Secret of success of an S/4 implementation

If you want to take full advantage of S/4 Hana's capabilities, you have to test from day one - and you shouldn't stop there. Automated test platforms help IT to efficiently master this necessary quality management process.

Quality testing right from the start? Admittedly, quality testing right from the start is still not standard practice in many IT departments. This should change, not least because S/4 is a system that will continue to develop ever faster in the course of digitization. Those who let their systems slide in the face of this dynamic run the risk of lagging behind the new developments - and thus becoming the bottleneck of the digital transformation.

This is comparable to app development for iOS: If you don't bring your apps up to Apple's release cycles, they will quickly become unattractive to users - and will be deleted from the iPhone sooner rather than later. But there is a recipe for success, and that is to continuously test the quality of the systems right from the start - just as it is customary in almost every other industry.

Even a baker tests his flour delivery before he bakes breads with it, otherwise he runs the risk that his entire batch will fail. In the world of IT, this is a bit more complicated and time-consuming. In order to avoid having to restart this effort at every step, it is highly recommended to automate quality assurance as far as possible.

Error-free with S/4 QA

Cognizant specializes in implementing and operating agile and highly automated test platforms for S/4 Hana. Cognizant's approach is to perform quality assurance activities in all project phases and let them build on each other. Similar to product manufacturing, the quality of each component is checked before integration into the finished product.

This procedure offers two decisive advantages: On the one hand, the progress of the project can be controlled by setting a successful acceptance at the end of each development step. Secondly, errors are found at the earliest possible stage - before they smolder in the system and cause ever greater consequential damage.

The procedure therefore saves costs, but above all time. The relevant key points of the procedure are briefly outlined below. First, it is important to be clear about which quality requirements successful S/4 Hana test platforms must address in the first place. Here is a list of the most important ones:

Agile testing: S/4 is being introduced to meet the dynamics of digital business processes. The necessary testing activities must also be designed to be correspondingly agile. Taming complexity with virtualization: Complex application landscapes lead to complex business process chains. These must be decoupled in the test using virtualization techniques.

Plan for industry requirements: Tests must be carried out and documented according to the norms and standards applicable in the respective industry.

Provide test data and consider non-functional characteristics: Tools and methods for providing test data must be in place. In addition, non-functional quality characteristics such as resilience, performance and security must be tested.

End User Experience Testing: End-user testing must be supported, and compliance with the SAP Fiori Design Guidelines must be checked in an automated way.

Test interfaces: Third-party systems must be decoupled by virtualizing the interfaces.

Just like development, testing takes place in phases, which in turn are based on the SAP Activate method. The linchpin here is best practices and standardized processes so that the customer can deploy his system as quickly as possible. In the Prepare phase, the business processes are analyzed and the QA processes defined, among other things.

In phase two (Explore), the reusable assets are adapted to the implementation specifications as far as necessary. In phase three, various test scenarios are executed and evaluated automatically. In the final Deploy phase, automated regression tests are performed, with the scope of testing being based on the changes made.

To accelerate the deployment of the test platform for automated test execution across these four phases, Cognizant has developed six artifacts. These can be adapted to the project-specific situation.

Framework

Impact Based QA Framework: Cost-benefit optimization is one of the biggest challenges in testing. Not more, but also not less should be tested than necessary. With the help of the BPCA function of the Solution Manager and the Tricentis Livecompare component, Cognizant has created a framework that automatically analyzes changes and makes a proposal for the test cases to be executed based on the result.

Automation

Business Process Automation: Automation is the key to efficient testing in an agile application world. Cognizant uses Tricentis TOSCA for this purpose. The test cases selected in the impact analysis are automatically executed and the results automatically evaluated. The goal is to completely automate the tests so that manual intervention is only required in the event of deviations from the target results.

Data Extractor

Test Data Extractor: Test data is a prerequisite for successful test automation. The Extractor is a tool to create a complete synthetic test data structure based on existing production data. In this way, we obtain a test data environment that is GDBP compliant and meets the requirements for complete test automation.

Reusable repository

Cognizant SAP S/4 Hana Reusable Repository: To accelerate testing activities, Cognizant has created a test scenario collection for the individual S/4 systems. These E2E scenarios are based on the standard processes and are already fully automated.

Cloud Assurance

Cloud Assurance Packs: Cognizant has predefined automated test case packages for SAP cloud solutions such as SuccessFactors, Concur, Hybris and Ariba. Test automation is performed using the Tricentis Tool Suite for SAP. The necessary test data sets are adapted to the local installation before the tests can be executed.

S/4 Handbook

S/4 QA Handbook: The QA Handbook has been specially adapted for the S/4 Hana implementation and contains all the artifacts and process descriptions needed for successful quality assurance. This includes business process overviews with the corresponding quality gates, QA workflows, templates for test plans, test reports, etc., as well as guidelines and checklists. By implementing the S/4 Hana testing platform, IT can achieve important goals that are essential in the course of digital transformation: By automating the testing of changed components to the highest degree, effectiveness increases.

Also important: Errors are found as early as possible through the quality gates between the test phases and can be mitigated. In addition, through automation, reuse of artifacts and AI-based bots for continuous optimization, tests run much faster. Finally, efficiency increases through predefined test cases and use of scenarios from the Cognizant test scenario collection.

The achievement of typical KPIs can also be demonstrated by the test platform, such as 100 percent business process coverage or zero critical defects in production. Other important benchmarks include a 50% reduction in test cycles or 100% automation of all test cases.

Quality is a key to the business success of an S/4 Hana implementation - but not an end in itself. The approach presented here has proven itself worldwide. A prerequisite for the successful execution of testing activities in the individual project phases is the perfect interaction of processes, the necessary tools, and the test artifacts.

This allows the various results of each phase to be used further in the next phase. This saves costs and time and helps to identify and correct errors as early as possible. The results of the individual phases are archived and are available for reuse.

After the successful implementation of S/4, this has resulted in a fully automated regression testing platform - which is a prerequisite for successful and efficient operation and continuous further development of the S/4 Hana platform!