To support business growth and enable competitive advantage, organizations are required to quickly adapt to changes by upgrading existing applications or implementing new ones. In doing so, they have to make sure these applications are running smoothly. Companies using manual testing to test their business applications require lots of effort to manually run a test cycle of an end-to-end business process, and struggle to keep costs low, stay on schedule, and keep within budget. This results in higher costs and a risky testing process. Automated testing helps you react quickly in a structured way to the changes in business processes. With it, you can dramatically reduce time, costs, and risks; increase the effectiveness and efficiency of applications; and help achieve the greatest return on investment.

You can set up automated testing by implementing a process using a number of SAP functionalities. These applications include SAP Quality Center by HP, a Web-based application that supports the management of test processes such as test preparation, test execution, and test monitoring, and SAP Test Acceleration and Optimization (SAP TAO), which is integrated with SAP Solution Manager, SAP managed systems, HP QuickTest Professional, and SAP Quality Center.

For the process shown in this article, you need the following prerequisites:

• SAP Solution Manager with enhancement package 1 and Support Package 25 or later
• SAP TAO 2.0 or later
• HP QuickTest Professional, including SAP Add-In
• SAP Quality Center 10 or later

To perform automated testing, you need to perform a number of steps. In this article, I’ll explain how to perform these three steps, which lead you up to the point where you need to use SAP TAO:

• Step 1. Create a project in SAP Solution Manager
• Step 2. Create a project in SAP Quality Center
• Step 3. Connect the SAP Solution Manager project to SAP Quality Center

Step 1. Create a Project in SAP Solution Manager 

To create a project in SAP Solution Manager, log in to SAP Solution Manager with your user name and password. Use transaction code SOLAR_PROJECT_ADMIN and press Enter (Figure 1).

Figure 1

Call transaction code SOLAR_PROJECT_ADMIN

To create a project, click the create project icon and a new window opens. Enter a project name and choose Implementation Project in the Typ field (Figure 2). Click the green checkmark icon to continue.

Figure 2

Create a project

General Data

Click the green checkmark icon to bring up the screen in Figure 3, and enter the Title of the project. On the General Data tab, enter all the required data and choose the Project Language, overall Project Status and Project Data, and the time frame for the Plan Data and Actual Data. Make sure that you choose the right language because you cannot change the project language after saving the project. Save all your settings by clicking the save icon.

Figure 3

Set up the project

A new dialog box appears to confirm the Knowledge Warehouse (KW) setting for documents. Click the green checkmark icon and save again (Figure 4).

Figure 4

Confirm project creation

Scope

Click the Scope tab and the Template Selection tab under that (Figure 5). You can specify the templates of the project where the system lists all the templates. Choose the Application Lifecycle Management - Template option and click the save icon. In the Roadmap Select tab, you can select a roadmap of your project. Also, on the Country Selection tab, you can select a country in which you want your project to be valid. Select any relevant countries from the Possible Countries table and put them in the Selected Countries table using arrows to copy.

Figure 5

Scope settings

Project Team Members

In the Proj. Team Member tab you can assign a team member to tasks and activities, or delete or restrict the team member from them, by entering the name of the team member in the Proj. Team… column (Figure 6).

Figure 6

Set up project team member settings

System Landscape

On the System Landscape tab, you specify the system landscape of your project. Click the Systems subtab and click the input help icon under the Logical Component column to produce the pop-up screen shown on the right (Figure 7). This shows a list of logical components. Select the logical component for the system landscape of your project and click the green checkmark icon.

Figure 7

Enter system landscape settings

Milestones

In the Milestones tab, you can define milestones that you can use to monitor the progress of your project (Figure 8). The system lists the milestones in the Milestones tab if the roadmap for the project is selected in the Roadmap tab. You can add milestones in the roadmap, but you cannot change them.

Figure 8

Set up the milestone settings

Organizational Units

On the Organizational Units tab, you can enter the organizational unit data of your project, including Organizational Unit, City/Region, Country, Function (function area of an organizational unit, such as finance or sales), and Time Zone (Figure 9).

Figure 9

Enter the organizational unit settings

Project Standards

In the Project Standards tab you can define the Status Values, Keywords, Documentation Types, and Tabs of your project (Figure 10). Go to the Status Values subtab to define the status value of your project. Go to the Documentation Types subtab to create templates and document the implementation with different documentation types. Then go to the Tabs subtab and, in the Development row, change the value in the Blueprint Visibility column from Invisible to Visible so the Development tab can be shown in the Business Blueprint.

