SAP Automation Testing with HP's BPT

Agenda

• Challenges
• Organization Readiness
• Foundation
• Planning, Planning, Planning
• Business Process Testing Intro 
• High Cost of Maintenance
• Best Practices
• Data-Driven
• Test Data Management
• Business Process Testing Demos

Common Challenges

• Typical SAP tests are usually module specific and not end-to end.
• SAP knowledge is captured in silos (module), very few resources knows the entire end-to-end process.
• Substantial amount of  SAP upgrades, hot-packs and updates.
• Lack or poor Quality Assurance processes within the organization.
• Unclear, vague, poor and/or non-testable requirements. 
• Poorly documented or non-existent test cases.
• Lack of Data Management
• High maintenance cost due to poor or non-existent test automation design
• Inexperienced resources without
• Automation Testing. 
• Tool knowledge.
• Scripting knowledge.
• Technical knowledge.   

Organization Readiness

• Is your organization ready to automate?
• Do you have mature manual testing processes?
• Do you have the test automation knowledge to avoid growing pains?
• Do you have the skills to properly plan and automate your test cases?
• Do you know the automation tool well? (Undocumented and Advance Features)
• Do you have a test data baseline process?

Foundation

• Well-organized Manual Test Processes.
• Test Cases well documented
• Valid Test Data 
• Test Automation Strategy
• Test Automation Architecture and Design
• Resources with Test Automation Knowledge
• Resources with Advance Tool Knowledge
• Accessible Application Specialist (Business Knowledge)
• Test Data Management
• Dedicated team of Test Automation Specialists

Planning,Planning,Planning

Test Automation is a software development project, it is necessary to

• Prepare an Architecture solution
• Plan the best approach for the application under test
• Prepare a road map
• Identify technical challenges if any
• Train resources.
• Test Automation Strategy
• Test data management
• Test design patterns
• Standards and naming conventions
• Error handling and reporting.
• Test prioritization with Business Process Experts
• Test Automation Plan
• Development cycle process
• Resources & schedule
• Automate prioritized test suite

Business Process testing

HP – Business Process Testing

• Proven Technology
• Reduces maintenance compared to traditional automation
• Component level traceability
• High level of flexibility to deal with custom controls
• Run time parameterization
• Requires some level of recording
• No automatic change detection
• Test Automated testing tools available to test SAP environments provide several approaches;
• Traditional Record and Playback (1st Generation)
• Business Process Testing  (2nd Generation)

• Business Process Testing Requires 
• HP - Quality Center
• HP - QuickTest Professional
• Gives the possibility within Quality Center to
• Separate the scripting task from the test case preparation task
• Easily create test scripts using reusable test components
• Manage the test data
• Manage the test flow
• Maintain either manual or automated components

Business Process Testing-Approach

High Cost of Maintenance

• Minimize maintenance cost
• High reusability with data-driven test components
• Minimize scripting logic with efficient test component design
• Self-contained test cases for easier test management
• Function / Methods Library development for high reusability
• Reduce needed skills with task segregation
• Business Process Experts – Test Case Level
• Test Component Developers – Test Component Level

Best Practices

• Reusable Components – Encapsulated steps that can be reused
• Component Granularity – The right size of the component. Should it be a screen, form, header, tab, etc?
• Data-Driven Component – Components that can accept different input data
• Function Libraries – Visual Basic Libraries containing reusable functions and methods
• Business Component – A keyword driven component 
• Scripted Component – A event driven component with the flexibility write coded and logic
• Business Flows – A collection of several components that represent a specific flow of events
• Test Data Management - A process to manage test data
• Data Baseline – A data starting point . A specific state that data has to be set at
• Naming Convention Standards – Standards for coding, parameters, messages and error handling
• Advance Error Handling – The ability to handle known and unknown errors to provide real unattended execution
• Automation Team- Dedicated team for automation

Data-Driven

An Automated Test Script should process a transaction flow based on the input test data

• Reduce maintenance by separating the test from the data
• Execute several transaction flow scenarios by feeding data to the same test case
• One Test Case satisfies multiple transaction flows

Test Data Management

A successful Test Automation needs a well organized test data management process

• An Efficient Test Data Management process benefits manual and automated testing
• Test Data needs to be included in the test automation design and architecture (Data Baselining)
• Invalid Test Data accounts for more than 70% failures in automated testing runs (GIGO effect)
• Obtaining and/or creating test data can take between 20% to 50% of the testing effort

Conclusion

• Business Process Testing 
• Substantially reduces maintenance  
• Provides modularity and reusability
• Captures business knowledge
• Provides data-driven testing
• Technology is been around since 2004
• Accelerates Test Creation when components are available
• Can be used by Business Analyst or Functional Analyst to compose tests
• Is embedded in a test management solution, Quality Center

Contact Information

• Ganesh.B
• Senior Testing Engineer
• Mobile:+91-8106488863
• Email:ganeshb@onlinesaptesting.com

Please feel free to mail us for demo session or call @ +91-8106488863