's not a cure-all for everything, but if you want to do end-to-end testing, regression testing, it's a great investment.

We use Certify for end-to-end testing of packaged applications. We have implemented almost anything that touches SAP, using Certify. When C4C came out, the customer application, we regression tested our existing suite to make sure that nothing would break. We anticipate doing the same thing with Success Factor. At the moment, we don't use Certify for web-UI testing, but we're planning on implementing some of that, coming up.

Since it has been up and running, we've had three people maintain it: Myself, I'm the principal QA person, and we have two offshore partners whom I've trained on Certify and they are now helping us execute and maintain the tests. It requires full-time maintenance. We have plans to expand the reach of our automated testing, so we plan on adding more people. We are the only three using Certify in our organization at the moment.

It tests our core business processes but we still have many core business processes that we would like to add to that, to validate if they work, before we send changes through every week. And we would also like to increase the speed at which we can add changes; not just once a week, but eventually daily. We plan on increasing our resources from a manpower standpoint and also from a technological standpoint. We're just going to try to do that as fast as we can. There are a lot of business processes that we would like to add, a lot of apps that we would like to add. The business side has continual, increased demand in terms of things that they are working on and they would like to automate and not test manually, so there's a lot of demand on us right now.

I would rate Certify at nine out of ten. I rely on it every day. It's a great tool, and any problems that we have are hardly ever attributable to the tool itself. It's always some other factor; the way we're using it, or some external factor, which is the problem. It's nice not to have to worry about the tool being the issue. We're very enthusiastic users.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Quality Assurance Manager at CHEP
Real User
This product helps us so much in capturing real business processes. I would love to see more data mining modules.
Pros and Cons
  • "Our business users are doing regression testing as their day job. This is an add-on to their daily work. With everything so pressured in the industry, automation takes the pressure of these users."
  • "Web UI testing was difficult in the beginning, as we had a homegrown product, and we had to do the proper object naming."

What is our primary use case?

We bought the product in 2014, but did not have the right structure in place to use it properly. It wasn't until 2017 that we started to receive good value out of the product. Automation is now part of our strategy.

We use this solution for end-to-end testing of our packaged and SaaS applications. It is very much a part of our key strategy. We have it running end-to-end updates all the time.

We do web UI testing of SAP and ServiceNow. This was difficult in the beginning, as we had a homegrown product, and we had to do the proper object naming. With SAP, Worksoft does the object naming for us. This improved our website from 2014 until now. This is part of their process improvement.

How has it helped my organization?

Our business users are doing regression testing as their day job. This is an add-on to their daily work. With everything so pressured in the industry, automation takes the pressure of these users. This is essential for us.

What is most valuable?

It is not IT dependent. You can go to a business user, and say, "Just record what you're doing." They don't have to be very technical and can just do their job, then you can do the technical side or evaluation. This product helps us so much in capturing real business processes. This makes the overall process much easier.

A technical person thinks differently to a business person, and having to actually see what they do is the part that's so good for us. We can see the processes exactly as they are, not how we think they are. This makes a difference.

What needs improvement?

I would love to see more data mining modules. 

I want to see more stability in the Execution Manager.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have been major improvements in stability since we started until now. So, it is becoming more stable. 

Also, we are being taught how to make it more stable, since stability is not just about the product. It is how you use the product. There are base principles that you have to keep on your data in the system. It is how you write the script and if you write the script to be sustainable. This will make it stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I love its scalability. I like records set that you can just add onto it. We are going into a new country every year and the ability to increase from test scripts makes the product so much simpler.

How are customer service and technical support?

Their technical support works with us, which is good. Working with them has been a collaborative process.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Worksoft Certify was originally purchased for a product. We thought that it was not be used to its full extent, so we ran it through a PoC. Then, we decided that the product could work for us.

How was the initial setup?

Ownership wasn't taken for the product during the initial setup, so it was a difficult process at first. Once ownership was taken, it wasn't that difficult.

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We have not looked at other vendors.

What other advice do I have?

If you're looking at automation, it has to be part of your strategy. It's not something you can push bottom up. It's not something you can just do for a project. Automation is how we work. It is the thing of the future.

I haven't personally used the Capture 2.0 feature, but we've reviewed it. Worksoft has definitely made it simpler again by putting in comments and adding in some extra things. This has really helped, and our business users have been using it.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Worksoft Certify
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Worksoft Certify. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
769,479 professionals have used our research since 2012.
QA Manager Business Applications at a university with 10,001+ employees
Real User
The easy of use and ease of integration are very good
Pros and Cons
  • "The easy of use and ease of integration of Worksoft Certify are very good."
  • "During our yearly upgrades, we have now gotten them down to ten days or less. We have Worksoft run all our integration tests, where it used to take probably six weeks to do that manually."
  • "We are looking for some enhancements on the Capture 2.0 tool. This would give us the ability to control it directly, like we could with Capture 1.0. Right now, Capture 2.0 doesn't really work for our Business Analysts."

What is our primary use case?

We have been using Worksoft Certify for ten years.

How has it helped my organization?

We do automation of both SAP and other applications: One of them is our new grants management system. Originally, they wanted to do everything manually. Now, they highly rely on us to do testing in very short periods. 

