Speaking to SAPinsider, Michał Krawczyk, Co-CEO and CRO at integration and automated testing software provider INT4, talks SAP testing, and the tricks that enterprises can take from the unlikely analogy of jet engines. For Krawczyk, the analogy of the jet engine is a fitting one for SAP users, with SAP systems being the core or “the heart” of their business operations. Krawczyk began: “If there is something wrong with a jet engine, in many cases you just have to take it off the plane and bring it into the repair shop so you can fix it. Now let’s imagine we have a problem with a high-pressure compressor - when you’ve fixed it, how do you test it? There are three very common ways…” Taking the engine back from the repair shop, putting it into the plane, taking off and testing it in action, also known as testing in production is one. But as Krawczyk wisely noted, it’s risky and “probably this is something we don’t want to do.” Testing the engine inside the repair shop is another method; building an exact copy of the plane and adding the engine to the replica, to fly and test it. The problem here, Krawczyk stated, is that this method “is doable but very very expensive and also time-consuming. If you had to build a new plane, and imagine, if this engine needs to fit in multiple types of planes, how much time would this take.” The third alternative is the easiest one, promised Krawczyk, which is to build a digital twin of the engine, or else to simulate all the external systems to test, in this case, whether the high-pressure compressor is fixed. “We don’t need the whole plane around that, or to build a copy of this plane, we can just connect the engine to a simulator to test any kind of components, and if everything is working, we ship it back to the real plane. This is the least costly option and it’s very very quick - we just plug it in and everything is tested,” he said. “The question is, why doesn’t this always apply to software testing, especially for SAP transformations? Everyone is thinking they have to build a copy of their systems to test something, that they have to have a system that is as near to the production system, all of the master data needs to be fine, all of the connectivity needs to be set up, we need to buy the hardware, and this is the only way we can do this,” Krawczyk continued. “Why is that?” For the INT4 co-CEO, companies need to start thinking about simpler and more cost-effective methods of testing their SAP systems, just like the example of the jet engine. Many businesses may see the second option (the manual copying process), as the ‘secure’ option. It’s fair to say that given our digital copy/paste world today, copying a system sounds simple and while many would laugh at the idea of making physical copies of numerous jets for testing, it’s easy to see things differently for software ecosystems. “This is the problem that we are having,” Krawczyk said. “In order to test a Jet engine, you wouldn't put it into the plane and go for a test flight. You also wouldn't build a copy of the plane, right? You'd try to simulate the external environment to test it in isolation… So then - why does it make sense in SAP? “I think it’s our fault, we don’t give simple enough examples. Everyone thinks that copying software is easy. No, it’s not easy, you have to get the new software, hardware, copy software, align master data, set up all of the connectivity - this is really really difficult and it’s time-consuming.” Krawczyk argues that testing services need to go further with how they explain the benefits of simulations and digital twin technology to businesses. The INT4 co-CEO said: “We have to show different examples from different industries from different parts of SAP testing because sometimes they are simply more compelling.” The market for SAP testing is getting ever larger given the wave of S/4HANA transformations and SAP’s ECC support deadline, and thousands of customers per year are looking to shift and, therein, test their systems as part of large, often multi-year projects. With the costs and complexity of these projects piling on the pressure, perhaps testing the software is one area businesses can get a ticket for an easier ride.