Staying Ahead: Navigating Constant SAP Changes with Smart Testing

Elite athletes today excel through advanced training and technology, mirroring the transformation in enterprise technology with SAP S/4HANA Cloud’s frequent updates, which necessitate robust test automation for businesses to adapt swiftly and ensure continuity amidst constant changes.

Elite athletes today are stronger, faster, healthier and smarter (data driven and utilizing AI) than their counterparts in the past. They train and treat their bodies differently, leveraging learnings from the latest research and technologies. The intensity and complexity of Olympic events have increased significantly compared to the past and the recently concluded Olympics in Paris truly embodied this modern approach.

It’s not just the case for Elite Athletes and Sporting events. Everything today is faster and more complex.

The Enterprise Technology world, and SAP specifically, are no different. The biggest change is of course the transition to cloud and SAP S/4HANA. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, SAP have a great vehicle cloud solution to deliver constant innovation, and they are driving it hard. The frequency of updates and upgrades has surged, making it essential for organizations to be ready and in-sync with new developments (did someone say “AI”). But how can businesses keep up without risking detrimental disruptions to the business?

SAP S/4HANA Cloud: Continuous Updates, Continuous Pressure

Unlike traditional on-premises software/ERP systems, SAP S/4HANA Cloud demands (more) frequent updates. These updates aren’t just optional; they are necessary and pushed aggressively to maintain compatibility and functionality with connected applications. However, the constant flow of changes poses a significant challenge for organizations that rely on SAP to run critical business processes.

Panaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-142319-1024x586.png" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://www.panaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-142319-1024x586.png 1024w, https://www.panaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-142319-300x172.png 300w, https://www.panaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-142319-768x439.png 768w, https://www.panaya.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Screenshot-2024-09-05-142319.png 1510w" alt="" width="1024" height="586" />

SAP has released numerous updates and versions of S/4 and will continue to improve and upgrade its offering for the foreseeable future. Source example from SAP Community:
https://www.sap.com/documents/2017/01/867629d8-a27c-0010-82c7-eda71af511fa.html

The stakes are high—unforeseen changes can lead to severe consequences for business continuity, affecting everything from supply chains to customer service. For businesses, the ability to adapt swiftly and seamlessly to these updates is not just a technical requirement but a strategic imperative.

SAP Smart Testing: Embracing Test Automation

To ensure seamless SAP deployments without compromising the performance of critical software, implementing robust test automation schemes is key. These tools are designed to handle the complexities of continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) environments, where changes must be validated quickly and thoroughly.

SAP testing automation offers several advantages:

1. Comprehensive Coverage: Automation can cover a wide range of testing scenarios, ensuring that all business processes function correctly after an update. This is especially crucial when updates affect multiple departments, systems, and cross-application workflows.

2. Efficiency: SAP Testing automation reduces the time and effort needed to perform repetitive and complex testing tasks, allowing SAP / COE teams to focus on more strategic initiatives, rather than being bogged down by unnecessary manual testing.

3. Risk Reduction: Minimizing the risk of accidental or unplanned SAP deployments, which can disrupt business operations, is critical. Proactive automated regression testing helps ensure that updates do not introduce new issues into the environment.

4. Staying Current: Automation enables your organization to keep up with cloud application updates effortlessly. As SAP continues to evolve, your SAP continuous testing process remains agile and responsive, ensuring that your business systems are always up-to-date and reliable.

How SAP Smart Testing Is Done With Panaya

Most automation tools in the market today rely on skilled automation engineers and are very dependent on collaboration from business counterparts and subject matter experts to develop automation.

(Getty Images)

Comprehensive smart testing is especially crucial when updates affect multiple departments, systems, and cross-application business process. Much like the USA Women Relay team, cooperation between multiple departments, or “passing the baton” where complex business schemes are in place, shouldn’t be left to chance.

Panaya’s AI-Powered Test Automation empowers business users to create and execute tests, making test automation accessible to those who do not have a coding background, boosting cooperation between IT and business. Panaya’s platform allows business users to record and document business scenarios, visualize, and validate expected results, and contribute to the automation efforts.

“Passing the Baton” has never been easier.

The user describes scenarios in natural language and generates codeless test scripts, Panaya’s AI-powered ScriptBuilder handles actions, assertions, value extraction, and synthetic data generation, saving precious development time.

Panaya’s AI Automation Engine deeply understands SAP UI elements, enabling smart interactions and contextual interpretation of user actions in SAP Fiori web scripts. This specific logic handles complex UI components intelligently, creating resilient scripts that reduce maintenance. With self-healing algorithms and thorough HTML component analysis, Panaya ensures robust automation and reliable performance on dynamic web pages.

Panaya’s Platform combines AI-Powered Smart Testing and Automation with Impact Analysis and has been developed with deep SAP knowledge and expertise, meaning one native platform and one seamless user experience.

Staying ahead in a world where SAP environments are constantly evolving, more often than Mondo Duplantis breaks his own world records, test automation isn’t just a luxury – it’s a must. As your organization navigates the world of continuous updates and change, smart testing will be your best ally in ensuring that your SAP systems remain resilient, efficient, ready for change, and aligned with your business goals.