We do web UI testing of modern applications. In our environment, we have SuccessFactors, plus SRM through Fiori. 

We also do performance testing and end-to-end testing of packaged applications, like SAP, InfoEd, and OnCore.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features right now are the Capture capability and versioning. The Capture 2.0 has a lot of flexibility.

The easy of use and ease of integration of Worksoft Certify are very good.

What needs improvement?

We are looking for some enhancements on the Capture 2.0 tool. This would give us the ability to control it directly, like we could with Capture 1.0. Right now, Capture 2.0 doesn't really work for our Business Analysts. Because they don't work with it all the time, it's a little complicated for them to stay up to speed on it. With Capture 1.0, we wrote a wrapper to make it easier for them to use, but we can't use that wrapper with Capture 2.0. So, if Capture 2.0 gets enhanced, we'll start using it. For an enhancement, we want to be able to start and stop recording through an API. Then, we want to see how many steps have been recorded through the API.

We do a lot of test maintenance because they are constantly changing the applications. This is one of our biggest problems that are constantly making changes and switching products. For example, we used to use the Supply Relationship Manager. Now, all those tests that we build there will be replaced when we go to Ariba. All the old SAP GUI stuff for HCM, when we got SuccessFactors was thrown out, then had to be redone with SuccessFactors.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It gives you the ability to have a more structured environment for tests. It is not just recording of key strokes. It is more systematized, more like a programming language. That is the biggest advantage for us. Because of its consistency, once the developers know one skill set, they can use it to automate any application.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It scales well. We have eight offshore people and four developers in New York. We can add developers as needed. With the offshore team, we've have at least 20 people trained on Worksoft, but eight people actively on the team now.

We have about a 1000 active users with about 5000 users total. However, this includes all of the employees and their self-service.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is very good. They have always been a great help. With a lot of companies, you can't even really talk to the developers that someones provides you. With Worksoft, you can get a hold of the developers and work with them. It is all very timely.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was very straightforward. We just build the database and installed the client application on the system. There was nothing out of the ordinary about it. It is not like setting up a lot of the IBM products or the Quality Manager, where there were so many different modules. There was just one module to set up.

What was our ROI?

During our yearly upgrades, we have now gotten them down to ten days or less. We have Worksoft run all our integration tests, where it used to take probably six weeks to do that manually.

As far as maintenance testing, it has saved us time. We find problems a lot of the time that they aren't aware of. This is because we run the tests even though they don't ask us.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Micro Focus QuickTest Professional (QTP).

What other advice do I have?

Properly staff the testing team before they attempt to do automation. Be aware that this will not be a one-time overnight process. We tried to automate everything in two months with eight people, and it was impossible.

We have been using it for so many years that we are really very happy with it.

We will be converting to Ariba for purchasing, so that will have to be automated.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Application Development Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A codeless solution that is very good for SAP applications, but it is not suitable for web applications
Pros and Cons
  • "We are mainly using it for the SAP application, and for the SAP application, if you don't have any experience with automation tools, after a few training sessions, you can easily automate the scripts. That's because no specific programming language is used. All resources that I have are specifically SAP resources. They are not from the automation background, but after gaining the knowledge, they are able to develop a script, or when there is any issue while doing regression testing, they are at least able to understand the issue, such as whether the issue is in the code or data."
  • "We can use it for the web application, but we are facing stability-related challenges. The properties are getting changed. For example, when I am performing any operation on the text box but the development team has done some changes, our Worksoft scripts are getting changed. This is the main challenge that we are facing while developing tests for the web application in Worksoft Certify, where any changes in the backend are indirectly impacting our scripts. For the web application, there is a scarcity of resources. Unlike an SAP application that doesn't require much experience, for the web application, you require experienced people."

What is our primary use case?

We have an SAP application, and for the automation of this SAP application, we are using Worksoft Certify. This project is in the healthcare domain. I get the requirements from the client. They tell me about the new changes that are going to happen in the system, and based on that, we do the automation. The client tells me about the scripts and new features in the application, and I create an estimation plan, which depends on the size and the complexity of the scripts and features, and share it with the client. We do the development activities accordingly.

We have two teams. Being an automation team, we are not very much on the functional side. So, we need to take some support from the functionality team. for test case writing. They are usually able to give us steps in Excel or something like that, and we are able to start with that. Otherwise, we have some sessions with the client or the functional team to discuss any issues or doubts we have. We also need data for developing the script. We get the required information about the data, such as if data is consumable and how to find new data, from the client or the functional team. Once the automation is done, we inform the client, and we are ready for the sign-up for the first set of the script. They do a functional review, and after they okay it, we do the final sign-off. We then move our scripts from the local sandbox folder to a production folder created in Worksoft Certify. We then use the script for regression.

In terms of its deployment, they provide the updates, and we install them on our VPS.

What is most valuable?

We are mainly using it for the SAP application, and for the SAP application, if you don't have any experience with automation tools, after a few training sessions, you can easily automate the scripts. That's because no specific programming language is used. All resources that I have are specifically SAP resources. They are not from the automation background, but after gaining the knowledge, they are able to develop a script, or when there is any issue while doing regression testing, they are at least able to understand the issue, such as whether the issue is in the code or data. 

