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A large number of business organizations use SAP applications to control their operations. This shows how ERP’s are becoming vital supports that enhance performance in most business processes.
However, the implementation of these systems is sometimes complicated. Different modules should be configured to deliver the required functionality.
For this reason, every SAP implementation requires some sort of testing. This tutorial covers a few things you should know about SAP testing.
Before going into deeper details about SAP testing, one should first have a basic understanding of how ERP software works. For testing purposes, it’s important to have a complete understanding of the features, functionalities, modules, and workflows in ERP systems.
These are the basic testing requirements, affirming the fact that it’s almost impossible to test SAP modules without proper knowledge.
What is SAP Software?
SAP software, commonly known as ERP, is a software package used to manage business processes. It is designed to integrate all business operations, including Finance, Accounting, Sales, Production, Logistics, Distribution, and Human Resources.
By executing all businesses processes in an SAP system, information can flow from one module to another without redundant data entry.
This not only enforces process, financial and legal controls but also facilitates effective use of resources.
In a nutshell, SAP software helps organizations manage their business processes efficiently while reducing operational costs. As such, enterprises that look forward to dominating the modern business space should invest in high-quality SAP education.
What is SAP Testing?
SAP testing refers to the approach used for testing ERP software. For every change you make when developing, customizing, or maintaining an SAP software, you should create test cases to check the new functionality. The generic SAP Software Testing approach can also be applied to ERP solutions from other vendors such as PeopleSoft and Oracle EBS.
Type of Testing Applicable to SAP Suite
There are different methods for testing the functionality of SAP systems. These include:
Unit Testing
This is a type of white box testing done to check the functionality of different units in the SAP system. It’s performed by skilled developers who understand the functionality of each component in the system.
SAP unit testing includes testing of workflows, interfaces, conversions, forms, reports, data transfer rules, and security authorizations within the system.
Integration Testing
Integration testing involves testing multiple components of an SAP system to ensure they function correctly when integrated. It’s done in the QA environment using realistic test data. The testing data is extracted from a real source, so business end-users are familiar with it.
SAP integration testing shows that business processes run using real-world data as configured in the SAP software. It also shows that workflows, interface triggers, and reports are working.
Regression Testing
SAP Regression Testing is performed to ensure that modifications made to the system do not affect the desired functionalities. Ideally, the key objective is to test how the system works with the newly added configuration. Performing a system upgrade, applying a patch, adding new interfaces, or altering the configurations of the SAP software can have significant effects. In most cases, regression testing is executed by skilled testers using different automation tools.
This ensures that the features introduced or enhancements made on the system do not affect the core business processes adversely.
Performance Testing
It’s the type of testing done to check whether the SAP system meets the required level of performance. The aim of executing ERP performance testing is to enhance the robustness of the SAP software.
This makes it easier to deploy systems that sustain a higher load forecast without performance issues. Briefly put, SAP performance testing encompasses critical aspects such as:
- Checking whether the system responds as per the organizational requirements.
- Checking whether the system can support the desired concurrent user load.
- Checking whether periodic processes are executed within permissible time.
- Identifying system bottlenecks resulting from coding inefficiencies, high transactions rate, or batch volumes.
Functional Testing
SAP applications are highly configurable systems that allow integration with third-party applications. Considering this level of complexity, SAP functional testing is imperative.
It checks the system to ensure the functionality of all modules meets the business requirements. It is usually done by skilled testers who review design documents and create test artifacts such as test cases, test scenario, and test requirements.
User Acceptance Testing
This is done to test whether the SAP system meets the end-user requirements. End users can only accept the application if it helps them perform the designated job functions.
As such, the most important aspect of user acceptance testing is to understand all business processes and ensure the desired features and functionalities are available.
Successful acceptance testing means that users can take ownership of the system and feel comfortable working around the new business environment.
Security Testing
This type of testing is performed to ensure the safety and integrity of SAP applications. System users should access appropriate data and execute transactions relevant to their domain.
In most cases, security testing is performed by a diverse team comprising of database administration, infrastructure, development, and testing experts.
They evaluate high-risk areas such as Network Security, Portal Security, Product Security, Operational Security, Source Code Audit, and Access Control, among other authorizations.
Wrap up
Testing complex pieces of software like SAP systems is a huge challenge. Failure to perform comprehensive tests exposes the system to a lot of risks, including inefficiency and potential system failure.
SAP automation testing is a better alternative to the manual testing process, which is time-consuming and requires a high-level of collaboration among experienced test professionals.
If you want to improve test coverage and product quality at large, consider automating the testing process or working with test professionals.
