Accelerating the journey to S/4 HANA

For nearly every SAP customer, the journey to S/4HANA is no longer a question of if, but when. With the 2027 deadline for mainstream ECC support fast approaching, organisations across industries are under pressure to migrate while managing risk, cost, and complexity. Whether you're just starting or well into the process, one thing is clear: a strong quality assurance strategy is essential to deliver a smooth, timely, and successful transition.

From Hesitation to Opportunity: Why S/4HANA Migration Feels Risky—But Pays Off

A quick look at SAP user groups around the world reveals that many SAP users have decidedly mixed feelings about the migration process, mainly due to the time, effort, and risk of such a complex undertaking. Over the years, many organisations have added custom code to their SAP instances and now face the daunting task of reviewing or rewriting these additions when they move from an on-premise implementation to the cloud.

However, many also feel optimistic about the transformation, as the migration brings an array of benefits. For starters, it provides companies with the opportunity to come clean with all these customisations. In reality, many of these bespoke additions are no longer in use and might as well be left behind.

Of course, S/4 HANA itself also brings a host of advantages: the in-memory database offers real-time analytics, improved performance and enhanced capabilities. A modern and intuitive user interface boosts productivity by optimising the user experience. S/4 HANA comes with advanced capabilities such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and Internet of Things, offering businesses the potential to innovate faster. And by using the migration as an opportunity to review and simplify business processes, organisations will be able to operate with greater agility.

How to Accelerate Your SAP ECC to S/4HANA Migration

Migrating from ECC to S/4HANA is a complex, resource-intensive initiative, but delaying it can create even greater risks and costs. Fortunately, with the right strategy and tools, you can streamline your S/4HANA migration, reduce disruptions, and realise value faster. Here are seven proven ways to accelerate your SAP transformation with confidence.

1. Build an integrated plan

If it is true that Abraham Lincoln once said "Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe," he would make the perfect project manager for an S/4 HANA migration. Preparation is everything when it comes to such a huge undertaking, and sometimes you may want to invest some time first and start slower – enabling you to move faster afterwards. So start by thinking about the aim of the migration, how will it support the strategic goals of the company? What are the most important business processes? Ensure you have all these answers when you build a plan. And only move forward once the integrated plan has been approved by all the stakeholders. 

2. Involve the business, early on

An SAP implementation is there to support the business and all the business-critical processes inside an organisation. Sooner or later, the migration will appear on the agenda of the business leaders in that organisation. By involving them from the start, you can build critical alignment between business and IT, and avoid rework because senior management does not agree with the path that you are taking. By involving business from the start, you will get their buy-in and you will save valuable time.

3. Shift left and move faster

Traditionally, much of the quality assurance process comes late in the project, and the people who get to use the system will only be confronted with it at the very last moment, when User Acceptance Testing is scheduled. For a couple of years already, it has become best practice to start testing early on, a practice that has been dubbed ‘shift-left’ testing. The advantages of testing early are manifold: it will help you detect defects earlier, eliminating rework and driving down costs. At the same time, by moving UAT forward, you will increase user confidence. This helps reduce resistance to change and thus is a crucial asset for change management. One of the most effective ways to enable shift-left testing is by conducting a comprehensive Quality Maturity Assessment, which helps identify gaps, align teams, and lay the foundation for earlier, more efficient quality practices.

4. Automate your testing

Migrating all applications, all data, all interfaces, all integrations… is a mammoth undertaking and there is simply no way that you can perform all quality assurance tasks by manual testing alone. Both TTC and SAP recommend automating the testing process, either by using Tricentis Test Automation (TTA) which is part of SAP Enterprise Support, or by investing in SAP Enterprise Continuous Testing (ECT) by Tricentis, which offers more functionality than TTA and also supports non-SAP technologies. These tools come recommended by SAP (ECT is part of SAP’s Solution Extension portfolio) but, of course, customers are free to choose any other solution, including open source tools. Test automation reduces testing cost and time and guarantees faster feedback cycles, while also offering more scalability, maximising test coverage and allowing more test case reuse. In my experience, the more mature a quality assurance department is, the more they use test automation.

5. Start with the end in mind

When you build your integrated plan, you know that assuring the quality of S/4 HANA does not stop after the migration. There are sure to be changes because the business requires them, or because new projects are started. This means you will also need to set up regression tests to ensure these changes have no impact on other parts of the application. Besides these business-driven changes, organisations will also receive regular maintenance updates and upgrades that also require immediate testing. By taking this into account early in the process, this will save you valuable time in the long run.

6. Don’t test too much

This may seem like a counterintuitive thing for a testing consultancy to say, but there is no need to test everything all the time. Of course, you will continually test your key business workflows, for instance your month-end, quarter-end, or year-end closing. These need to be part of your regression test pack. But there are less important processes that do not require constant testing. Of the thousand tests in your regression pack, there may be 20 tests that are crucial and 980 that do not require daily attention. Using a tool like Tricentis LiveCompare (called Change Impact Analysis in the SAP catalog) helps you decide what areas in S/4 HANA may be most at risk and merit testing efforts the most.

7. Get an experienced, independent, impartial view

S/4HANA migrations are complex, both technically and organizationally. The human dynamics, stakeholder alignment, and change management challenges can be just as critical as system configurations. With so much at stake, a misstep can have significant business consequences, making it essential to get it right the first time. And this is where a specialized and independent software testing consultancy like TTC Global comes in. We have years of experience with SAP, having completed well over 250 SAP projects and initiatives, including many S/4 HANA migrations, around the world and across industries. We are also one of the world’s top experts with the Tricentis tools that SAP favors (we’ve won over 18 Tricentis partner awards, including Best Global Implementation partner). We offer a detailed S/4 Quality Engineering Readiness Assessment and the TTC SAP Accelerator Pack; the former ensures your organization is prepared for a successful S/4 HANA migraton and the latter is an engineered solution that integrates Tricentis tools with automated test case generation, risk-based impact analysis, and regression suite optimization. Our SAP Accelerator Pack enables faster validation cycles, improves change resilience, and supports continuous delivery throughout your S/4 HANA migration lifecycle. 

Our focus is singular: delivering exceptional quality assurance and improving the quality of software for our global customers. As an independent expert, TTC Global acts as a bridge between business and IT, fluent in the language of both and trusted to align diverse stakeholder priorities. We don’t just collaborate with your internal teams; we work seamlessly alongside your third-party partners to drive cohesion and accountability. Engaging us early ensures your migration plan is grounded in proven best practices, drawn from hundreds of successful SAP transformation projects around the globe.

Ready to accelerate your path to S/4HANA with confidence? Partner with TTC Global to reduce risk, improve quality, and unlock the full potential of your SAP transformation. Contact us to schedule a no-cost consultation.