What needs improvement?

We can use it for the web application, but we are facing stability-related challenges. The properties are getting changed. For example, when I am performing any operation on the text box but the development team has done some changes, our Worksoft scripts are getting changed. This is the main challenge that we are facing while developing tests for the web application in Worksoft Certify, where any changes in the backend are indirectly impacting our scripts. For the web application, there is a scarcity of resources. Unlike an SAP application that doesn't require much experience, for the web application, you require experienced people.

We also use XF definitions for the web application, but we can't create them on our own. So, we need to take support from the Worksoft team, and we have a dependency on them.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with this tool for the last five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is completely stable for our SAP application. There is no issue. Once you have developed a script, you don't need to do any changes.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We are using it on quite a large scale. If we have a requirement for the new development, we have to use Certify. My project involves maintenance and new development. In the maintenance phase, we have regression testing. We have created a batch file, and when we are doing the regression testing, we are executing this batch file. So, we are using it for day-to-day activities. We are also using another tool from Worksoft called Worksoft Execution Manager.

The number of users working on this solution varies based on the project timeline and the number of scripts. For example, if the client's requirements need to be delivered in a very short period of time, then instead of four resources, I will take eight resources.

How are customer service and support?

For any issues, we have to go to the Certify support team. They have a customer portal, and you just need to raise a request on the portal. Based on the priority, you get a response from them. Initially, they provide the solution through the ticket, but if the solution doesn't work, they also schedule a call. If the issue is not resolved in one call, they schedule more calls till they have resolved our issue.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used UFT in my previous company. Companies that have an SAP application or SAP Fiori prefer Worksoft Certify. For my current client, initially, we were using UFT, but because any non-automation resource can do automation in Worksoft Certify, we brought Worksoft Certify. Now, instead of UFT, we are developing everything in the Worksoft Certify. 

I am also familiar with Selenium. For SAP applications, Worksoft Certify is a very good tool. With UFT and Selenium, you need to create a framework, which is not required with Worksoft Certify. You can just go and develop an automation script. 

So far, I have used Worksoft Certify for the SAP application, the mainframe application, and the web application. For the SAP application, it is working well, but for the web application, instead of Worksoft Certify, it is better to go for Selenium. With the web application, we have the issue of values getting changed when developers make any change in the backend, and we also have a dependency on Worksoft for XF definitions. So, Selenium would be a better solution for web applications.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't have much idea about the pricing, but it is a licensed tool, and it is somewhat costly.

What other advice do I have?

If you are considering this tool for your project or company, the Worksoft sales team would connect with you and explain what are the things that you need to perform. Initially, they give a demo, and after that, they discuss the licensing, etc.

It can be easily used by our non-automation resources with some training, but your team should ideally also have experienced people to be able to deliver within your deadline. For some of the development, you can also hire Worksoft resources on a contract basis. They would come to your location and help you with the development of a script in a short duration.

I would rate Worksoft Certify a six out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
QA Developer II at a university with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Easily develop test automation

What is our primary use case?

SAP HANA S/4 HCM, FI, BI, Payroll, SuccessFactors, Fiori, other web HTML interface applications.

How has it helped my organization?

Our company automates a lot of functional tests for SAP. The automated tests are included in larger integration tests of SAP transaction, workflows and end-to-end processes. Successful implementation and execution of Worksoft Certify tests has been faster than execution of the tests manually. With other tools, it was hard to get successful technical execution right quickly. Automation is not easy. Worksoft Certify makes it easier yet flexible enough to handle some of the most complex automation tasks. Every time steps are automated, test execution times are reduced and application problems are identified faster. Every time that the automated script runs (many times if developed early enough and applied with each change of the application being tested - in the current environment and leveraged in another environment), the investment of work made to develop the script is realized. The more times that the test is executed, the risk of problems going undiscovered is reduced. Testing time is shortened. Avoiding the tedious tasks of manual testing easily repeatable steps saves money.

What is most valuable?

Worksoft Certify provides the ability to develop test scripts with a low bar of entry among automation tools. It’s very simple to develop. However, great care must be taken to use the tool as intended, otherwise efficiencies and effort savings will not be realized. Like all automation projects, well-designed automation, with thoughtful planning and application, is necessary or you will unable to get back the return after spending the cost in investing time and effort with the tool.

Worksoft Certify provided outstanding feature support for SAP test automation which is unrivaled by other tools in the market. If implementing and need to automate SAP, first pilot the tool with a representative scenario, and then evaluate that retesting the scenario multiple times will ultimately provide compelling overall value for SAP test automation effort.

What needs improvement?

Worksoft Certify can better identify web test objects by providing libraries through its Extensibility framework. It has improved with it's latest version through Extensibility Tools support and additional test object attributes. Object identification is a necessary barrier for the technical execution of a test script, aside from the script's needs to verify business rules. Automation engineers must affirmatively answer the question: Is the application automatable?

If Worksoft Certify or any other test automation tool can get object identification down consistently and flexibly so that maintenance of web object identification (and hence the web test script) is easy and done with no execution problems, it will allow more scripts to be developed and applied faster with the human test automation staff resources on hand.

