SAP Testing: A Complete Guide

The full form of SAP is system applications and products. This SAP provides the customer with the ability to communicate with common corporate databases for a comprehensive range of applications. Also, the business process work is made efficient by it. Many organizations implement SAP ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to manage their business operations and adapt according to the challenges of the new market. SAP R/3 can be defined as an integrated ERP software that allows organizations to manage their business efficiently. The organizations can also be reducing the cost of running their operations by using SAP R/3 ERP packages.

SAP R/3 Modules

SAP R/3 also allows the customization for interacting with the different databases to run different applications with a user-friendly GUI. The SAP R/3 system has been divided into different models for covering the functionality of the different business operations taking place in an organization. Some of the most common SAP R/3 modules have been given below –

1. SAP material management.
2. SAP financial accounting and controlling.
3. SAP sales and distribution.
4. SAP human resource.
5. SAP supply chain management.
6. SAP plant management.
7. SAP testing tools are all about testing the functionality of all these models and ensuring that they perform as per the configuration.

An SAP system must undergo various changes like patch management and fixes, new module implementations, and various other configuration changes. A need for regression testing is raised by all these modifications, which have to be performed in SAP environments. We can use automation tools of SAP testing like SAP test acceleration and optimization tools for this purpose. SAP TAO can be defined as an automation tool for generating test cases for end-to-end scenarios for SAP applications. Apart from all of this, there are various other automation testing tools for SAP testing, such as HP QTP and ECATT, etc., which can be used.

Significance of SAP Testing

Here is a list of some reasons why SAP testing is conducted and why it is an essential function in the growth of an organization:

1. System Validation – SAP testing tools incorporate complete end-to-end testing and validating all the modules in the SAP ERP environment.

2. Quality and Revenue- SAP testing is output-based testing, and it is different from other conventional testing methods that are input-based. The quality of the SAP system is ensured, and the revenue and cost of the organization are taken into account.

3. Cost and Predictability – Reduction of self-development costs and improvement of predictability are involved in SAP testing.

4. Compliance Requirement – The SAP implementation is ensured to meet the new components requirements in a specific organization, and all the modules will be working as per the expected configuration.

5. New Implementation and Configuration Changes – Different types of changes are implemented in an SAP system like patches and fixes, new implementations, and configuration changes. Consequently, SAP testing guarantees that all the modules are performing as required in this dynamic system environment.

6. Integration –  SAP testing is conducted for testing various reports, data flows, and workflows. It is also used for checking system integration between different models. For instance, if we perform an order posting that needs action in sales and distribution, MM and FICO, then SAP testing will check the integration between these systems.

7. Performance – It is also used to ensure if the system can meet the service level agreements, time is taken for the system in performing specific actions, the performance of the system, etc.

How is SAP Testing More Lucrative than Other Testing Projects?

While testing any AUT,

1. The expertise we learn from AUT is profoundly practical. AUT’s impossible to assess without proper information
2. Hone your testing skills

Like every IT business, in due course, we will be going from one project to another. Any effort we have made to grasp the AUT features of the current project is obsolete. It usually refers to initiatives that translate into healthcare, such as telecommunications.

In SAP, the functional knowledge we acquire is portable and could be used in other projects. Assuming we’re moving jobs. In our old company, we were testing billing software for Vodafone. What is the likelihood that the current organization will have the same project? Nearly Zero. 

Taking this situation into consideration now. In a new business, we turn from SAP Testing to another SAP Testing project. The Interface, Transaction Codes, and vanilla business workflows are known automatically, which is a big help. We must learn the customizations of our users, but we do need a better understanding of the app. The main value of SAP Tester is that we can quickly become SAP Functional Expert because of the deep functional expertise. SAP consultants are in high demand and nearly always have short supply and premium pay.

What is Meant by SAP Implementation?

Think of this scenario: 12 annual leaves are being offered by company A. 20 annual leaves are being offered by company B. For any employee who uses 13th or 21st annual leave for company A and B, respectively, his or her salary must be deducted. This information is required to be configured into the SAP system, which is not anything but SAP implementation and configuration.

The SAP Vanilla version is very strong but is not very useful until it is customized and configured according to the company’s business policies, legal stipulations, and technical requirements. This entire process is known as SAP implementation. It could typically have taken a few months or even years.

What is SAP Customization?

The highest collection of a business process by far is with SAP. But at times, our internal company processes may not be accurately mapped by the readily available SAP business transactions. In this kind of case, the custom code is created using SAP. It involves the code changing for creating functionality that is not available through configuration. It is all nothing but customizations. SAP customization can also be done for the generation of custom reports, programs, or enhancements.

Conclusion

So, we’ve gained a brief insight into what is SAP testing? SAP can be defined as a human god system with eternal variations. It is neither feasible nor cost-effective for checking all possible variations and the combinations of test parameter inputs in the SAP testing tool system.

As stated in the example above, a tester could have verified the change in the last name, date of birth, address, pin code, city, state, country, permanent or temporary work, addresses, etc. A tester requires to adopt the strategies reducing the number of test cases without sacrificing coverage. Examples of this kind of strategy include boundary value analysis, equivalence partitioning, and orthogonal arrays.

Also read- Best SAP Testing Tools