What are the popular SAP Testing Tools and how to leverage them?

SAP, a German-origin MNC has risen to become the world’s single leading provider of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) business application software. A 2020 Report comprehensively shows that SAP ERP applications have a singular majority of the market share and are predicted to reach a valuation of 100.7 Billion USD by 2025, boosted by a CAGR of 1.1%.

Given the popularity of its usage, the complexity of its modules, and the sheer diversity of its third-party collaborations, SAP testing is both extremely vital and extremely tricky to perfect.

A single undetected bug can often wreak havoc, as in the case of the National Grid in the US, where a bug was left unresolved due to launch pressures. This came to haunt them later in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy when payments were completely derailed, leading to incorrect paychecks, employees being underpaid, and vendor invoices being unprocessed. 

This example serves as a stern reminder to use the optimal set of SAP Testing tools in order to avoid astronomical losses in money and reputation due to unresolved bugs in the system.

How To Identify the Right Testing Tool

All business challenges are unique. There are no silver bullets in the testing world, and no one size fits all. Identifying the right tool for the challenge is critical as it shapes the long and short-term success of the project. 

Some basic questions to address in this case are:

• What does the Business Case-  Testing Tool fit look like?

The SAP environment can support several tools like Panaya, Sol Man, ALM, QTP, Selenium, etc. Given the plethora of options, it is important to understand why each tool fits the business purpose or otherwise.

Each tool usually has a niche where they are best used. For example, ALM is a complete release management tool, so it can help organize requirements and map them to test results. Panaya, on the other hand, allows for record and replay and some advanced scripting facilities.

• What technologies are being used, and what tools can be supported with such?

Most testing tools available today offer scripting solutions based on OOP Concepts. They read an object’s characteristics and perform various options based on those parameters, for example, filing a text field. However, each tool uses a different technology stack to accomplish this mission. QTP and Panaya use VB Scripting, whereas OFTest uses Jython.

It depends not only on which tool is best suited for the task but also on which is the best fit to the technology stack used and the competency of the QA team personnel.

• What Pros and Cons does a review of similar tools bring forth?

As there are many tools with competing feature sets and similar functionalities, it is important to do a thorough analysis of the pros and cons of each before making a choice.

In such cases, it is important to use a comprehensive framework as the PUGH MAtrix mentioned below, which compares tools based on a predefined set of criteria to help make the optimum choice.

PUGH Matrix for tools comparison

• Finally, what are the licensing and maintenance costs of such tools?

The ultimate litmus test for any automation tool is its ability to provide an optimal ROI. The tool should be able to provide the maximum benefits in as few cycles as possible. Cost is a driving factor for most enterprises and should be considered both in terms of the initial license as well as the charges subsequently incurred for upgrades, add-ons, and maintenance.

Some Popular SAP Testing Tools

1.Worksoft 

Worksoft provides one of the most popular continuous test automation tools available in the market. Chosen by SAP themselves to test their applications, it has become the “gold standard” for SAP testing. 

It provides organizations seeking a mix of Agile and DevOps solutions with End to End testing capabilities for SAP and Non-SAP applications. It covers the entire suite of testing types from unit to regression testing.

Main Advantages 

• Proven success in enhancing customer experience across several global organizations.
• Offers complete test coverage of the entire SAP family of applications.
• Supports Agile and DevOps practices.
• Provides standalone discovery and documentation ability with advanced object recognition capabilities for SAP Fiori.
• Allows integrations with other tools, ALM components, and DevOps tools as well.

2. Right Data

Right Data, a self-service SAP data test tool, offers businesses a platform for a one-stop solution for data QA, data QC processes, and migration testing. 

This allows users to easily complete data verification and validation tests in a no-code scenario. Especially for SAP S/4 HANA migration, Right Data allows a convenient platform for all data test, validation, and reconciliation activities which makes it especially useful for Integration and Regression tests.

Main Advantages

• Allows connection to SAP data sources and validates data between different modules.
• Reports data exceptions.
• Allows for Functional as well as Technical Data Reconciliation tasks.
• Allows Business Rule Validation with the Scenario Builder feature.

3. Testimony 

Basis Technologies’ SAP testing product Testimony has re-invented SAP Regression testing. As a part of a larger platform geared towards providing a specific DevOps and test automation platform for SAP Software, it negates the need for test script generation and maintenance.

Its bespoke Robotic Test Automation technology directly creates and updates the complete test regression library that takes into account all the day-to-day business activities possible. 

It is great for shift left and allows the creation of detailed regression tests even before the QA stage is reached to ensure reliable, agile delivery of products.

Main Advantages

• It can be used to significantly speed up regression test creation and execution with its bespoke robotic test technology.
• It is a key part of DevOps for SAP due to its continuous automated testing and the shift left testing approach for regression testing.
• Can run system-wide tests in the span of a few days.

4. eCATT

eCATT (extended Computer Aided Test Tool) is a tool created by SAP to perform automated testing of business scenarios for SAP R/3. It generates a detailed log with test processes and results for each of the tests executed and will highlight any errors.

This has the advantage of improving Requirements Coverage for automated test coverage as any scenarios without errors in the tool can be said to have passed successfully. 

Main Advantages

• It is created by SAP and hence offers full compatibility with all SAP applications.
• It can be used for web app testing as well as R/3 transactions.
• It can be used to set up the customization and master data required for the process to be tested. This saves the manual effort required to do so.

5. Selenium

Selenium is one of the best open-source web testing frameworks out there in the market, which has its uses for SAP automation as well. However, Selenium is not useful for testing desktop-based SAP applications. Together with a framework like TestNG, Selenium can perform functional tests for SAP Web Applications. 

Main Advantages

• It is free and popular. Selenium is currently one of the most popular web app test frameworks out there in the market. Most of the workforce has some degree of competency in Selenium and should be immediately available to test SAP web applications with it.
• Selenium testing for SAP is not bound to just web portals or WDJ applications. Anything that has an HTML-based UI can be tested with it.

During Test Automation, it is always recommended to test on real devices and browsers for more accurate test results as it takes real user conditions into account while testing. BrowserStack gives access to a Cloud Selenium Grid of 3000+ real devices and browsers and provides instant access to real Android & iOS devices for testing. 

6. JMeter 

Now that we have delved into the functional, integration/migration, data testing, and regression testing tools for SAP – it is important to know about suitable performance testing tools as well.

JMeter by Apache is a widely-used free tool that allows load as well as stress tests for static and dynamic resources.

It is currently being widely used for performance and load tests for SAP Business Intelligence applications and can be integrated with Blazemeter to test SAP Commerce applications as well.

Major Advantages 

• Fit to use without much programming knowledge due to its user-friendly GUI and CLI capabilities
• Integrations are possible with DevOps tools like Jenkins and reporting tools as well
• Features like Thread group helps monitor software performance.
• Allows for a range of activities like API testing, Database testing, MQ testing, etc.

To Sum Up

Selecting the “right” tool to test SAP applications is no easy task, and it requires expertise, effort, and proper test strategy. However, there is no silver bullet, and the business requirements, cost, skillset available, and benefits obtained have to be considered before selecting a tool that fits your needs.

Regardless of the tool chosen, it is important to test your application on a real device cloud to ensure accurate functional and performance test results on different device-browser-OS combinations.

BrowserStack allows integrations with various popular tools and frameworks and supports all your cloud-based cross-browser test needs.

Run SAP Tests on BrowserStack for free