Figure 10

Enter project standards settings

Configure Business Processes and Scenarios

The Business Blueprint defines the documents of the system requirements, the process steps, and the business processes of the project. To do so, enter transaction code SOLAR01 and press Enter. Make sure you select your project through the menu path at the Business Blueprint and by clicking the other project icon (Figure 11). In the Business Blueprint Structure, navigate to Business Scenarios and click the Structure tab. Make sure that your Source is Business Process Repository. Then in the Scenario Name column, click the input help icon to open the outline of all business scenarios.

Figure 11

Business Blueprint Structure

Pick the scenario for your project to configure and click the green checkmark icon (Figure 12). For my example, I chose SAP ERP > Sales and Service Processes in ERP > SAP ECC 6.0,SAP NETWEAVER 7.0,SAP CRM to define the appropriate business scenario and processes.

Figure 12

Configure the structure

Save all your settings. The selected logical components are assigned in the Business Blueprint structure. To expand the nodes, go to Business Scenarios > Sales and Service Processes in ERP > Business Processes > Standard Sales Order Processing in ERP. You can edit or assign the logical components that are created. In your Business Blueprint, you can also delete business processes that you do not need by selecting Business Processes > Structure, and choosing the rows of business processes that you want to delete. Then click the delete rows icon (the minus sign icon in Figure 11).

In the Gen. Documentation tab, you can access the business process documentation. Select Creating Sales Orders or Standard Sales Order Processing in ERP and click the display icon (Figure 13).

Figure 13

Select the general documentation settings

In the Proj. Documentation tab, you can add, upload, or link project documents and files, such as guides, business requirement documents, and test cases. Go to the Proj. Documentation tab and select the Insert Document icon. This produces a new window in which you add or upload the documents. Then click the green checkmark icon.

In the Administration tab, you can enter project data and assign team members, and manage roles and responsibilities for each business process structure of your project. In the Issues/Messages (Issue… on Figure 13) tab, you can create a message to document the issues or processes that you may come across during the creation of the project, business blueprint, and configuration.

Configuration Structures

The configuration structure is to configure all process requirements defined in the Business Blueprint stage. To do so, enter transaction code SOLAR02 and press Enter. Select your project through the menu path at the configuration structure and click the other project icon. In the Configuration Structure, click the Configuration folder and then click the Structure tab on the right (Figure 14). Then click the Change Configuration Structure button.

Figure 14

Change the configuration structure

In the Configuration Element column choose the input help icon to open the outline of all configuration elements (Figure 15). Choose the element (e.g., SAP ERP > SAP ERP 6.0) for your project to configure and click the green checkmark icon.

Figure 15

Set the configuration elements

The configuration structure for the project has been created and the configuration elements are assigned to business processes. Call transaction code SOLAR02 to go to the configuration screen again. In the Configuration tab, you can configure processes using predefined IMG activities, and also create and assign Business Configuration Sets (BC Sets). In the Test Cases tab, you can assign existing or create new test cases, processes, and scenarios. In the Issues/Messages tab, you can create a message to document the issues or processes that you may come across during the creation of the project, business blueprint, and configuration. In addition, you can create training materials of your project structure by going to the Training Materials tab.

Step 2. Create a Project in SAP Quality Center

To create a project in SAP Quality Center, you need to create a new project and customize it independently. To do so, go to the SAP Quality Center system administrator page at https://<server name>:<port number>/qcbin/SiteAdmin.htm and log in with site administrator access rights (Figure 16).

Figure 16

Administrator log-in page for SAP Quality Center

On the Site Administration page that comes up after you log in, go to the Site Projects tab and click the Create Project button (Figure 17).

Figure 17

Create a new project

Set Up a New Project

The Create Project window appears (Figure 18). Select the Create an empty project radio button and click the Next button.

Figure 18

Create an empty project

On the next screen, enter all the required data (the project name and domain) and click the Next button to create a new project (Figure 19).

Figure 19

Set up a new project

Enter the appropriate information for the SAP Quality Center database (e.g., Database Type, Server Name, DB Admin User, DB Admin Password) in the pop-up screen and click Next (Figure 20). Confirm the resulting dialog box by clicking OK. In the next Create Project window, add project administrators by selecting the User Name and Full Name on the right side and moving them to the left by clicking the back arrow (Figure 21). Then click the Next button.

Figure 20

Enter the appropriate information

Figure 21

Add a project administrator

In the next window you see the summary of your project entries. At the bottom of the window select the Activate project check box (Figure 22). The project is created and activated when you click the Create button.

