Upload HR specification workbooks to TestFactors. The AI reads every sheet and cell, then flags what it found, what’s unclear, and what to confirm.
Workbooks are the foundation of everything else in TestFactors. Scenarios, test cases, scripts, and defects all trace back to a workbook. Get this one right and the rest of the workflow flows naturally.
A workbook is an Excel file (.xlsx) that describes how your HR system should behave — typically a SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central configuration sheet like Foundation Objects, Position Management, Transactions, or Employee Data. These files often have hundreds of rows, dozens of sheets, and rich formatting (strike-throughs, hidden rows, colored cells) that carry meaning a tester needs to understand.TestFactors reads your workbook end-to-end and:
Parses every sheet — identifies headers, merged columns, hidden rows, iteration markers, picklist references, and section labels.
Classifies each sheet — Configuration, Picklists, Legend, Table of Contents, Boilerplate, etc. — so the AI knows what’s testable.
Annotates every meaningful cell — strike-throughs become “deprecated” badges, X marks become “applies to Iteration 1”, comments become tagged intents.
Asks you only what it must — a small, focused list of questions (capped at 25) for things it’s genuinely unsure about. No 200-question survey.
Becomes the source of truth — every scenario and test case the AI later proposes is grounded in this workbook.
Read workbooks; upload only if granted by project admin
Tester
Read workbooks (cannot upload or change exclusions)
Viewer
Read-only
If “Upload Workbook” is greyed out or missing, you don’t have upload permission for this project. Ask your Project Manager or Admin to invite you with Test Coordinator role or higher.
A workbook file in .xlsx format. Old .xls, Google Sheets exports, and PDF specs aren’t accepted directly — export them to .xlsx first.
File size under 50 MB. Bigger files need to be split (e.g. one workbook per SF module).
A project to upload into. If you don’t have one, see Quickstart.
About 2–5 minutes for TestFactors to parse a typical workbook. Large or complex ones can take longer — you can navigate away and come back.
What workbook types does TestFactors understand best? SuccessFactors Employee Central configuration workbooks, including: Foundation Objects, Position Management, EC Transactions, Employee Data, Approver/Proxy lists, Portlet definitions. CSV files are accepted for some import-template flows.
From the main dashboard, click the project you’re working in. You’ll land on the Project Overview.
Project Overview page with the left-hand navigation showing Workbooks, Scenarios, Test Cases, etc.
2
Open the Workbooks tab
In the left sidebar, click Workbooks. If this is your first upload, you’ll see an empty state with a big + Upload Workbook button. If you already have workbooks, the button sits in the top-right.
Empty Workbooks tab with the central 'Upload Workbook' call-to-action.
3
Choose your file
Click + Upload Workbook. A dialog opens. Either:
Drag and drop your .xlsx file onto the dotted area, or
Click Browse and pick the file from your computer.
The dialog will validate the file immediately (file type, size, basic structure). You’ll see a green check when it’s valid.
Upload dialog showing the drag-and-drop area with a file selected and ready to upload.
If you see a red error, the most common causes are:
File is .xls (old format) instead of .xlsx → re-save as .xlsx in Excel
File is over 50 MB → split into smaller workbooks
File is password-protected → remove the password
4
Optional: name and tag your workbook
By default the workbook is named after the file. You can change this in the Name field — pick something your team will recognize three months from now (e.g. “FO Workbook — Q2 2026 Release” rather than just “FO Workbook”).Add a SF Module tag if you know which module this workbook is for (Employee Central, Recruiting, Compensation, etc.). This helps the AI generate better scenarios later.
Upload dialog showing the Name field and the SF Module dropdown.
5
Click Upload
Click Upload at the bottom of the dialog. The dialog closes and you’ll see your workbook in the list with a Processing… badge.
Workbook list with the new workbook in 'Processing…' state.
You can leave this page and come back. Processing happens in the background — you’ll get a notification when it’s done.
6
Wait for parsing
For a typical workbook this takes 30 seconds to 3 minutes. For very large workbooks (50 MB, hundreds of sheets) it can take 10 minutes.When parsing is done the badge changes to Ready with a count of sheets, columns, and clarification questions.
Workbook list with parsing complete: 12 sheets, 247 columns, 3 questions.
