How to create a SAP Test Case

Lets design a test case to change the Name of an employee in SAP system
To create an effective test case, you must

Determine SAP role required to execute the test case

Identify the SAP transaction that needs to be executed for the test case
Test Data required executing the test case. Determine whether the data
needs to be created or whether it used by another tester or whether the data
is locked & cannot be modified.

Any Pre-requisites

Peer review Test cases

Create positive as well negative scenarios

Create detailed Test Steps.

Test coverage should be robust

Document defects in timely manner which is as soon as they are

discovered.
Refer this video, for a guideline on how to change SAP Infotype

The test case designed for this is as follows -

Important Note
SAP is a humungous system with endless variations. Its neither feasible nor
cost-effective to check all possible variations and combinations of test
parameter inputs in SAP system.
As in above example , a tester could have verified change in Last Name, Date of
Birth, Address, Pin Code, City , State, Country, change in permanent ,
temporary, work address etc.
A Tester needs to adopt strategies reduce the number of test cases without
sacrificing coverage. Examples of such strategies include boundary value
analysis, equivalence partitioning & orthogonal arrays.

Automated Testing of SAP Applications

Testing is a huge challenge for colossal system like SAP. As per recent study by
ASUG, Over 86% customers are concerned about risks due to lack of
comprehensive testing.

Automation has following benefits for SAP applications

1.
2.

3.

The chief and most valuable benefit is improved test coverage

Better product quality and therefore less production outages. Outages in
SAP productions environments could cost a company millions!
Workload decreases with each release cycle

Automation Tools
The methodology and approaches are more important than the chosen test
tool. When you think about testing SAP application, some tools comes in mind
naturally like SAP TAO, eCATT, QTP etc.

ECATT ( Extended Computer Aided Test Tool)

ECATT is used to create and execute functional tests for SAP. ECATT is an in-built
tool that comes bundled with SAP with a primary objective of automated testing
of SAP business processes.
ECATT useful features
1.

Test transactions, reports and scenarios

2.

Call BAPIs and function modules

3.

Test remote systems

4.

Check Authorizations (user profiles)

5.

Test updates

6.

Test the effect of changes to customizing settings

7.

Check system messages

QTP ( Quick Test Professional Tool)

HPs QuickTest is a keyword driven automation tool. It supports many
environments including SAP. The tool is robust, feature rich and user-friendly.
Its market leader in automation tool commanding major market share. Its a
commercial tool with excellent vendor support. Its a tool of choice for SAP
automation.

SAP TAO
SAP released the automation tool SAP TAO in collaboration with Focus
Frame(now acquired by Hexaware).
SAP TAO wraps up QTP and QC where QTP acts as execution engine and test
scenarios are created and driven from QC through business components. SAP
TAO automates generation of test components for end to end scenarios. SAP
TAO and HPQC setup do have some benefits compare to other testing tool there
is a huge corporate support for both HP and SAP software products.

SAP TAO client application performs three functions, inspecting transactions

from a SAP server, exporting the transactions to HP Quality Center and
consolidating components or scripts from HP Quality Center.

Performance Testing of SAP Application

Performance testing of SAP applications is done to check its speed, scalability
and stability. Performance Testing SAP helps with

Conform with service-level agreements (SLAs).

Optimize software configuration settings.
Reduce overspending on hardware
Certify that the system will not crash or fail during seasonal high load and
help avoid corresponding financiallosses.

Events that Trigger Performance Test

Choice of Performance testing tool for SAP depends on the underlying SAP
application being tested. Below is a list of SAP performance test tools and their
application areas
1.

Open source/ Free

2.

Jmeter - (Performance Test SAP Business Obects BI Platform)

Open STA (Performance Test SAP Portals)
Commercial

Load Runner (Performance Test SAP ECC amongst other SAP applications)
recommended by SAP
IBM Rational Robot (Can test wide variety of SAP applications)

Conclusion
SAP testing offers tremendous career opportunities for QA enthusiasts. Its a
relatively easy way to break into the highly regarded SAP Consultant arena.