Testing SAP R/3: A Manager's Step-by-Step Guide

Appendix B. Case Study: Accelerating SAP Testing^[23]

SAP testing accelerators are a new trend from software testing vendors to introduce or facilitate automation testing efforts. SAP test accelerators are a prebuilt library of previously automated test cases representing SAP test transactions that can be customized or modified to meet a project's specific and unique configuration settings. SAP test accelerators hold the promise of reducing the cycle time to automate SAP end-to-end processes (i.e., hire-to-retire, request-to-pay, etc.) while empowering the SAP project's nontechnical members to assemble and execute automated test cases.

Although SAP testing accelerators ostensibly offer superior benefits over traditional SAP automation efforts whereby SAP transactions are recorded from scratch, they also have potential drawbacks that are often obscure and can hamper automation progress. Many of the drawbacks from SAP testing accelerators are overcome with what is known as a "next-generation accelerator."

BACKGROUND

Test accelerators refer to prebuilt and generically recorded test cases that could be used to test packaged enterprise business applications. Accelerators typically provided most, if not all, elements necessary to test an entire end-to-end business process such as order-to-cash. The original thinking was that if a single application was deployed at many locations, a single out-of-the box library of prerecorded test cases that can be modified as needed would accelerate the ...