Hand-offs and owners

End-to-end tests rarely fail in the middle of a step. They fail at the hand-offs: the points where data and responsibility pass from one team to another. Each team tests its own step, everything passes, and then the first integrated run stops because the requisition MRP created has no source of supply, or the billing document cannot find a revenue account.

The hand-offs in the tour

From	To	What is handed over	Typical failure
Production planning (MRP)	Purchasing	Purchase requisitions for short components	No source of supply; requisition sits unassigned
Purchasing	Warehouse	Purchase order to receive against	Wrong plant or storage location on the PO
Warehouse	Accounts payable	Goods receipt to match the invoice	Receipt missing or late; invoice blocked
Production planning	Shop floor and warehouse	Released order with reservations	Order not released; components not staged
Production	Controlling	Order costs to settle	Order not completed; variances unexplained
Sales	Shipping	Order due for delivery	Shipping point or route not determined
Shipping	Billing	Delivery with goods issue posted	Goods issue not posted; billing due list empty
Billing	Finance (AR)	Billing document posted to accounting	Account determination error; posting block
Master data team	Everyone	Partners, products, prices, BOMs	Missing org-level views; expired validity

Hand-offs in the integrated tour and how they typically break.

Did the step create the document the next team needs?Yes → check its content · No → the sending step is incomplete
Does the document carry the data the next step uses (plant, partner, account assignment)?Yes → check the receiving team's settings · No → defect in the sending step or its master data
Can the receiving role find and process it with their own user ID?Yes → hand-off works · No → check worklists, authorizations and configuration on the receiving side

Diagnosing a failed hand-off.

Why hand-offs break

Hand-offs depend on settings owned by different people. The planner owns MRP settings, the buyer owns source lists, the finance team owns account determination, the master data team owns the views. When teams test in isolation, each uses data that suits its own step. Only an end-to-end run proves that the output of one team is valid input for the next. That is why integration testing exists as a separate phase, and why business process owners, not just IT, need to be in it.

Mapping each step to a sign-off owner

Step	Performs it	Signs it off
MRP and planned orders	Production planner	Plan-to-produce process owner
Purchase requisition and PO	Purchaser	Procurement process owner
Goods receipts (PO and production)	Warehouse clerk	Warehouse or inventory lead
Production order execution	Production supervisor and operators	Manufacturing process owner
Supplier invoice and payment	Accounts payable accountant	AP lead / controller
Sales order, delivery and billing	Sales rep, shipping specialist, billing clerk	Order-to-cash process owner
Incoming payment and clearing	Accounts receivable accountant	AR lead / controller
Settlement, inventory value and margin	Cost accountant	Controller

A simple RACI-style view: who performs and who signs off.

A hand-off defect log

When a hand-off fails, log it so both sides can act. A useful entry names the sending step and its document number, the receiving step and role, what the receiving role saw (an empty worklist, an error message, a missing field), and the expected behavior. Assign it to the sending team by default, because most hand-off failures are caused by incomplete or wrong output, and ask the receiving team to confirm the rerun. Over a test cycle, the hand-off log becomes the most useful map of where your process design is fragile.

Running the tour as a test

Use one set of master data through all three legs, as set up in lesson 1.
Run each step with the role that performs it in real life, not a super-user.
Record every document number and journal entry as you go.
At each hand-off, have the receiving role find the work in their own worklist or app.
Finish with the integrated finance checks from lesson 5.

What would you do?

Contoso's integrated test fails at billing: the billing due list is empty for the delivery, although the shipping team marked their test "passed" after creating the delivery. Who should own the fix and how should it be recorded?

Key points