A good part of the technical test automation work is to make the script run and affect script changes when the application under test changes. When done right, the business part of automating the test application functions remains the same - leveraging your test investment.

Certify may not the best solution for your needs, but among the commercial and open source offerings in the automation tools space, it should rank very high. It is also a leader in rapid SAP test automation, and can be used as general all-purpose test automation tool for varied clients like PC, SAP, and especially Web.

Only one or two tools I have experienced could be suitable in place of Worksoft Certify. However those tools also carry their own set of disadvantages.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In terms of stability, Worksoft Certify is a polished and mature commercial offering. We rarely encounter problems with the tool. When we do, Worksoft is very responsive to the issue.

We also find the new features in version 11 of the tool to be innovative. The more friendly and fast UI, greater support for test object Extensibility support, Capture 2.0 functionality and global search are all market-driven features that benefit the bottom-line in creating and maintaining Worksoft Certify automation script assets. The improvements are welcomed and we look forward to even more such improvements to make Certify a top-tier competitor in the automation market.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

In terms of scalability, we only have a few licenses. We manage and maintain the underlying database actively to avoid scalability issues. We are confident that Worksoft Certify can scale to fit our automation testing needs as we:

  • Scale-up with many more automated tests of varying length
  • Scale-out with unattended lights-out execution.

How are customer service and technical support?

I would give technical support a rating of 8/10, 10 being the highest. Worksoft is very quick to respond and address customer problems identified with Certify.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

My organization has been using Certify since 2007. We are committed and very happy with Worksoft. I picked up experience with Worksoft Certify when I joined my organization and leverage my existing automation skills to quickly become effective with the tool. I still use Selenium/Java/Python and was expert-level proficient several market leading enterprise QA automation tools.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was done prior to my joining the organization. The existing work helps make my drop-in experience very smooth. It would be harder from the ground up, since there is a database and application server that needs to be installed and administered, and procedures and policies to define so that development is standardized (establishing naming conventions, specific ways to do things when there are multiple options available, etc.)

What about the implementation team?

We implemented and developed in-house expertise. A vendor team would have accelerated and made adoption smoother.

What was our ROI?

We get at least a 2x return on investment (time, cost, labor) over manual efforts. When tests repeat execution the ROI can go higher. Tests often repeat when executed annually with planned annual system upgrades and additional time, labor and cost to maintain factored in. Including and reusing the tests in other testing activities such as sanity checks and regression cycles increases the overall ROI and investment value.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Conduct a proof of concept (POC) so that you understand what needs to be invested with Worksoft Certify. You will need to understand what sort of time you need to initially set aside to learn and apply the tool, and how that time can be leveraged to shorten continuing development of Worksoft Certify test scripts (processes) as facility in the tool increases.

  • Someone needs to know to administer it.
  • Someone needs to know how to develop the tests.
  • Someone needs to develop a representative automated test script for a candidate application in your organization.
  • That person also needs to execute the scripts and then report results of the scripts.

That script needs to execute several times. Now a comparison needs to be done with the time it takes to execute the multiple test runs against the same time it would take to do the same thing manually. In this way, you can now quantify your savings.

Now apply the need over the instances in your organization and compare that to the pricing and licensing to see how many instances of this effort would give you a return on your investment.

You will find that you will have many instances that would justify the price and licensing costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated QTP and Selenium. Worksoft Certify was chosen because of:

  • The comprehensive coverage
  • Extensive support with SAP
  • Additional web test automation support
  • Ability to develop tests fast and execute them reliably
  • Technical support of the tool

The combination of all narrowed down our choice to Worksoft Certify. It was a great choice in 2007, and if evaluated today instead of 2007, it still would have to be Worksoft Certify since the importance of SAP support is priority and is significant over any of the other criteria and support provided by the other competitors.

What other advice do I have?

Perform a pilot. Apply it to your app under a test with representative workflow. Understand the process of developing Worksoft Certify tests by doing it. Execute the develop tests multiple times. Can you live with developing the tests for Worksoft Certify? Is there value in the execution over multiple times quickly? Can you justify this effort over the cost of your current practices? If you can, then this incremental step can be leveraged and then take you further into more automation successes and favorable outcomes with Worksoft Certify.

Our organization usually tests on beta and production releases of Worksoft Certify so we are privileged to be able to work with the tool ahead of the general market. In that, we experience more issues that would not get out to production releases. Also even after release we work closely with Worksoft Certify support to identify and resolve Worksoft Certify functionality and may receive such priority support than a normal Worksoft Certify client would experience since we have such intimate technical knowledge, experience and relationship with Worksoft and the Worksoft Certify automation tool.

Because we are an active participant in a robust enterprise commercial process to help improve the stability of Worksoft Certify (staged releases to select customers to improve quality prior to some production release), I would say we’re contributing towards a good job of keeping up the stability of the automation tool by testing it first hand in our complex situation and environments and responding back with realistic and practical feedback encountered. We accomplish our organization's mission to develop and run diverse, varied and large amounts of Worksoft Certify processes automation and also assist Worksoft mission to develop and improve the Worksoft Certify automation software.

