- 20 December 2023
It’s no secret that SAP’s business solutions offer numerous ways for organizations to effectively manage their data. By implementing SAP, organizations experience streamlined business processes, improvements in productivity, and a faster time-to-market. The customizability of SAP applications also allows tailoring for project needs, which can especially come in handy when working within highly regulated industries such as government and health & life sciences.
With such a powerful system, it’s of no surprise that SAP implementation and maintenance can be a complex undertaking. To circumvent potential issues, many organizations switch to automated software testing. Utilizing test automation allows a more accurate and reliable way to test SAP landscapes. This helps organizations cut down on testing times, costs, and errors, thus creating a higher quality experience for end users.
Our team of test experts have gained years of experience working on enterprise-wise SAP engagements ranging from implementations, migrations, rollouts, and more. Through our joint expertise, we have been able to collate the following list of best practices for SAP Test Automation.
Prioritize Test Selection
The process of test selection plays a crucial role in achieving efficient and effective test automation. As the size of test suites increases, so does the effort, cost, and time needed to maintain it. This is even more true when testing complex applications such as SAP. We recommend that testing teams:
- Prioritize tests that provide comprehensive coverage while minimizing required time and effort
- Select tests based on the areas of the greatest risk and impact, and
- Devise precise, targeted test scripts specific to the change at hand.
Involve the Right Stakeholders
Make sure to involve all relevant stakeholders, including business users, analysts, developers, and testers, in the process of creating and maintaining test automation. Not only does this ensure well-rounded tests that cover all necessary business scenarios; testing teams are also equipped with a better understanding of project requirements and goals from inception.
Establish a Robust Test Data Strategy
SAP Test Automation projects often fail due to the absence of a well-devised Test Data Strategy. Test data requirements in SAP are intricate and are frequently accompanied by hidden dependencies. Set up a strategy that thoroughly considers such things as data requirements, data classification, available tools and technologies, and privacy regulations. It is also beneficial to include synthetic, queried, and static test data because each type of test addresses different scenarios and requirements.
Prioritize Quality Over Quantity in UI Tests
Organizations often focus on ramping up the numbers of automated test cases instead of enhancing risk coverage. This usually happens when manual test cases are directly converted into automated ones on a 1:1 basis. Instead, concentrate on creating high-quality, maintainable automated UI test cases, as opposed to merely increasing the quantity of test cases.
Maintainability of Test Scripts
Make sure your test scripts are easily maintainable. Write clear, modular, and well-documented code. This will make it easier to update test scripts as system requirements change. A few ways to ensure test script maintainability is to:
- Have a clear objective in mind
- Organize and structure the format of your test script
- Provide clear documentation that is easy to understand by other testers
- Involve team members who can help review your test script for areas of improvement
There are, of course, other ways to write code that can be easily understood and reproduced, but these are a few tips when starting out. It is also very important to regularly update and monitor test scripts as applications evolve. Since SAP regularly introduces new upgrades and features, test case maintenance is even more critical for long-term project success.
Automate Both End-to-End and Component Tests
Automated testing should encompass both end-to-end scenarios and individual component tests. End-to-end tests ensure overall system stability and functionality, while component tests verify the correct functioning of individual units. By combining these, you can achieve thorough coverage and enhanced reliability of the system under test.
Execute Tests Early and Regularly
Ensuring the robustness and maintainability of your test automation during development is crucial. Running tests early and often guarantees the reliability of your test automation when it's most needed.
While the above is not an exhaustive list of all SAP Test Automation best practices, we hope that it provides a strong foundation for your software testing projects. If you would like to learn more about quality engineering for SAP, download our eBook, A Quality Engineering Approach for SAP.