You could also use eCATT and this could be transported&tested in Dev-QA-Prod stages too. IMHO you have more control using eCATT.
Both eCATT and LSMW are not really to be used in production. Did anyone tried external scripting tools like Innowera Process Runner? For HR you could have A LOT cases where scripting is needed and LSMW is IMHO the worst solution for this when it comes to end users. In emergency cases you could authorize eCATT for (senior) end users properly, however external GUI scripting tools could be a even better solution for this. Just do a search for GUI scripting.