When speaking on stability, I refer to the stability of the Worksoft Certify software tool. Execution stability of the developed test scripts (Worksoft Certify processes) is a whole separate concern. Even so, Worksoft Certify also shines here in comparison with other tools. To really address this properly and clearly, you need to automate a small test scenario in an application that is to be tested and compare the tool script execution with another tool to see that Worksoft Certify achieves a high-level of repeatability and resiliency in script execution.

Even so, we do work with an occasional problem that comes out in production releases and experienced that the interaction and speed to which the problems are addressed and resolved by Worksoft Technical Support to be extremely satisfactory. I am not sure if this is representative of all of Worksoft’s clients, but we are very happy with their speed and service with which they handle our issues. This contrasts with the unsatisfactory paid subscription support experienced with commercial HP QTP/UFT and IBM Rational tools, and the lack of any support (other than searching the internet and relying on the user and development community) for open-source tools like Selenium and JMeter.

Without the interactive and engaging support, some of these problems would be extremely difficult to solve on our own. However Worksoft solutions were technical in nature beyond what a normal client user could identify and resolve on their own. Using the available and comprehensive technical support and educational services increases the likelihood of success and a positive outcome and benefit with Worksoft Certify. Successes with Worksoft Certify will come from meaningful collaboration to address automation issues rather than handling problems through independent or isolated effort (e.g. the problem could have been addressed with another customer and the resolution could have been worked out already. Worksoft support would be in the best position to know the possibility that a solution exists). 

This is typical of automation tools and the experience of other tools in the automation tool trade. The knowledge and experience is specific to the tools. As such, going to the source who has the most experience is the recommended strategy.


Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Our organization is a long-time customer of Worksoft Certify. We have a close customer relationship with them participating in Americas SAP User Group (ASUG), SAP Sapphire with them and attending their Customer Users Conference regularly.
PeerSpot user
VP Test and Quality Management at Deutche Telecom
Real User
You can save money and have better quality using this product
Pros and Cons
  • "Improvement means for us that we have to be better in quality. Due to automation, you can run every automated test case twice a week. If you do it manually, you do it once per release. This is a quality improvement."
  • "We found that Worksoft is easier to use because our business experts can do the tests. We didn't have to have IT experts."
  • "There was a change to Capture 2.0. In the end, there have been some challenges with the newer version. Therefore, the company testers, the local ones, do not want to use Capture 2.0."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case is test automation. We have an SRP solution called One1ERP on an ERP platform. We started the automation in Worksoft Certify, getting more than a thousand test cases automated.

Nowadays, we also have automation for a web application in our HR area, so all our HR processes on the platform, Pega. This started to be automated since November last year. We have 40 test cases automated on this application in one year. 

How has it helped my organization?

Improvement means for us that we have to be better in quality. Due to automation, you can run every automated test case twice a week. If you do it manually, you do it once per release. This is a quality improvement.

We always have to be more efficient. E.g., if we can directly automate test cases, so if we are using older test cases, then by just switch the company code (national company), we don't have to do it manually. We are able to directly automate the test. This saves money, which is always important for our top management.

What is most valuable?

We are creating a team an automation team, which will have up to 10 people/colleagues. This will be set up in Bratislava, and those 10 colleagues will work 100 percent on automation. Usually our SMEs do the test execution and try as hard as possible to have everything directly automated, e.g., 40 percent test execution and 60 percent automation. In the end, we want to have a pure automation team who is just doing automation, and have the testers on another team. After the tests are finalized, then they can give them directly to the automation team, or work on them together. That is a mixture. For those colleagues, it's really 100 percent automation

What needs improvement?

We are interesting to do better, year-by-year. At the moment, we are doing automated regression tests. The next step would be DevOps or artificial intelligence. Our programs should also develop in this way. We want to have automation everywhere where it is possible. Therefore, we need more options for these next steps.

We have used Capture, and it works with Worksoft Analyze. We had some experience last year in August because we started our schedule 1.0 and used Analyze in our tests. We were using the central site for one year with our ERP testing and were quite successful, but this was with Capture 1.0. Then, there was a change to Capture 2.0. In the end, there have been some challenges with the newer version. Therefore, the company testers, the local ones, do not want to use Capture 2.0.

40 percent of the test cases were finalized with automated capture and automated documentation, then the others were done manually. Because we have to create test nodes, we were asked to create a tool that automates documentation, which was Worksoft Analyze. However, with the switch to Capture 2.0, we had some challenges in the beginning. What we did afterwards, together with Worksoft, was we sorted through all the known bugs. So, at the moment, we don't have any known bugs open. We will retry this year in our central test first to find out if it Work Analyze is fine, then if it is okay, we will continue with the local test teams, as well.

On the Capture 2.0 topic, we were not satisfied, because we had a version that wasn't really tested from my perspective. Of course, Worksoft said it was tested, but we found a lot of bugs. In the end, our national company and local test teams did not use Worksoft Analyze because it stopped working. We have ten steps, then on the ninth step, it stopped working and we would have to do it again. So, they stopped using Worksoft Analyze and Capture 2.0. However, this is solved. Worksoft directly helped us to find out what the bugs are, and solved them. Then, we retested it. At the moment, we don't have any open bugs.

