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SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing) is a multinational software corporation founded in 1972, providing software solutions for business process management, with a focus on enterprise resource planning (ERP). From a small startup, it has witnessed remarkable growth to become a global enterprise with over 105,000 employees.
The impact of SAP solutions is truly tremendous, when there is an entire market for testing solutions specifically tailored for SAP softwares. According to the report, the SAP testing tool market is becoming increasingly competitive when many new offerings are being introduced, each with its own unique features. In this article, we list down the top SAP testing tools with the most outstanding capabilities to help your business test these software at speed and ease.
SAP software product portfolio to test
SAP offers quite a comprehensive suite of software products covering all aspects of business operations. You can check out the full list on the SAP website, but here we list out some of the most popular products:
- SAP S/4HANA: Core ERP suite with in-memory computing, integrating finance, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and more.
- SAP ERP Central Component (ECC): Earlier version with modules for finance, HR, procurement, etc.
- SAP Business Suite: Integrated suite with ERP, CRM, SRM, and PLM applications.
- SAP Business Warehouse (BW): Data warehousing for consolidating and analyzing business data.
- SAP BusinessObjects BI: BI tools for reporting, analysis, dashboards, and data visualization.
- SAP SuccessFactors: Cloud-based HCM suite covering talent management and analytics.
- SAP Ariba: Cloud procurement solution for strategic sourcing and supplier management.
- SAP Concur: Cloud solution for travel and expense management automation.
- SAP Fieldglass: Cloud solution for managing external workforce and services procurement.
- SAP Hybris (now part of SAP Customer Experience): Solutions for customer engagement and commerce.
- SAP Integrated Business Planning (IBP): Cloud solution for real-time supply chain planning optimization.
- SAP Analytics Cloud: Cloud platform integrating BI, planning, and predictive analytics.
- SAP Fiori: UX design approach for creating consistent interfaces.
- SAP Leonardo: Digital innovation system with IoT, machine learning, blockchain, etc.
- SAP Leonardo IoT: Focuses on IoT solutions, connecting devices and analyzing physical world data.
Challenges of SAP Testing
SAP testing is a unique domain for the following reasons:
- Incomplete Test Coverage: SAP products handle complex end-to-end business processes with many dependencies. This means to properly test SAP software, you need a solid understanding of your business operations, otherwise you risk missing out on important scenarios, leading to incomplete test coverage. The incredibly high degree of customization SAP products offer also contribute to this issue. Many businesses underestimated the overwhelming complexity of migrating to SAP S/4HANA, and the key to resolving this is good preparation, such as involving automated testing from early stages of migration.
- Integration Challenges: SAP software tends to be highly connected with a vast array of other technologies. There can be a payment provider connected to the SAP Finance module, then there is another CRM connected, and a custom functionality provided via a third-party API. SAP testers must include rigorous integration testing to ensure that no bugs arise due to conflicts between internal and external components.
Read More: Top 10 Integration Testing Tools For Your Team - Test Data Management: proper TDM streamlines the SAP testing process and paves the way for more effective testing, as without a TDM system built into the SAP testing tool, QA teams have to manage the test data in a separate database, creating unnecessary friction in the process.
- Security: confidentiality is always of top priority when it comes to business software testing. Constantly transferring sensitive business data, SAP testing tools must also adhere to enterprise-grade security and data privacy best practices.
A good SAP testing tool should address those issues through a comprehensive set of features that allow a high degree of versatility and customization for testers. 10 criteria we need to look for in such a tool include:
- Support for a wide variety of AUTs (web, mobile, desktop, etc.)
- Support for execution on a wide variety of browsers/OS/device
- Support for interconnected testing activities throughout the software testing life cycle
- Low-code/High-code testing mode to assist in faster test creation
- Integration testing supported
- Robust security measures and compliance with data privacy best practices
- Seamlessly integrate with currently popular techstack
- Scalable for business in their fast-growing stage
- Nice-to-have: Leverage AI/ML capabilities to bring smarter software testing
A tester performing SAP testing, besides their technical expertise, also needs to equip themselves with a strong understanding of the business processes under test. Such understanding will really come in handy when they want to create more test cases to achieve higher test coverage.
You can check out this test case template to better manage your SAP test cases. At the end of this article, we also provide you with a list of detailed SAP test cases if you want to start testing after choosing the tool you like.
With all that out of the way, here are the top 8 SAP testing tools your team will love:
- Katalon [Best For All Testing Purporses]
- Selenium
- Worksoft Cerify
- SAP eCATT
- SAP Solution Manager
- SmartBear TestComplete
- IBM Rational Functional Tester
- Tricentis Tosca
1. Katalon [Best for All SAP Testing Purposes]
Katalon Platform is a comprehensive testing tool supporting web, desktop, mobile, and API testing, and you can easily create tests within just a few clicks, manage them in a centralized interface, execute on a wide variety of environments, then generate reports with rich insights for informed decision-making. All you need to test SAP software is unified within Katalon.