7
Open the workbook to review what TestFactors found
Click the workbook name. You’ll land on the Workbook detail page with these tabs:
Sheets — every sheet with its classification, exclusion state, and a one-line summary
Questions — anything TestFactors is unsure about and would like you to confirm (almost always under 25 items)
Picklists — every picklist found across all sheets, with their codes and labels
Knowledge — extracted facts that will feed into AI scenario generation
Workbook detail page with the Sheets tab open, showing 12 sheets classified by type.
You’re done with the upload. Next, walk through the Questions tab (5 minutes) to confirm what TestFactors was unsure about — this dramatically improves the quality of every AI-generated scenario downstream.
The actual config the system reads. Source of test cases.
Yes
Dependent CSF
Config that depends on another sheet.
Yes
Picklists
Master list of dropdown values referenced elsewhere.
Used for validation, not standalone tests
Legend
Explains symbols/colors used in the workbook.
No
Table of Contents
Sheet index / navigation.
No
Boilerplate
Cover pages, instructions, change logs.
No
Boilerplate, Legend, and TOC sheets are automatically excluded from test generation — you don’t need to do anything. If TestFactors classified something incorrectly, you can flip it manually with the Include / Exclude toggle (see Excluding sheets below).
If your workbook uses iteration markers (columns titled “Iteration 1 Change”, “Iteration 2 Change”, etc., with X marks on affected rows), TestFactors detects them automatically. You’ll see iteration filter pills at the top of the sheet:
Iteration filter chips at the top of a sheet: I1 (12 rows) | I2 (3 rows) | I3 (0 rows).
Click a chip to filter the sheet to just that iteration. The AI will respect iteration scope when generating scenarios — so a scenario for an I2-only change won’t accidentally test I1 behavior.
Rows that are visually struck-through in the source workbook are flagged as Deprecated and dimmed in the UI. They’re kept visible (for audit) but excluded from test generation by default.
A sheet view with two rows shown in greyed-out, strikethrough style and a 'Deprecated' badge.
When parsing finishes, TestFactors may have 1–25 questions about your workbook. They’re not random — every question fired a smart filter that determined:
The system isn’t sure enough to silently assume one answer, and
Your answer will affect what tests get generated
Each question has a recommendation. In most cases you can read it, confirm, and move on in 10 seconds per question.
1
Open the Questions tab
Click Questions in the workbook detail page. You’ll see a list of pending clarifications grouped by priority (high / medium / low).
Questions tab with 7 pending clarifications, each showing the question, recommended answer, and confidence.
2
Read the question and the recommendation
Each question card shows:
The question in plain English (e.g. “Confirm strikethrough convention on sheet ‘Position Management Setting’”)
What TestFactors thinks the answer is (“We think this is: Deprecated — exclude from test cases”) with a confidence percentage
Why it thinks that — the evidence (“12 of 47 rows have strikethrough — typical deprecation pattern”)
A jump link to the relevant sheet or cell so you can verify
A single clarification card with the question, recommendation banner, multiple-choice options, and a free-text fallback.
3
Pick an answer
Most questions have multiple-choice options with the recommended one pre-selected. You have three ways to answer:
Accept the recommendation → click Submit without changing anything
Pick a different option → click another radio button, then Submit
Type your own answer → use the free-text box below the options (for “Other / specify…”)
4
Skip what you can't answer yet
Don’t know? Click Skip — the question stays pending and you can come back to it. Skipped questions don’t block test generation, but the AI may produce less accurate scenarios in that area until you answer.
It’s usually faster to skip questions you need to consult someone about, then batch them with a colleague rather than getting stuck on one.
5
Promote your answer to a rule (optional)
Some answers offer a “Apply this to future workbooks” checkbox. Tick it to create a rule — next time you upload a similar workbook, TestFactors will silently apply your answer without asking again.Rules can apply at workbook, project, client, or organization scope. Higher scope = wider reuse.
EC_FO_Workbook_Q2-2026_v3.xlsx is far more useful than Workbook(1).xlsx when you have 20 workbooks on a project.
Upload one workbook per module
Splitting Foundation Objects from Position Management from Transactions gives the AI cleaner context per module and faster parsing.
