Is your enterprise relying on SAP systems? Then it is crucial to ensure smooth operations through updates, integrations, and daily operations. However, manual testing of these complex systems increases the time to market and the likelihood of human error. The solution? – SAP Test Automation, which enables prompt and more reliable testing, enabling your business to run seamlessly and deliver new value-added features without bottlenecks.

SAP customers precipitate 87% ($46 trillion) of global commerce, encompassing 99 of the 100 largest companies, ranging from energy companies to investment banks. While more organizations have begun to rely on SAP to manage their core business processes effectively, they are often highly customized and complex if not governed properly and tested thoroughly.

Here’s the complete, actionable roadmap to SAP test automation, which will help you enhance your testing phase and achieve optimal results.

Key Pillars of SAP Test Automation Modules

SAP test automation involves a process whereby you automatically conduct tests of your SAP software applications. That way, it ensures a fast and efficient manner that will get through all aspects of testing for an SAP application even before affecting its end-users. Ensure, therefore, to automatically SAP test with strategies targeted toward the core following items of automation:

• SAP Functional Testing: Functional testing ensures that all SAP workflows and transactions function as intended. SAP systems often run complex processes across multiple phases, making the testing important for validating end-to-end business flows.
• SAP Performance Testing: No matter how excellent your SAP systems’ functions are, poor performance under heavy pressure can severely impact your business operations. Performance testing will ensure that your SAP application can handle peak traffic without any crashing episodes.
• SAP Mobile Testing: As SAP apps become increasingly accessible on mobile devices, ensuring functionality across different devices and operation systems becomes inevitable. Mobile testing will validate the performance of your SAP app seamlessly on smartphones and tablets without compromising on user experience.

Proven Strategies for Successful SAP Test Automation

SAP test automation is a vast system and can encompass most major and minor processes in a business, from recruitment to supply chain management. Even the tiniest error can cause tantalizing failure across your system. Implementing the SAP test automation is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Each project and organization has varying requirements, constraints, and objectives. To maximize the benefits, it is essential to adapt to a proactive approach customized to your unique needs. Let us explore some of the proven strategies to follow to build a successful SAP test automation.

1. Adapt a Risk-Based Approach

Prioritise SAP test automation efforts based on the risk associated with each feature or component of your chosen application. In this way, you can focus on automating tests for crucial functionalities, high-risk areas, and frequently evolving components. This strategic approach will ensure that you gain maximum value from your test automation efforts while minimizing the risks of defects in the pain points.

2. Implement a Comprehensive Strategy for Test Methodology Improvement

Ensure that you define a strong test technique tailored to the SAP environment. You can characterize test sorts, including useful, integration, execution, security, and relapse testing. Decide on suitable test success plans to reach your goals for SAP testing, according to the modules used, the complexity of the framework, and the level of customization, to approve a solid basic structure.

• Test Case Design and Execution: Plan complete and thorough tests based on demonstrated needs and pictures of the scenarios. Mechanized testing devices can improve your long-term effectiveness, especially for repeated tests to guarantee comprehensive scope. Such robust mechanisms for generation, maintaining, and refreshing test data will ensure that your test has access to vital data while preserving privacy and security.
• Defect Management and Resolution: Implement a structured approach to managing defects identified during testing. Segregate, label, and arrange the important defects based on their complexity level. Establish a clear communication channel between testers and developers to ensure a quick resolution. You can also perform a comprehensive analysis to prevent the recurrence of such problems, ensuring the sturdy nature and strength of your SAP programs.

3. Ensure Code Maintainability

Best structure and maintainable test codes form the crux of guaranteeing sustainable and effective results from SAP Test Automation. Apply best-coding practices, such as modularity, reusing material where appropriate, and using mechanisms like version control, so that the test scripts remain readable, change-friendly, and extensible enough when the application grows to respond to new needs and accommodate new customers.

4. Move to Shift-Left Testing

Shift-left testing is an evolved testing approach that involves performing testing in the early phases and frequently throughout the project lifecycle. Most companies wait until development is complete to begin the SAP testing process. However, this often leads to delayed release cycles and defect-ridden products.