Many test automation solutions are incredibly robust, yet they require strong technical knowledge, extensive training, or both to actually use the tool. With a codeless platform like Katalon, teams can get up and running quickly, confidently, immediately. The beautiful thing about testing with Katalon is that you get instant access to the mode you like, whether it is no-code, low-code, or high-code!
For example, you can go no-code with the Record-and-Playback feature where you simply specify the URL and perform the manual test steps, then Katalon turns your actions into a fully executable test script that you can run anywhere: locally, remotely, or on-cloud, on the browsers and devices of your choice! This mode is ideal for web-based SAP products like SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, or SAP Ariba.
As you can see in the image above, Katalon has recorded the action of Open Browser as a keyword, then Navigate to Url, then type in the credentials, click Sign in, perform Captcha check, and check that the “Welcome to your SAP S/4HANA Cloud Trial” text is present on screen. You can choose to execute this test case in any environment.
If you want more customization, you can enter the scripting mode and edit the test cases generated in Groovy language. The versatility of Katalon makes it easy for anyone, even non-technical testers, to write tests.
For desktop SAP software, you can choose the Windows Recorder option to perform Record-and-Playback on that desktop app.
Katalon comes with a lot of ready-to-use Windows Keywords to help you automate SAP desktop testing.
Download Katalon and Witness its Power in Action
All of your test cases are grouped in a hierarchical manner in the Test Explorer section of the Katalon Studio IDE. As you can see here, we have grouped all of the S4HANA CLOUD test cases in one folder, with separate folders for separate modules, such as ACCOUNTS_PAYABLE, ACCOUNTS_RECEIVABLE, and GENERAL_LEDGER, etc.
There is also the Object Repository tab here to help you manage test objects as well as a dedicated Data Files section where you can import data files for data-driven testing activities.
After test runs, Katalon generates detailed reports with relevant metrics for you to monitor your efficiency and make data-driven decisions.
Not just that, you also get StudioAssist - a feature within Katalon Studio - which can generate and explain tests for you. Beside that, there is a wide host of AI-powered features that can change the way you think and do SAP testing.
Start Katalon Free Trial Today
2. Selenium
Automating SAP testing with Selenium is quite a unique approach, since Selenium is an automation testing framework for web-based applications only, while SAP software can both be web-based and desktop-based. However, Selenium does its job well if you only need to work with SAP web applications.
To do SAP testing on Selenium, first download the Selenium WebDriver for your preferred programming language (Java, Python, C#, etc.). Configure your development environment accordingly.
Inspect the SAP web application using browser developer tools to identify the HTML elements you need to interact with. SAP often generates dynamic IDs for its elements. You'll need to find stable element locators or use XPath/CSS Selectors that aren't dependent on dynamic attributes. You also need to write custom methods to interact with SAP's UI, since they aren't standard HTML elements.
For more comprehensive testing, integrate Selenium with a testing framework like JUnit (for Java) or PyTest (for Python). These frameworks offer additional features like setup/teardown methods, test grouping, and more.
3. Worksoft Certify
Worksoft Certify is an enterprise-level test automation tool designed to automate end-to-end business process testing, and SAP application testing can be regarded as its strongest point, along with Oracle testing and Salesforce testing. Worksoft Certify provides a codeless automation approach, allowing users to create and execute tests specifically for business processes without the need for extensive scripting or programming skills.
Upon adopting Worksoft, you have a Connective Automation Platform with a focus on simplifying SAP S/4HANA migrations. Leveraging intelligent process automation, Worksoft aims to reduce risks, accelerate project timelines, and efficiently manage change during SAP transformations.
Feature Highlights:
- Business process discovery, documentation, and automated end-to-end testing features to navigate the complexities of SAP migration
- Worksoft employs a model-based framework as the foundation of its automation solution to ensure change resilience post-migration.
- Agile support to facilitate collaboration between development and testing teams.
- Intelligent automation testing rules embedded within the model-based frameworks to adapt rapidly to system changes.
Read More: Top 8 Cross-browser Testing Tools For Your QA Team
4. SAP eCATT
eCATT (extended Computer Aided Test Tool) is a testing tool provided by SAP for automating functional and regression testing of SAP applications. eCATT is specifically designed to create and execute automated test scripts for SAP's R/3 system.
Feature Highlights:
- eCATT allows testers to record their interactions with SAP transactions and processes as test scripts that they can re-execute.
