Go-Live Without Risk

Constantly changing customer requirements are forcing companies to adapt their business models and technology platforms. Enterprise Architecture Services are suitable for overcoming the associated challenges. With an approach tailored to the enterprise architecture and the right toolkit, digital transformation is made easier - for fast results and an equally fast market launch. A 360-degree workshop provides transparency about the necessary procedure, which takes a close look at all the important building blocks from business processes to architecture and quality assurance and provides the customer with a clear recommendation for action and procedure. In the first step, the overall vision is aligned with the strategic goals. In the second step, the current procedure is recorded - and how changes affect the target status. The third step involves developing a detailed recommendation for action and a roadmap for implementing the approach. Those who go through these steps in full can expect project and change runtimes to be accelerated by 80 percent and can be sure not to overburden their own organization in transformation and regression processes.

The equivalent of 40 kilometers of congestion due to an untested logistics module and around 48 million euros in losses due to a software error in the ERP system: a weak, faulty system can lead to significant operational disruptions and financial damage. Holistic testing tailored to the organization, from the definition of the scope to test execution and reporting, reduces these risks. This applies once again to complex, business-critical applications that need to be constantly adapted in a dynamic environment.

Focus on project quality

Testing not only ensures that all processes are checked in terms of risk assessment and auditability in particularly regulated industries. It must also meet the requirements of shortened release cycles and efficient resource and budget utilization. Testing should therefore be closely aligned with business architecture and process design to ensure successful implementation. It is important that the established test concepts, procedures and tools are sustainably integrated and practiced in order to ensure that the investment lasts beyond the project. Through thorough test planning, execution and monitoring, companies ensure high-performance, error-free solutions and therefore smooth processes. It is advisable to integrate test automation into the test strategy at an early stage. Automated testing significantly reduces manual effort. By comparison, manual testing during an S/4 transformation can mean an enormous runtime and therefore an interruption to the actual project. Test cycles of three to nine months are not uncommon, depending on the nature of the transformation and company structure.

If you then look at the newly created and recommended release cycles, this quickly leads to an overload of your own resources. In heterogeneously managed projects, projects that deal with the topic too late quickly end up spending several thousand project days on software testing during the transformation of their SAP landscape. With a look at well-consolidated E2E test strategies beyond the scope of the actual transformation project, up to 80 percent of the effort can be reduced with a well-designed automation strategy. Designed, budgeted and decided at the right time, you can avoid overloading your specialist and IT departments and prevent project delays. As a result, test automation in conjunction with well-documented, managed processes significantly accelerates projects, which in turn allows specialist departments and project teams to concentrate on strategic tasks. At the same time, resources can be used more effectively and the budget optimized. The internal research project AI4T found that testing using artificial intelligence can reduce financial and time investment by up to 75 percent, depending on the area of application. The scope, hit rate and relevance of documented test cases can be significantly increased with the help of self-learning systems. In addition, consistent and repeatable automated tests lead to fewer errors and ensure high software quality.

Achieving success with ISTQB and ISO 25001

Testing begins with a 360-degree transparency workshop in which weak points are identified and specific recommendations for action are determined. Optimization potentials can be derived quickly and implemented in the first phases. This is followed by a test strategy tailored to the customer and an individual concept that is successively implemented and rolled out. Based on standard procedures in accordance with ISTQB and ISO 25001 as well as many years of project experience, companies can develop their own best practice methods. The important thing here is to abandon the old silo mentality: Tests should not be carried out individually for each department and each use case, but with the entire company in mind. Test cases are then created for automated process validation. The aim of testing is to introduce optimized procedures into the IT landscape and implement test automation as an integral part of quality assurance.

The success factors can be summarized as follows: The decisive factor is a high level of transparency, which is achieved through a standardized test procedure based on a consistent concept. Equally important is a well-implemented test management procedure. Transparency about the status of the process architecture also contributes significantly to success. In addition, an end-to-end test strategy based on a well-maintained process architecture should be pursued. The standardization of a test toolchain - including validation if necessary - is also an important factor. Regular maturity assessments should be carried out to continuously evaluate the maturity level of the approach. A high level of automation helps to noticeably reduce the workload of the specialist departments. It is also essential to establish the understanding that testing is not a one-off project discipline, but a continuous process. After all, well-trained employees or a partner who knows the company processes are essential for sustainable success.

The authorization test

Authorization tests are a crucial part of increasing security and efficiency during testing. These are particularly challenging, as authorization structures are usually complex, sensitive data must be protected and legal requirements must be met. Even in integration tests, incorrect authorizations often lead to delays and waiting times, which jeopardizes the entire test planning and thus the go-live date. When searching for a suitable solution, the following should be taken into account in order to achieve considerable time savings in the key project phases: Firstly, there should be early prototyping of roles and definition of access points in the front and back end. Secondly, a professional role design is necessary - this means the rapid creation of roles by experts from the specialist departments as well as fast and simple administration of authorization development for the entire system landscape. Finally, testing should also be taken into account, with the simple creation of authorization requests and the implementation and tracking of authorization and integration tests.

Conclusion

Companies that give thought to this before a transformation and prescribe a project for process management, enterprise architecture and testing excellence will achieve a digital and platform-based transformation considerably faster, with higher quality and less workload in the specialist departments. Companies that have only paid attention to this in part or not at all are already reporting enormous problems and expenses and have had to deal with major project delays in some cases.

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