On average, it takes one day for Capture 2.0 users to create document. We expect it is faster, but you have to do it several times sometimes. You have to check the documentation that everything is fine. 

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

There have not been many issues at all, maybe one or two during the last three years. However, it has been quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Worksoft has good scalability. This is also the reason why we easily can automate for our new laptops.

How are customer service and technical support?

Usually, we have one contact person for support, who then will contact the Worksoft support. Our contact organizes the people around her. While we have some direct contacts, and most of the time, we receive answers from them. I don't know if there is somebody behind them from the second or third level. 

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are forced to have efficiencies every year. We always get less budget and having to do more. So, we had to have some ideas, and our idea in 2017 was to increase automation. We had automation in place beforehand with eCut. However, in the end, we cut rates 10 to 15 percent. With Worksoft Certify, we had this campaign year with company codes up to 80 percent of the automation rate. This is much faster, and we are finding the defects earlier. In the end, you can save money and have better quality.

In three months, we created 1000 scripts with Worksoft. When the three years before with eCut, we did 450 scripts. This is where we saw a difference.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. 

In the beginning, it took a long time to integrate Worksoft in our landscape because we have a lot of security levels to fulfill. Therefore, it was not permitted to be install on the security server. It had to be installed through our data center. We learned step-by-step.

Due to security issues we could not use VPN tunnels, we had to have a jump server. This cost us in the end up to eight months. We had four solutions beforehand that were not successful. The fifth one was the jump server. This was the final one and is our solution at the moment.

In Germany, we have a higher security level. Therefore, it costs us by having a longer time to integrate. This is due to our requirements, not Worksoft. The reason why it took that long was on our side. We have a lot of IT departments. With security, social partners, and data privacy, there are a lot of requirements to fulfill.

After that, we agreed to have an automation manager on our team from Worksoft. He sat in Bratislava and all the open issues or questions sent to him, and he answered them, either directly or he contacted the support teams. Then, he assured that those Worksoft issues were solved. He also gave us hints how to use Worksoft, such as naming conventions and how to use it so you don't have a mess in the system.

After we had the automation manager for eight months, then he left. We decided to go with Cognizant, but that was also not successful. In the end, we decided to to have a Worksoft expert from Worksoft, if we need it. For example, we now need an for an expert for two weeks, who will tidy up our system. 

What about the implementation team?

In the beginning, we had an integrator, Cognizant, who created a lot of scripts, but we stopped because we had a contract with them that they would install Worksoft, but it was not allowed. In the end, they just did some automated scripts for us. Our automation team in Bratislava was not satisfied with the quality in the end. We want to have a flexible style with quality, and this wasn't done by our Cognizant colleagues. Therefore, we decided to do it on our own.

From Cognizant, they were sold as SAP and Worksoft experts. Concerning Worksoft, I cannot say if they're expert or not. Concerning SAP, not all of them were experts, maybe one. However, this is always the same in this business. We also had cooperation with Worksoft. Concerning the flexibility of the scripts, we decided to work on our own.

We expect partners too be really good. Otherwise, the company does not see why we should pay for them.

What was our ROI?

Saving money and better quality, these are the benefits of Certify.

We have seen ROI. This was one of the goals from our top management when investing in automation. They want to see savings in the following year.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did an RFP in 2016 and 2017. We found that Worksoft is easier to use because our business experts can do the tests. We didn't have to have IT experts, like with eCut.

What other advice do I have?

If you use SAP, you can use this. It is easy.

I am really satisfied with the product. If I ask for support, I get support. I have direct contacts and every issue will be discussed. If we need something, they help us directly.

We did not automate our test maintenance. 

We don't have experience using it with apps and mobile testing, but are looking to add this to our portfolio in the future.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Associate Project Manager at Bosch
Real User
We are frequently finding issues or defects that might have come into production if not properly tested
Pros and Cons
  • "Automation using Worksoft Certify has saved our testing times by 40% to 50%."
  • "As part of our weekly regression, we wanted to use Execution Manager. However, from 2017 until March 2021, Execution Manager was not working as expected in our enrollment. It could have been better. If Execution Manager had worked well, then we could have doubled our productivity. Unfortunately, it had problems."

What is our primary use case?

Our use cases are mainly from different domains for mobility solutions. It is also for HR and eCommerce.

How has it helped my organization?

We implemented more than 200 test cases for critically defined processes. 

It helps us understand the end-to-end scenario and how it can be divided into multiple subprocesses. Those sub processes can be used whenever required. Based on that, we design automation scripts, then reuse them wherever required.

The solution has enabled us to find defects since it is a test automation tool. However, irrespective of the tool used, we are testing to find defects. Thus, it has found defects in our projects.

What is most valuable?

Certify is a codeless automation tool with scripts that are easy to maintain. Since it doesn't use any coding language, a person (who is unaware of any language) can directly deploy just by training him/her on how the tool works. So, if a person is well aware of at least basic programming knowledge, it can then be deployed by providing basic training.

For SAP, we have many use cases. Certify is helping us to automate things, which is really awesome. The time spent to automate is less when compared with other tools.

What needs improvement?