Answer questions early
Questions answered before scenario generation produce better tests. Questions answered later trigger silent re-generation of affected scenarios.
Promote stable answers to rules
For conventions that always apply at your organization (“strike-through always means deprecated”), promote to org-scope. Saves time on every future workbook.
Don't manually edit struck rows
Let TestFactors keep them visible as deprecated — you’ll need them for audit and for understanding what changed between releases.
Re-upload, don't edit in place
If your spec changes, upload a new version of the workbook (TestFactors versions them automatically). Don’t try to fix the old upload — the changes won’t propagate cleanly.
Sometimes a sheet that looks like config isn’t testable (e.g. a future-state mockup, a vendor’s internal worksheet, an empty placeholder). You can exclude it:
1
Open the Sheets tab
In the workbook detail page, click Sheets.
2
Find the sheet
Look for the sheet you want to exclude. Each row has an Include / Exclude toggle on the right.
Sheets list with each row showing the sheet name, classification, row count, and an Include/Exclude toggle.
3
Flip the toggle
Click Exclude. The sheet greys out in the list and is removed from scenario generation. You can re-include it any time with the same toggle.
4
Optional: exclude specific columns
Open the sheet, click the column header menu (⋮), and choose Exclude column. Useful when one column is internal notes or a parking lot for the SI team.
Sheet view with a column header menu open showing 'Exclude column' option.
When you upload a .xlsx with the same file name to the same project, TestFactors treats it as a new version of the existing workbook rather than a duplicate.
The previous version stays available (you can switch back if needed)
Scenarios and test cases linked to the prior version stay intact
Answered clarifications carry forward — you only see new questions
Excluded sheets remain excluded
Promoted rules apply automatically
This means your day-to-day rhythm during a release is: SI delivers v2 of the workbook → you upload it → review the (small) Questions list → re-generate scenarios for any newly added sheets only. Painless.
Workbook detail header with a version dropdown showing v1, v2 (current), v3.
Files over 50 MB are rejected. Usual cause: the workbook has many tabs or one tab with huge embedded data. Split it:
One workbook per SF module (Foundation Objects in one file, Position Management in another)
Or remove non-essential tabs (cover pages, change logs) and keep only the testable sheets
Processing is stuck on 'Parsing…' for over 30 minutes
First, refresh the page — sometimes the badge is stale. If it’s truly stuck:
Check the Questions tab — sometimes parsing finished but generated so many questions the UI is loading slowly
Try uploading again (the original processing job may have hit an error)
If it happens twice, contact your Admin with the workbook name and timestamp
A sheet is missing from the Sheets tab
Three possibilities:
The sheet is empty — TestFactors skips sheets with no data
The sheet is classified as TOC / Legend / Boilerplate — switch the Sheets tab filter to “Show all (including non-testable)”
The sheet was excluded — click “Show excluded” in the same filter
If none of those, refresh the workbook (⋮ → Re-parse). If it’s still missing, the source .xlsx may be corrupted — try re-saving in Excel and re-uploading.
TestFactors is asking me 20+ questions — that seems like a lot
A high question count usually means your workbook uses conventions TestFactors hasn’t learned from your organization yet. The good news: answer them once with “Apply this to future workbooks” at org scope, and the count will drop dramatically for the next upload.The questions are also capped at 25 per workbook — so 25 is the worst case, not the average.
A column or row shows up but it shouldn't be in scope
Use the per-sheet exclusion controls (see Excluding sheets or columns). Excluded items are kept visible but never feed into scenario generation.
The picklist values in a cell don't match my workbook
TestFactors links picklist cells to the master picklist sheet by code, external code, or option ID (case-insensitive). If a cell isn’t linking:
Check the picklist exists in your workbook (look in the Picklists tab of the workbook detail)
Check the code in the cell matches one of the codes in the picklist
If your workbook stores picklists in a non-standard sheet, ask your Admin to teach TestFactors about it (one-time configuration)
I uploaded the wrong file
Click the workbook row’s ⋮ → Delete workbook. Note: this also removes any scenarios, test cases, and defects generated from it. If you’ve already done significant work on it, consider re-uploading the correct file as a new version instead — that preserves everything.
