When organizations invest in Microsoft Dynamics 365, they do so with the expectation of agility. They want faster upgrades, smoother customer interactions, and flexibility to scale. But the reality is often more complex. Dynamics 365 sits at the heart of the business, linked to dozens of upstream and downstream systems: finance, HR, supply chain, customer engagement platforms, even legacy apps. Every quarterly update from Microsoft triggers a nervous cycle of regression testing. Teams scramble to ensure that none of these upgrades break critical integrations.
This blog explores how enterprises can automate regression testing in Dynamics 365 without disrupting their ecosystem. We’ll look at the challenges of regression testing, share lessons from Russell & Bromley’s transformation journey, and close with best practices to help organizations modernize their testing strategy.
On the surface, regression testing sounds simple: retest existing functionality to ensure nothing breaks after a change. In the Dynamics 365 world, though, things get tricky fast.
Some of the challenges include:
These factors make manual regression testing not only time-consuming but also error-prone. Which is why automation has moved from “nice to have” to “business critical.”
It helps to pause and consider what’s at stake. Imagine a retailer whose Dynamics 365 upgrade causes a failure in its order-to-cash process. Customers can place orders, but invoices don’t generate. Or consider a global manufacturer where integration with SAP fails, halting production planning.
These are not hypothetical scenarios. They are the kinds of risks that companies face when regression testing is rushed or incomplete. For many, the cost isn’t just technical downtime. It’s lost revenue, reputational damage, and—especially in regulated industries—compliance violations.
This is where Russell & Bromley’s story comes in.
Russell & Bromley, the luxury footwear and handbag retailer, faced exactly this challenge. With over 40 stores across the UK and a reputation for excellence, their business model relied on keeping customer experiences seamless—both in-store and online. Their IT backbone, powered by Microsoft Dynamics 365, had to function without disruption.
But Dynamics 365 came with constant updates. Manual testing was becoming unsustainable. The IT team was spending weeks preparing for each release, with little confidence that all integrations were covered. A single missed test case could mean broken workflows across order management, payment processing, or inventory updates.
The turning point came when Russell & Bromley adopted Avo Assure, Avo Automation’s no-code test automation platform.
Here’s what transformed for them:
For Russell & Bromley, automation wasn’t just about efficiency. It was about resilience. They could roll out Microsoft updates quickly, confident that business-critical processes would remain intact.
Russell & Bromley’s journey underscores a bigger lesson: automation succeeds when it is strategic. It’s not about automating everything overnight but building a scalable approach. Based on their experience and industry best practices, here’s what enterprises should focus on:
Identify business-critical processes—like order-to-cash or procure-to-pay—that absolutely cannot fail. Automate these first for maximum impact.
Dynamics 365 rarely stands alone. Cover end-to-end workflows across SAP, Salesforce, custom APIs, and other integrated systems.
Empower business users to design and run tests without coding expertise. This reduces dependency on scarce automation engineers.
Choose a platform that adapts to Dynamics’ evolving UI automatically, minimizing test maintenance overhead.
Ensure that regression testing is fueled by realistic, compliant data. Synthetic data generation can accelerate this process while safeguarding sensitive information.
Integrate testing earlier in the lifecycle, so issues are caught before they reach production.
Track coverage, execution speed, and defect leakage. Use these metrics to refine and expand your automation scope.
The real goal of regression automation in Dynamics 365 isn’t speed for its own sake. It’s confidence. Confidence that when Microsoft ships its next wave update, your supply chain won’t stall. Confidence that your sales team won’t face downtime during a critical campaign. Confidence that integrations with legacy systems will keep humming along.
Russell & Bromley achieved this confidence by adopting a platform purpose-built for complex, integrated enterprise systems. Their journey shows what’s possible when automation is designed around resilience, not just test execution.
Dynamics 365 offers incredible potential for agility and growth—but only if organizations can manage the risks of frequent change. Manual regression testing simply can’t keep pace with Microsoft’s update cadence or the complexity of integrated business ecosystems.
Automation, when done right, bridges this gap. As Russell & Bromley’s experience shows, a no-code, AI-powered approach doesn’t just accelerate testing. It ensures that critical integrations remain intact, data remains compliant, and business continuity is never compromised.
For enterprises navigating the Dynamics 365 landscape, the takeaway is clear: regression automation isn’t just a technical choice—it’s a strategic imperative. The right approach will help your business embrace Microsoft’s innovations with confidence, not fear.