Figure 22

Project summary

Under the Project Extensions, select DEFAULT and then the project name TAO_QC. On the right side of the screen, click the Project Extensions tab (Figure 23). First, select the Enabled check box to enable the extension Application Model. After it is enabled, select the Enabled check box for Enterprise Integration for SAP applications. Note that to enable the extensions, it is necessary to deactivate the project and confirm all shown messages and warnings. When the extensions are activated, the project is automatically activated.

Figure 23

Enable project extensions

Define Other Project User

To add or remove a user from the project, navigate to the Site Projects tab > DEFAULT > TAO_QC, select the Project Users tab. Click either the Add or Remove button (Figure 24). You can see the users available on the right side of the screen when you click Add. Select the user on the right side and move it to the left by clicking the back icon.

Figure 24

Add project users

The SAP Quality Center project is now completely created.

Configure SAP Quality Center

Go to the SAP Quality Center system administration page and log in with site administrator access rights. You need to set two parameters. In the Site Administration page, go to the Site Configuration tab and click the New button to add a parameter. Enter Parameter DISABLE_EXTENDED_STORAGE and the Value N and click OK (Figure 25). Then perform the same steps for the second parameter, BACKWARD_SUPPORT_ALL_DOMAINS_PROJECTS, but use Value Y. The DISABLE_EXTENDED_STORAGE parameter enables the ability to browse workflow scripts, GUI map files, and project repository folders. The BACKWARD_SUPPORT_ALL_DOMAINS_PROJECTS parameter enables the use of the domain list and project list properties for the purpose of backward compatibility. When the parameter is set to Y, the Domain List and Projects List properties are supported.

Figure 25

Configure parameters

Then go to the SAP Quality Center home page https://<server name>:<port number>/qcbin/SiteAdmin.htm and enter the Login Name and Password (Figure 26). Click the Authenticate button and then enter the Domain and Project names and log in.

In SAP Quality Center 10 you need to perform these steps. Go to the Test Plan section. Under the Subject folder create a folder by clicking the new folder icon (Figure 27). Name the folder BPT Resources and click the OK button. This folder is used to store the TAO components in SAP Quality Center.

Figure 27

Create the BPT Resources folder

After the folder is created, select the BPT Resources folder. Click the new folder icon, name it Libraries, and click OK (Figure 28). Using the same steps, create another folder called PFA, in which you will store tests in SAP Quality Center created using SAP TAO.

Figure 28

Create the Libraries folder

Then you need to upload the file to the BPT Resources and Libraries folder in SAP Quality Center. Select the Libraries folder on the left side, click the Attachments tab, and upload the file CBASE_Init.vbs (path: C:ProgramFilesSAPSAPTAOCBASECBASE_Init.vbs) (Figure 29).

Figure 29

Configure SAP Quality Center

Create a Component Folder in SAP Quality Center

To store defined business components of the project, create a component folder in SAP Quality Center. Go to the Business Components section and under Components folder create a folder by clicking the new folder icon (Figure 30). Name the folder SAP Front End and click OK.

Figure 30

Create business components

After the folder is created, perform the same steps to create two more folders named SAP R3 and SAP_Full_BPs (Figure 31). These folders contain all the business components defined in the project generated by SAP TAO.

Figure 31

Created components

Step 3. Connect the SAP Solution Manager Project to SAP Quality Center

To be able to synchronize the test prerequisites and results between SAP Solution Manager and SAP Quality Center, you must create a connection between your SAP Solution Manager project and the SAP Quality Center project.

Every SAP Solution Manager project has to be connected to one SAP Quality Center project. To do so, go to transaction code SOLAR_PROJECT_ADMIN, press Enter, and choose your project. Then select Edit > Connection to HP Quality Center (Figure 32).

Figure 32

Connect SAP Solution Manager to SAP Quality Center

A new dialog box opens (Figure 33). Click the icon next to Communication Data and enter all required data (namely the communication user and a different default user). Choose the project in SAP Quality Center to which you want to establish a connection and click the green checkmark icon. Save all your settings.

Figure 33

Establish a project connection to SAP Quality Center

Brikena Berisha

Brikena Berisha graduated with a degree in finance and international business from California State University of San Bernardino in 2006. She has more than five years of consulting experience in project management, including project implementations and upgrades, testing with SAP Solution Manager 7.0 and 7.1, SAP Quality Center by HP, QTP by HP, and SAP TAO. Brikena is a consultant at CoreALM Consulting Company, specializing in SAP consulting, in particular application lifecycle management, SAP solutions, and third-party solutions that are integrated with SAP Solution Manager.

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