With the Shift-Left Testing approach, service virtualizations can be employed, and SAP regression testing can begin early in the lifecycle. Shorter feedback loops are an integral part of Shift-Left Testing, introducing agility and flexibility into the SDLC process. This approach helps in catching bugs quickly, fixes happen smoothly, and lessons learned in the first round can be implemented in the next round, reducing the chances of the same mistakes happening again.  

5. Integrate Testing with CI/CD Workflows

CI/CD methodology enhances delivery processes through automation, and CI/CD pipelines facilitate automatic testing, which minimizes the risk of human error during SAP software deployment. However, for SAP systems, testers will require specialized tools due to unique interfaces, like SAP GUI, SAP Fiori, and SAP Business Technology Platform.

Some SAP-compatible testing tools include SAP Solution Manager, Jenkins with SAP Plugin, ABAP Unit Tests, Worksoft Certify, and Tricentis Tosca. These tools can help to create testing scripts, and the CI/CD tools, like Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, or Azure DevOps, can trigger the scripts automatically as they are committed to the repository.

6. Simplify SAP Testing with Codeless Solutions

Codeless automation testing becomes a game-changer in the SAP environment, enabling you to design test scripts without the need for code. These tools often employ visual interfaces and drag-and-drop functionality to facilitate the testing process. It makes them user-friendly, especially for non-technical professionals, thereby enhancing collaboration with a unified platform for testers, developers, and business analysts.

7. Integrate Test Automation with SAP Solution Manager

Integration of SAP test automation with the SAP solution manager gives a robust framework to manage the testing process. This seamless integration will streamline your test management capabilities through open interfaces, test conditions, Scripts, and containers. With such integration, you can also enable automated alignment of RFC designations when exciting test cases based on the system role and logical component. It will further simplify the end-to-end testing process, reducing complexity and increasing the effectiveness of your resource planning.

Also, SAP test automation is an iterative process that requires continuous monitoring and improvements. Therefore, make sure to regularly review your test automation strategy, identify bottlenecks, measure performance, and make adjustments as needed. Such a culture of continuous learning and improvement will help you to stay ahead in the changing technologies and testing methodologies of SAP.

Challenges of Code-Based SAP Test Automation

Automating SAP tests offers a plethora of benefits, from better efficiency to amplified accuracy. However, not all testing tasks are simple for automation. SAP, being updated regularly from time to time, is easy to edit and maintain when you use a no-code tool. However, using a script-based testing tool will require your testers to write/update, and maintain the code every time there is a change in the system, making the process more complex and time-consuming. 

Here are some scenarios where you will face certain challenges by using code-based SAP test automation.

• Limited Scope: SAP testing tools like SAP TAO and eCATT have limited scope. For instance, if you choose eCATT, you will have access to all SAP layers, but you cannot automate the tests apart from UI and API.
• Scripted Testing: Most code-based SAP test automation tools provide a feature for testers to freestyle programs. However, the time and effort required to maintain and keep the automation process running will be expensive.
• Reusing Test Scripts: Using test scripts can get more complex when you have new employees onboard. With new people in the team, they prefer to build test scripts based on their preferences. Rather than modifying the script, creating new ones seems simple in such scenarios. However, most non-technical users hesitate to accept the change due to heavy workloads and a value-less approach.

Wrapping Up!

In general, SAP has evolved as the industry leader, being a full application suite controlling the very core of any business due to test automation for mastering the SAP application.

It is important for each individual to improve dedication over time. Proper application of effective test automation strategies and appropriate tools and frameworks improves the quality of software in an organization, reduces time to market, and offers a competitive advantage in today’s rapidly changing digital landscape.

At Qualizeal, we provide full SAP testing solutions that will be totally adapted to your business process to help your enterprise successfully realize optimum business operations. Let our team leverage innovative results and the fullest form of test automation to assure top software quality and robust reliability.