- Data-driven testing supported
- Testers can easily build a library of reusable test scripts to reduce duplication of effort
- eCATT uses a test data container to manage and organize test data.
- Integrate well with SAP Solution Manager
- Support both SAP GUI and web-based application testing
5. SAP Solution Manager
SAP Solution Manager, often abbreviated as SAP SolMan, is an application lifecycle management (ALM) platform provided by SAP AG. It is a central hub for managing and supporting SAP landscapes throughout the entire lifecycle of SAP solutions.
As you can see from the Home interface here, SAP Solman provides test plan management, automation testing, manual testing, and even test execution capabilities.
Feature Highlights:
- SAP Solution Manager allows organizations to plan and document their testing activities comprehensively. You can define test strategies, create test plans, and document test cases within Solman.
- SAP SolMan also includes a Test Automation Framework that supports both manual and automated testing. You can use eCATT (extended Computer Aided Test Tool) to record the test steps as you navigate through the SAP system performing the actions you want to automate. eCATT provides features to insert conditions, loops, and other programming constructs to handle test scenarios.
- Automated test cases can be executed on demand or as part of larger test plans. They can also be scheduled to run at specific times or triggered based on certain events.
- SAP SolMan supports parallel test execution, allowing multiple automated test cases or test packages to run simultaneously. This contributes to faster testing cycles.
- During test execution, the Test Automation Framework provides real-time monitoring of automated test cases.
- Automated test cases can be integrated with the Business Process Change Analyzer (BPCA) for change impact analysis. BPCA helps identify which test cases need to be executed based on changes in the system.
Website: SAP Solution Manager
6. SmartBear TestComplete
SmartBear TestComplete is an automated testing tool designed for functional and regression testing of web, desktop, and mobile applications. It supports a wide range of application types, including SAP applications. TestComplete provides a script-free and script-based testing approach, making it accessible to both testers and developers.
Feature Highlights:
- TestComplete supports SAP GUI testing through its UI Spy tool to inspect SAP GUI elements and generate scripts to automate interactions with those elements.
- Cross-browser testing is supported, so testers can create and run tests on different browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc.
- Record-and-playback feature available
- Testers can create modular tests using a set of predefined keywords or commands, making it easier to design and maintain tests without extensive programming knowledge.
- CI/CD integrations
Website: SmartBear TestComplete
7. IBM Rational Tester
IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT) is an automated functional testing tool developed by IBM. It is designed to facilitate the testing of software applications by automating the testing process. RFT supports a variety of application types, including web, desktop, and mobile applications. It is often used for testing SAP applications as well.
Feature Highlights:
- RFT uses Java as its scripting language. Testers can leverage Java programming skills to create powerful and flexible test scripts.
- RFT uses a technology called "ScriptAssure" for robust object recognition. It identifies objects in the application based on properties and characteristics, ensuring reliable identification even if the application's structure changes.
- SAP GUI testing is supported, with specific features to help testers locate SAP GUI controls, such as buttons and input fields, and perform actions on them programmatically.
- Data-driven testing supported
- RFT integrates seamlessly with IBM Quality Manager, providing a centralized platform for test management, execution, and reporting.
8. Tricentis Tosca
Tricentis Tosca is an enterprise-level continuous testing platform developed by Tricentis. It's designed to address the challenges of end-to-end testing for complex, dynamic, and interconnected software systems.
Feature Highlights:
- Tricentis follows a model-based test automation approach. Testers create visual models of the application, defining test cases through flowcharts. Testers can introduce parameters within the model to make the test case more dynamic. These models are then translated into executable test scripts.
- Specialized support for SAP testing, covering both SAP GUI and SAP Fiori applications.
- Tosca allows users to assess and prioritize testing efforts based on risk. Testers can identify critical business processes and allocate testing resources accordingly.
- Test data management capabilities available
- Tosca integrates with SAP Solution Manager for end-to-end ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) for SAP applications.
- Seamless integration with CI/CD tools to support automation testing within the DevOps pipeline
- AI-powered testing features to enhance test maintenance, reduce false positives and provide rich optimization insights.
Wrapping Up
SAP testing is a crucial activity to ensure the efficiency and reliability of your SAP systems, yet navigating these systems is no simple task. Multiple business modules (Finance, Sales, HR, etc.) are interconnected in SAP systems, and any update in the system can cause a ripple effect on other modules. SAP is also highly customizable, so no SAP system is the same, and QA teams must develop a tailored approach to the application-under-test. A good SAP testing tool should allow for a lot of flexibility when creating test cases, while also offering features supporting test management, execution, and reporting to unify testing activities.
Here is a list of testing tools that you might be interested in:
