Let’s face it, software testing can be challenging – challenging enough that there’s an IT specialty dedicated to it. It’s also indispensible. If you choose to ignore it, here’s my advice: swim at your own risk.
Not that this comes as a surprise to most IT pros – but it’s worth talking about briefly as SAP customers make the transition to the SAP S4/HANA suite.
A different world
SAP S4/HANA is different. This time the suite of solutions offered by SAP are built natively on the SAP HANA platform. The focus is on core data structures that work better, faster, and more flexibly with streamlined applications that consume the data in memory. This is a different computing model – which requires a different approach to testing.
What’s more, SAP S4/HANA can run on-premise, in the cloud, or in hybrid environments. Hybrid is the most challenging because companies need to integrate cloud components with existing on-premise infrastructure while accommodating legacy customizations and third-party extensions. For cloud on the other hand, the testing challenges are greatly reduced – a major benefit of the cloud. But nevertheless, testing is required – and it’s different.
Add to this, the fact that SAP S4/HANA comes with a new set of test management tools that are designed to help you test faster and more effectively. This is good news, of course. I mean, who wants to be slower and less effective? But – am I repeating myself? – it’s different.
There’s nothing wrong with different, of course. It’s just that in IT, different takes some adjustment. Which is where Testing services for SAP solutions do it.
The goal is to not help you, but to enable you
With testing services from SAP, our goal is to not help you – at least not forever. Or to put it another way, when it comes to testing for SAP S4/HANA our aim is to help you become self-sufficient.
This is just the beginning with SAP S/4HANA. You’ll have plenty of time to do SAP S4/HANA testing over the years as SAP continues to innovate - or as new third-party applications and technology arises that extends the software. So, it’s important that you get familiar with the testing tools and approaches.
For the initial migration, however, we suggest using our services to help your testing team make the transition. A key part of these services is knowledge transfer. We’ll help you get rolling, but you’ll be taking over the reins soon enough.
SAP Activate
But what exactly is involved? Well, it all starts with the SAP Activate innovation adoption framework. SAP Activate combines best practices, guided implementation, and an overall methodology to transform the consumption experience for new SAP innovations.
- Best practices: Think of these as “ready-to-run business processes optimized for SAP S/4HANA that also cover the integration and migration fundamentals,” according to a blog by my colleague Bob Caswell.
- Guided configuration: Here, we work with you each step of the way as you configure SAP S/4 HANA to fit your needs. This collaborative process is also recorded, resulting in a configuration history that down the road can come in handy indeed.
In addition, with SAP Activate you also get a reference solution that can serve as your starting point model.
Specific services
You can access a wide range of services to help you meet almost any testing challenge. Some of the relevant services for your SAP S4/HANA implementation include:
- Test strategy assessment: This helps you set a baseline for where you stand, and offers suggestions for improvement such as test automation possibilities and accelerators to reduce test development cycle times.
- Strategic road mapping: Here we focus on application lifecycle management in the context of testing to help you guide your testing program moving forward.
- Solution-based testing services: Every testing project is different. These services are targeted at developing and running tests for the specific solutions you’re implementing – with experts from SAP who understand those solution better than anybody.
The confidence to go it alone
With most of these services, we use new testing software for SAP S4/HANA. If your team needs helps getting up to speed with this software, we can help with targeted training. Some companies do this, others learn by doing. Whatever the case, as you work with us to get your new test environment up and running, our goal is to increase your familiarity and comfort level both with the new tools available and the new approach to testing that is unique to SAP S4/HANA. Our aim is to help you go it alone, but we go at a pace that’s right for you. Because, in the end, the important thing is that you get testing right – so that you can speed testing cycles and drive down testing costs while increasing software quality overall.
