Kathy Froelich from McDonald’s recently participated in Quest’s Cloud HCM Week, sharing insights on their approach to release management for Oracle Cloud HCM. McDonald’s aims to help other customers leverage their experience for smoother, more successful release management. While every business has unique needs, the following tips can help mitigate risks and provide valuable insights into handling releases and testing.

McDonald’s Release Management Strategy

McDonald’s implemented HCM Payroll in July 2021 and currently operates HCM Time & Labor, Payroll, and Absence Management for the U.S. and Canada. They plan to expand HCM Cloud capabilities globally.

Their Cloud HCM release management is an evolving process, continually refined since the July 2021 go-live. McDonald’s divides their release process into two phases: before and during the lower environment drop.

Before Lower Environment Drop

1. Preparation by Application Maintenance and Support Partner: The partner reviews Oracle release documentation and prepares presentations tailored to McDonald’s specific products.
2. Team Collaboration: The combined tech and HR/Payroll business team meets several times to review the presentations.
3. Feature Determination: Optional features for testing are identified and planned for enablement.
4. Comprehensive Regression Testing: The QA team conducts a thorough regression test suite, adding new scenarios as necessary.

McDonald’s aims to identify optional features for testing earlier in the release management process in future updates.

During Lower Environment Drop

1. Initial Regression Testing: The QA team begins with high-priority scenarios, including payroll runs and critical reports, during the first week.
2. Review and Communication: Regression test results are reviewed with the full team after week one, with daily updates and immediate escalation of serious concerns.
3. Additional Testing: The QA team continues with additional test scenarios in the second week.
4. User Acceptance Testing (UAT): The business team completes UAT of new/optional features towards the end of week one.
5. Final Review: Just before the production drop, the business team meets with QA and UAT testers to address any remaining concerns.

For a recent release, McDonald’s prioritized approximately 400 test cases in the first week to ensure no unexpected impacts on payroll runs, covering all payroll operations in regression testing.

Lessons Learned

In an earlier release, McDonald’s faced concerns about potential payroll impacts based on QA findings. Although these issues did not materialize in production, the experience underscored the importance of prioritizing critical testing in the first week and addressing any concerns with Oracle promptly.

Further Resources

To hear more from Kathy Froelich, watch the full Cloud HCM Week session recording: HCM Cloud Community Release Management Roundtable.

For more on Oracle Cloud HCM, check out Quest’s Learn Library.

To connect with other Cloud HCM users, join Quest’s Cloud HCM Community.