In Asia Pacific (APAC), IT spending is projected to reach USD 1.4 trillion this year. Many organisations are embracing modern Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to streamline operations, with over two-thirds (78 percent) of enterprises surveyed by IDC indicating they rely on SAP’s ERP applications for key business functions. As businesses move from on-premise systems to Cloud ERP platforms like S/4HANA, ensuring an uninterrupted migration becomes crucial.
Successful transitions require careful execution, with test automation playing a key role in ensuring smooth migrations that unlock the full benefits of enhanced performance and simplified data management.
The S/4HANA landscape is complex
This complexity arises from a combination of modules, extensive customisations, and intricate integrations with other systems. It can be difficult to ensure that every component is tested thoroughly. Most organisations run multiple modules like finance, supply chain, and HR that are often customised to fit specific business processes.
These modules are deeply integrated with third-party systems, further complicating the landscape. Manual testing in such environments is not only time-consuming but also prone to human error, potentially leaving critical gaps in the testing process.
To effectively manage this complexity, organisations should adopt a comprehensive test automation strategy tailored for S/4HANA environments.
This includes specialised tools built for SAP, capable of handling integrated testing across multiple modules and automating complex workflows. End-to-end testing ensures all interactions between different modules and third-party applications like Salesforce or Workday are validated, helping uncover issues that may arise across systems. Modular testing further supports this by breaking the process into manageable parts, allowing teams to focus on one module or integration at a time.
Establishing a quality-first operating model by identifying the right people, defining strong processes, and aligning them with the right tools ensures long-term success and sustained value from the testing strategy.
Migration to S/4HANA can lead to data integrity challenges
On-premise systems often have different data formats, structures, and quality levels compared to S/4HANA. During migration, data may be corrupted, lost, or inaccurately transformed, which can compromise the reliability of business processes and decision-making.
To address data migration and integrity issues, organisations should employ automated data validation tools like Tricentis Data Integrity and follow best practices in data migration. This is essential in ensuring data integrity, which in turn guarantees the reliability and effectiveness of AI applications.
In addition to ensuring data accuracy, organisations must also validate system performance under real-world conditions. Automated performance testing tools, such as Tricentis NeoLoad, can simulate high user loads, measure response times, and identify performance bottlenecks early.
Scalability testing helps evaluate how well the system handles increasing volumes of users and transactions, providing real-time insights and alerting teams to potential issues before they impact business operations. With these insights, teams can fine-tune system configurations, optimise database queries, and adjust application code to ensure consistent performance as demands grow.
Performance testing and scalability are critical
As organisations grow and the number of users and transactions increase, the system must be capable of handling higher user loads. Performance issues like slow response times or system crashes can negatively impact user experience and operational efficiency.
To address performance and scalability challenges, organisations should leverage automated performance testing tools and adopt a proactive testing approach.
Automated testing should extend beyond performance to include regression testing and continuous integration processes. Tools that support automated CI/CD pipelines allow for faster, more reliable validation of code changes, reducing the risk of defects being introduced during updates. Automated regression tests can be executed in parallel, significantly speeding up test cycles while ensuring that core functionalities remain intact.
To test efficiently, organisations should adopt risk-based testing, leveraging AI-powered analysis tools to help teams prioritise what truly needs to be tested. Maintaining version control of test scripts and environments is also critical to ensure updates are tested consistently and in the right context.
Updates and patches are released frequently
These updates can potentially impact existing functionalities, requiring continuous regression testing to ensure that new changes do not introduce defects or break existing features.
Implementing continuous integration and continuous testing (CI/CT) pipelines saves time and reduces errors compared to manually managing regression testing.
Automated CI/CD pipelines streamline the process of integrating code changes and running regression tests, ensuring updates are validated quickly and consistently. In parallel, automated regression testing allows teams to re-run tests, significantly reducing turnaround time while maintaining system stability.
To ensure comprehensive coverage, organisations should regularly review and update their regression test suites, focusing on core functionality and critical integrations. Over time, test portfolios can become bloated, making full regression inefficient.
Risk-based testing helps mitigate this by targeting the areas of greatest business impact, potentially reducing test scope by up to 40% while maintaining high coverage. AI-powered change impact analysis tools can further narrow the focus by identifying only the elements affected by a given change. Maintaining version control of test assets is also essential for ensuring traceability and consistent test execution across updates.
S/4HANA evolution can lead to ineffective testing
Test cases that become outdated or incorrect after a new S/4HANA release can lead to missed defects, which can impact the overall quality of the system and the user experience.
Adopting AI-driven test automation tools helps ensure test cases stay relevant as systems evolve. Tools like Tricentis Tosca can automatically update test scripts when changes are introduced, reducing manual effort and maintaining accuracy. Model-based test automation further eases maintenance by decoupling technical layers from test logic, allowing test cases to remain functional even when code changes occur.
Effective test case management, including tracking application changes and updating tests accordingly, also plays a key role. Just as important is collaboration between development and testing teams to ensure that updates are communicated early and reflected promptly in test cases.
Tricentis test automation solutions for S/4HANA
Effective testing and test automation are vital components of a successful S/4HANA implementation. Addressing the challenges of complexity, data integrity, performance, frequent updates, and test case maintenance with the right strategies and tools ensures that organisations can achieve a robust, reliable S/4HANA system. With the right testing approach such as Tricentis’ comprehensive suite of test automation solutions tailored for S/4HANA, businesses can accelerate their Cloud ERP transformation journey, enhancing agility and achieving success in the digital era.
Designed to seamlessly integrate with SAP environments, Tricentis’ AI-driven capabilities ensure that test cases are automatically updated in response to system changes, reducing manual maintenance. By integrating Tricentis’ solutions, organisations can achieve higher testing throughput, improve application quality, and accelerate their S/4HANA transformation journey with confidence.
