Testmanagement

As is generally known, maintenance of the R3 SAP systems will expire in 2027. Customers who have not switched to S/4 by then will continue to receive support from SAP, but this will be subject to a charge. With this changeover, many companies are once again faced with the challenge and the question: can our business processes be mapped and handled with the S/4 SAP standard?

With the new S/4 release, the trend towards “user-friendly use” continues. The main challenge for S/4 implementation partners is to explain the new S/4 world to companies in such a way that they can see what it looked like in the old R3 world and where they can find and execute the new functions in the S/4 system.

I was able to join such a large implementation project (conversion) as a test manager in fall 2022. The first phase of this project successfully went live at the end of June 2024. During the project setup, it was decided to implement the conversion using the SAP Activate

Translated with DeepL.com (free version) methodology (SAP Best Practices, Focused Build, OnPrem SAP Solution Manager). The SAP Best Practices processes were imported into the solution documentation. When selecting the S/4 implementation partner, knowledge and application of the SAP Activate methodology was a prerequisite. In the first step, the rollout was implemented for some offices in Switzerland. A consolidation and preparation phase now follows. In a second step, the remaining approx. 150 offices will be rolled out.

Back to my entry into the project in question. The project had already been running for several months and the first fit/cap workshops with the specialist departments had taken place. Unfortunately, the implementation partner failed to document the caps identified in the workshops in the business process flow (solution documentation, business processes).

In addition to the S/4 system, however, the business process flow is a central element on the basis of which test cases can be derived and created. The business process flow also makes it possible to recognize at an early stage how many test cases are required to test this business process. Up to this point, neither test cases from the R3 SAP system nor test cases for the S/4 system were available to the project.

In such large-scale projects, the resources of employees with very good knowledge of their business process (product owner, process owner, module owner, etc.) are often required and tied up. For these employees, this is usually additional work to their day-to-day business. How does test management obtain the test cases that are essential for testing and implementing the new solution and who can create these test cases? Due to the resource bottlenecks and the progress of the project, the project decided to use the S/4 SAP Best Practices test cases.

The test cases (Word) were transferred to an upload file (Excel) and loaded into the solution documentation. The relevant departments were then tasked with reviewing the test cases and adding to them where necessary. Despite S/4 training, the specialist departments had little knowledge of the new S/4 processes up to this point. Regardless of whether this was a debt to be discharged or a debt to be discharged, the support of the S/4 implementation partners would have been very important at this point. There were no SAP Best Practices test cases for certain solutions. The project members had to create these manually.

The first test phase was just around the corner and the quality of the existing test cases varied greatly. Efforts were made to adapt, supplement or create new test cases between the test cycles (3 – 4 test phases). Unfortunately, not all sub-projects were able to revise their test cases during the project period.

Conclusion: It is good and practical that SAP provides the SAP Best Practices test cases. However, in very few cases can these test cases be adopted 1 to 1 for the company. They merely serve as a starting point. If no “old” test cases or SAP Best Practices test cases are available, the S/4 implementation partner should definitely be made responsible for creating or adapting them together with the specialist departments.

It is of central importance that the results from the FIT/GAP workshops are documented in the solution documentation in real time. Test management should be involved at an early stage in order to train the necessary functions in SAP Solution Manager or to be part of the FIT/GAP workshops themselves in order to document the GAPs in the business process flow. The test case has not yet been created, but a business process flow is available from which a test case can be derived.

Before the second phase is rolled out, the specialist departments now have the opportunity to revise and adapt their test cases. Test management will initiate, support and guide this process to ensure that the quality of the test cases improves and that they are also reviewed.

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