SAP Trends to Watch:

S/4HANA, Agile, Cloud, and

Testing Transformations
In January 2019, Tricentis surveyed 848 SAP project leaders to assess enterprises’ top
SAP transformation priorities and testing challenges for the next two years. The survey
focused on three core questions:

What are your organization’s top 3 SAP What do you believe will be the top soft- What is your general prognosis for SAP
initiatives for the next 2 years? ware testing challenges for SAP environ- test automation in the next 2 years?
ments in the next 2 years?

Key findings from the responses include:

• SAP S/4HANA is the top SAP initiative, followed by Agile adoption for SAP projects, and moving SAP workloads to the cloud.
We believe the emphasis on these interrelated transformations is largely driven by organizations making SAP S/4HANA the
centerpiece of the “intelligent enterprise.”

• The top 3 testing challenges were end-to-end testing (SAP apps and beyond), S/4HANA testing, and moving from manual to
automated testing. Again, these top 3 concerns are closely related. As organizations move to S/4HANA, they connect it to all
the applications, devices, and users involved in transactions that promote digital transformation. This has distinct impacts in
terms of testing speed and scope.

• For respondents who already migrated to S/4HANA, end-to-end testing and automated testing remained the top 2 concerns,
but migration from legacy testing tools rose from #6 to #3. This suggests that once S/4HANA becomes a reality, many orga-
nizations discover that their legacy testing tools aren’t ideal for this new interconnected and rapidly-changing environment.

• A staggering 76% of respondents predicted that test automation would become increasingly important for organizations using
S/4HANA. 88% of respondents believe that automation remains a priority or will become more of a priority in the next two years.

Question 1:
What are your organization’s
top 3 SAP initiatives for the
next 2 years?
(select up to 3)
Moving to SAP Fiori; 7%
Integrating w/ Concur, Hybris...; 15%
SAP workloads to the cloud; 19%
Agile for SAP; 24%
S/4HANA migration; 35%
Results and Discussion
Migration to SAP S/4HANA
Moving SAP projects to an Agile methodology
Shifting on-premise SAP workloads to the cloud (Azure, AWS etc.)
Integrating with SAP cloud solutions like Concur, Hybris, Ariba,
SuccessFactors etc.
Moving to SAP Fiori
SAP S/4HANA as the
platform for digital
transformation
SAP S/4HANA migration emerged as the top priority for the next
2 years. This was not unexpected, given SAP’s decision to “sunset”
support for SAP ECC in 2025. However, we found that the move
is largely driven by the increased C-level focus on digital trans-
formation—and the business committing to making S/4HANA the
centerpiece of the “intelligent enterprise.”
Based on respondents’ comments, SAP Sapphire conversa-
tions, and prospect/customer feedback, organizations moving to
S/4HANA aren’t necessarily making the decision to “upgrade” to
S/4HANA. Rather, they are making SAP the business’ platform for
digital transformation, and the move to S/4HANA is one major
step in that larger transformation. Organizations are not seeking
a digital transformation platform solely to run SAP. The ultimate
goal is to connect all the applications, devices, and users involved
in transactions that promote digital transformation. Given this,
the decision to use SAP as your platform for digital transforma-
tion has far-reaching consequences. In fact, there are really four
distinct transformations involved in this move:
 Digital transformation: The selection of Agile adoption/scaling: Migration to
SAP as your enterprise digital transforma- much more agile processes (since SAP will
tion platform. be one of the cornerstones for more rapid,
iterative changes).

Business process rationalization: Ratio- Cloud migration: When you move to

nalizing your existing business processes S/4HANA, your architecture becomes

for the new platform. Most organizations much better suited to support a cloud

have spent years customizing their SAP transformation. For example, the instal-

instances by modifying ABAP code. With lation for an SAP module like the SAP

S/4HANA, the more customizations you Finance app takes 593 GB. Moving that

have, the more difficult it will be to achieve application to a third-party cloud, where

the desired speed of change. This slows you’re renting space, would be quite costly.

your upgrades—and ultimately your digital The equivalent module for SAP S/4HANA is

transformation. Reworking these custom only 42GB. SAP has not only sped up the

processes to more closely follow the stan- transactions, but also made core applica-

dard SAP implementation is essential for tions much more compact—enabling you

speeding up the process. to move that workload to the cloud.