Initially, there were challenges because there is a concept called XF definitions, where each application type, e.g., the vendor and workflow, has to provide these XF definitions. Last year, these XF definitions were not provided. However, whenever we face any issues, we have to raise a support case, then they update the XF definitions in our enrollment. This year, they improved that and have the last XF definitions for SAP Fiori updated as of February 2021.

For integration, projects are usually agile. The customers are looking for integration with CI/CD tools, like Jenkins, Jira, Xray, Zephyr, etc. There is no clear documentation on how to integrate Certify with these tools. Also, we didn't receive the required support when needed. Worksoft used to have webinars on this, but those webinars used to be on after the integration was established and how the integration works, not on how to create an integration.

They should come up with a solution on how to do the integration. Jenkins, Jira, and Certify should be the same in every company. The only thing required is the pipeline code required to integrate Jenkins, Jira, and Certify if they make it available for everyone. Also, if an expert team could help customers to integrate, then that would really help our customers a lot. 

As part of our weekly regression, we wanted to use Execution Manager. However, from 2017 until March 2021, Execution Manager was not working as expected in our enrollment. It could have been better. If Execution Manager had worked well, then we could have doubled our productivity. Unfortunately, it had problems. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution since May 2017.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability of the solution depends on how good the Configuration of your environment is. We haven't faced any issues w.r.t the stability and performance. So we can say the solution works good. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have increased the number of tests that we run based on customer requirements.

How are customer service and support?

Sometimes, the support engineers will be unaware of the solution for which a support case has been raised. Their competency or knowledge on the tool could be improved. When calling them, they will see the problem but need a senior engineer who will not be available. We will then be forced to have a second meeting. Waiting for meetings and solutions can be really hard for us because we can't deliver to our customers.

But since last some moths, Customer Support has improved as they conduct bi-weekly follow-up meetings to address our pain areas and expedite the solution for the Support cases which are open.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Compared to our previous solution, Worksoft Certify reduces our test maintenance work by 50%.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward.

It took us a lot of effort and nerves to get it really running. I would also expect for the major CI/CD pipeline tools that these are somehow handled and covered.

The last upgrade of Certify happened in the month of March. That upgrade's time was around 30 minutes to one hour. There were also preparations needed because of internal policies for taking care of backups, which were a bit time-consuming.

What about the implementation team?

There are separate server and database teams who have their own SLAs for deployment. It all depends on different project specifications. 

What was our ROI?

We have seen ROI from using Worksoft Certify. For example, in the mobility sector, we are frequently finding issues or defects that might have come into production if not properly tested. Some of them might cost some $10,000 if we had waited to solve them after they went to production.

Automation using Worksoft Certify has saved our testing times by 40% to 50%.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We got subscription model licenses three or four weeks ago. Now, we are setting up enrollment for other products of Worksoft. It is recommended that we should do our migration and upgrades in a test enrollment environment first, then move to a production environment. 

In general, they changed their license model. Before you had to buy licenses for each component, and now they changed it so you can buy a license and use it for nearly all their applications.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also evaluated Tricentis Tosca. Their pricing includes all their training. This is free of cost to everyone, even users without a Tosca license. If Worksoft came up with something similar, I think that they would get more customers.

What other advice do I have?

We haven't bought any projects or use cases to automate Salesforce.

Worksoft Process Capture is a tool that captures the user actions. Usually, the functional consultant knows the functionality that has to be automated. We then have to install the feature on his machine for him to use Process Capture. The challenge is, since they will be unaware of the tool, we first need to educate him how to use the tool. Because of this challenge, we aren't using Process Capture right now.

I would rate this solution as eight out of 10. We are very satisfied with the solution.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Aditya Chakradhar Nanduri - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Test Automation Architect at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Top 20
Beneficial script-less environment, simple process management, but vendor customization lacking
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable features of Worksoft Certify are the way we can maintain the processes and sub-processes inside. We can immediately identify and replicate multiple objects in the application without having a major issue with it. We are able to do a lot of operations even with the solution being completely scriptless. That is a large advantage compared with other automation tools."
  • "There are some other more complete tools than Worksoft Certify, such as Tricentis Tosca. It has a quicker way of taking in a customer's feedback with more efficiency. I do not see Worksoft Certify having a lot of progress over the years that we have used the tool in this area."

What is our primary use case?

We mainly use Worksoft Certify for SAP automation, whereas we have web-based SAP and normal SAP background applications.

How has it helped my organization?

Worksoft Certify has helped organizations save time by using automation.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of Worksoft Certify are the way we can maintain the processes and sub-processes inside. We can immediately identify and replicate multiple objects in the application without having a major issue with it. We are able to do a lot of operations even with the solution being completely scriptless. That is a large advantage compared with other automation tools.

What needs improvement?

There are some other more complete tools than Worksoft Certify, such as Tricentis Tosca. It has a quicker way of taking in a customer's feedback with more efficiency. I do not see Worksoft Certify having a lot of progress over the years that we have used the tool in this area.

