Hello All,

Hope you are well and enjoying the lovely summer weather ( in northern hemisphere at least) ,  I wanted to write a follow up from the previous blog which was a very short introduction on SAP S/4HANA Public cloud.

https://blogs.sap.com/2023/05/11/sap-s-4hana-public-cloud-blog-series-article-1/

Now in the second blog we would like to look at what I personally feel is one of the most coolest feature of public cloud, ” The Test Automation tool”. I would like to give a brief overview and walkthrough of the tool and explain a bit more as part of this blog.

OK why do we need one?

Recently I was listening to a podcast on SAP expert-Alexander Greb , link below

https://podcast.opensap.info/sap-experts/2022/05/23/episode-111-reunion-episode-role-of-partners-in-successful-digital-transformations-alexander-greb/

And in between the podcast he makes a very profound statement – ” Digital transformation should enable organization to do something they have not been able to do in past”, which I thought was really helpful in term of defining the Why.

Coming back to our topic, testing is a key component in any S/4HANA project – unit, integration & UAT and regression testing during the roll outs. Many times we use tools like Quick test professional, or recently Tricentis etc.

But in public cloud version, as your process are standard ( most likely), you should explore SAP’s own offering- Test Automation tool and this will help move to S/4HANA faster and with good safeguards. We all have been part of projects where we almost run the design and process walkthrough again for the change and testing team and there are always gaps and things falling out of basket.

So how does the tool look like?

You need a public cloud instance  and role- Business role required for access – SAP_BR_ADMIN_TEST_AUTOMATION and you get below set of tiles:-

List of applications

The key function of the tiles at high level:-

• Manage your Test processes – Involves using Standard test scripts and / or preparing Custom test scripts across various business functions.
• Test your processes – Involves preparing the test plan and data to execute and analyze test results
• Analyze Automated Test results – Dashboard to view test results and exportable logs captured in the system
• Test Data Container (TDC) – Centralized repository of all test data variants to be used for testing
• Manage Post Upgrade Tests (PUT) – Test processes targeted to test system upgrades

Ok, carry on then

scope items

Now notice the scope items and the standard process steps that you would want to test. I think this is where the cloud solution shines, you use the standard process provided and you then have the same process as basis to test during various cycles and upgrades etc.

I remember facing so many challenges during an on premise S/4HANA upgrade and having to ensure we have coverage of key processes.

List fields of the process and create variations / scenarios

After the process you get various key fields in the process and here you can define the values to test various scenarios and end to end flows or a simple unit or string test.

Steps are available for manual test

You have test steps and ability to do manual testing if needed

Ability to bypass steps if needed

And you can bypass certain steps etc. this helps to create end to end cycle too.

You can also use the Testing tool to perform integration testing where other application data can be used and processed in S/4HANA, in the api testing, I have tried to add some good blogs for reference.

There are other excellent blogs:-

Overview:-

https://blogs.sap.com/2022/12/29/tips-to-make-efficient-use-of-test-automation-tool-in-s-4-hana-public-cloud/

Test automation

https://blogs.sap.com/2021/09/07/sap-s-4hana-cloud-test-automation/

API testing

https://blogs.sap.com/2021/09/12/api-automation-using-sap-s-4-hana-test-automation-tool/

Use of test data container

https://blogs.sap.com/2022/04/28/sap-s-4hana-cloud-test-automation-tool-test-data-container-features/

Fiori app library:-

https://fioriappslibrary.hana.ondemand.com/sap/fix/externalViewer/#/detail/Apps(‘F5023’)/S30

Summary

If you are working on a public cloud S/4HANA implementation ( consultant, architect, client no matter the role), you should consider using the test automation tool.

It is available off the shelf and can add value to you implementation, and to go back to Digitization question, it will help you have a ready to use testing for your implementation and  roll outs and save a lot of time and effort for your team.

Regards

Rishab