From 2014 to 2022, there were fewer improvements in the UI looks and feel. Overall there were fewer improvements in the solution. There were some challenges that we faced with our customers, and Worksoft Certify provides customer-specific call announcements. For example, customer A is trying to work on Worksoft Certify, they will face a specific challenge in utilizing the tool, and Worksoft Certify provides a custom solution to them. With customer B, they are faced with other challenges, and Worksoft Certify provided them with a customized solution. There is a chance that the same issue that was faced with customer A, customer B had also. Instead of Worksoft Certify providing a dedicated solution for everyone, they were providing solutions on a customized level. They can improve on this process.

There were some challenges that we faced with respect to automation. For example, there were some areas where we had to do a drag and drop of some of the objects from one place to another. In some of the areas in SAP where you have to perform a drag and drop, that feature was not available in Worksoft Certify. We had to find some alternate ways of doing those things.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Worksoft Certify for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The performance and stability of Worksoft Certify were good. We don't see a lot of issues or challenges that we're facing in this area. We have a 98 percent stability rate. We don't expect a lot of issues to happen in the application. On the SAP side, it was completely normal, it was working as expected, but coming to the web-based applications, when there are major changes. We have to remap the controls sometimes to ensure that the controls are working as expected.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Worksoft Certify is a highly scalable solution. However, it was a bit slower compared to the other automation tools. For example, Tricentis Tosca is providing major competition to Worksoft Certify and they are slightly a better tool. Whenever Worksoft Certify faces any challenges they're providing some patches to fix them, and that is helping the automation to grow faster and more efficiently. We have the layouts and plenty of recordsets that make Worksoft Certify more scalable.  

How are customer service and support?

As an architect, I have to compare the support to other automation tools, there are some free tools, such as Selenium, where there is no support. However, there are some tools, such as Tricentis Tosca, where there is a dedicated technical support team who are available 24 hows a day seven days a week in the chat. We can directly chat and communicate with them. With Worksoft Certify we have to contact them directly and sometimes it can take some time, and the solutions that they provide are customer-specific. That is another challenge because when we have to work with multiple customers, this is another challenge that we face.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have been using multiple automation tools, such as Worksoft Certify, UFT, and Tricentis Tosca. Additionally, I have worked on other automation tools, such as Selenium and AccelQ. I provide solutions to the clients based on their requirements. I work on different automation tools.

How was the initial setup?

We have a set of regression test cases that are already identified with the customer. They used to provide those sets of regression test cases to be used in their projects. We had to create some processes and sub-processes, such as our layouts and recordsets for the projects. Once we create all our sets, we create our regression suites using these areas and start working on them. We used to do a time-bound process where we needed to automate all these elements in a specific set of time that we had. Once we are done with the automation, we performed the activation of the sets in a cycle.

For the understanding of the requirements of Worksoft Certify, it did not take us a lot of time because we understand the process which is very important. Due to the specific functional area in SAP initial took the automation developers some time until they understood the functional requirement. However, once we understood how we were going to handle or manage the static and dynamic data, then the automation was simple using Worksoft Certify.

Once we complete the automation, our SMEs used to start utilizing this solution whenever there is any deployment. Instead of triggering the script manually, our SME triggers the automation scripts that they have the regression suite executed, and for other new automation scripts. Whatever the testing team tests the functional they started using Worksoft Certify for creating those automation scripts and started using them. There are different clients requirements based on the deployments. The deployments used to happen every two months, we have some regression suite to be executed, and whatever the new development that is going to happen, we used to utilize the dev environment to automate them and start executing them in the QA. This way they were faster and we can do instant automation.

What about the implementation team?

We typically have a team of six people who were involved in the development of our particular automation scripts, and the exact number of people depends on the project that needs these scripts. For example, in my initial project where I worked on Worksoft Certify, we had a team of 13 people who were working for different process areas. We have different areas, such as production planning, retail management, and quality management service. Each area was handled by a specific developer and we used to have some teammates who were helping us and assisting in the automation of these scripts.

What was our ROI?

Normally it can take clients a lot of time for doing the regression. Using Worksoft Certify has reduced the time needed for this process. They don't need to replace all their SMEs for performing the regression because normally it used to take a lot of time for doing the initial regression activation. There were a lot of bugs that were reported and were reduced when we started using this tool. They used to use 10 people for doing the regression previously, for a span of a week. By using Worksoft Certify with using the automation scripts and 10 different systems activations happening, we saved a lot of time. We have seen a return on investment by using Worksoft Certify.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Worksoft Certify is slightly more expensive compared to other automation tools that are available on the market. However, the majority of the clients who are utilizing this solution, don't care much about the price. The main aspect the clients look for is its stability and reliability on the automation and whether they are able to rely on the automation scripts.

The solution can be purchased in different packages, some can include support.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I have evaluated lots of other solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I have approximately eleven years of experience in this industry and over the past few years, I have been working as a senior architect.

Worksoft Certify is a good tool, but any tool can perform efficiently if you follow the best practices. If you're not following or utilizing the tool properly, there are chances that you might miss the opportunity. The main challenge with script less automation tools, such as Worksoft Certify or Tricentis Tosca is that you have to implement it along with best practices, and if proper best practices are implemented for these tools from the beginning, they can be extremely efficient and beneficial tools that can help to reduce efforts.

I rate Worksoft Certify a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: implementer
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Worksoft Certify Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Worksoft Certify Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.