SAP Fiori Shifting SAP work- Agile adoption

We were surprised by the low number
of responses on SAP Fiori. One possible
loads to the cloud Correlations and commentary indicate
that organizations migrating to S/4HANA
As discussed above, the shift to SAP
explanation is that organizations are are also launching Agile training at the
S/4HANA makes it considerably more
migrating their databases to S/4HANA, same time. In other words, the S/4HANA
feasible to shift on-prem workloads to
but not yet upgrading their interface to migration is an impetus for Agile adoption
the cloud. The 19% who reported this as
SAP Fiori. Instead, they may be using or scaling.
a concern were predominantly organiza-
their existing interface on top of the new
tions who indicated that they had already
S/4HANA database.
started or completed an S/4HANA migra-
tion project.
Question 2:
What do you believe will be the
top software testing challenge
for SAP environments in the
next 2 years? (select up to 3)
Migrating from legacy testing tools;11%
Test data management; 12%
Test maintenance; 14%
Moving from manual to automated; 15%
S/4HANA migration; 28%
E2E regression testing; 31%
End-to-end regression testing for SAP (SAP apps and beyond)
Moving from manual to automated testing
S/4HANA migration
Maintaining the integrity of the automated test (test maintenance)
SAP test data management
Migrating from legacy testing tools like Worksoft, Micro Focus/UFT ...
End-to-end testing and automated
testing
The top answer here (End-to-end regression testing for SAP apps and beyond) is most
likely related to organizations committing to SAP S/4HANA as their platform for digital
transformation. As mentioned in the previous discussion section, when an organization
decides that S/4HANA will serve as the centerpiece of their digital transformation, they
connect it to all the applications, devices, and users involved in transactions that promote
digital transformation. This has distinct impacts in terms of testing.
When you look at regression testing for SAP and the apps that are connected to SAP,
it’s logistically impossible to complete the required scope and frequency of end-to-end
testing with a predominantly manual testing process. Teams need to test much more
frequently (and thus much faster) as organizations move from annual or biannual SAP
upgrades to a monthly or biweekly update cadence. This is a challenge in itself (as indi-
cated by Moving from manual testing to automated testing coming in as the #3 concern).
However, in addition to testing faster, teams also have to test more. End-to-end testing
involves testing a transaction that might cross multiple interfaces, including mobile
devices, APIs, ESBs, other packaged applications, the data layer, and more. This requires
the tester to know how to configure and validate testing for each associated technology,
as well as pass data between the layers to ensure that the test replicates a realistic user
experience. This is not trivial.
It is interesting to note the different challenges faced by respondents who indicated they
had already migrated to S/4HANA.
 Testing Challenge- S/4HANA vs Overall
Migrating from legacy testing tools
Test data generation/provisioning
Test maintenance
Moving from manual to automated
E2E regression testing
End-to-end testing and Automated testing remained the top 2 concerns, but Migration from legacy testing tools rose from
#6 to #3. This suggests that once S/4HANA becomes a reality, many organizations discover that their legacy testing tools
aren’t ideal for this new interconnected and rapidly-changing environment.
S/4HANA migration
S/4HANA migration emerged as the
#2 concern overall. From what we’ve
seen, the level of change (and pain)
involved here depends on whether you
are migrating only the database, or the
interface as well as the database. If you
will continue using SAP ECC with the SAP
S/4HANA database, you will likely be able
to update your existing tests for the new
process logic and database structure. The
level of pain associated with this update
varies dramatically based on how your
tests are constructed (e.g., scripted vs.
model-based). If you are changing the
interface as well as the database, a much
higher level of effort will be required to
align your UI tests with the new UI as well
as the rationalized business processes
and new database structure.
9%
21%
12%
15%
12%
19%
15%
21%
31%
34%
Overall S/4HANA
Test maintenance and test data
We expect that the number of organizations struggling with test data and test mainte-
nance challenges will rise dramatically once more organizations migrate to S/4HANA and
adopt automated end-to-end regression testing.
Test maintenance becomes an issue soon after test automation is in place. Test mainte-
nance issues stem from two core sources. One, overly-sensitive test automation causes
tests to fail even when the application is behaving correctly. In this case, tests need to
be adjusted to more flexibly perform the expected automation and validation. Two, tests
fail because the application has changed, but the tests were not properly updated. In
this case, the tests need to be re-aligned with the evolving applications and business
processes. The likelihood of false positives, as well as the time required to update tests
for changes, varies depending upon the testing approach used.
For those moving to a new database, the idea of test data managements presents a
whole new challenge. The new database structure for S/4HANA forces you to rethink
how your test data is being drawn into the system itself. After you migrate your existing
database to the S/4HANA database, your existing test data is no longer going to work.
You need to pull data from the new S/4HANA structure in order to validate it.
Legacy testing tools
Legacy testing tools is another issue that appears more likely
to emerge in the later phases of S/4HANA migration. The selec-
tion of legacy testing tools as a concern was highly-correlated
to the selection of test maintenance and S/4HANA migration
challenges. This suggests that once organizations are in the
throes of a migration project, the shortcomings of their legacy
tools are more likely to emerge as a pain point.
In the comments, the most common complaint was that the
tools did not provide the expected level of assistance in accom-
modating change. This was an issue:
• Migrating the database to S/4HANA but not (yet) the
interface
When migrating the database but not the interface, teams
typically underestimate the level of change required to update
their UI tests. Although the interface itself remains the same,
the new infrastructure impacts business processes and data
structures. When changes impact core operations that are
used across business processes, this adds up to a high degree
of rework—especially if teams need to update each impacted
test individually rather than make a single change in a central
reusable module.
When migrating both the database and the interface, the
amount of required changes is significantly greater—but at
least it’s expected. After the migration, respondents discovered
that keeping tests in sync with the evolving SAP architecture
required more time and resources than they had anticipated.

• Moving the database to S/4HANA and upgrading the inter- Teams that hoped the pain of test maintenance would subside

face to Fiori
• Accommodating the more rapid update cadence that
became the new normal once S/4HANA was truly in place
after the migration ended found that it actually increased.
This increase was the result of constant SAP architecture and
process changes… with no end in sight.

Different approaches to test automation required different

responses to change:

Worksoft monitors user keystrokes to
build tests. This can enable the creation of
tests for highly-used business processes.
However, in cases where the team needs
to build a test for a new or substantially
modified business process—for which
user data is not yet collected—tests need
to be re-created from scratch. And when
the underlying processes change, the
recorded tests need to be either re-cre-
ated after the updates are deployed
(which is typically too late) or manually
retrofitted to accommodate the latest
variations. Teams using this approach
wanted a more efficient way to create and
update tests before changes went into
production.
HPE/Micro Focus UFT relies on script-
based tests. This requires a highly-spe-
cialized skill set that limits the number
and scope of team members who can
contribute to the test creation and
updating process. Given that these tests
are notoriously brittle (changing one thing
in the test breaks another), teams tend
to realize early on that this approach is
not ideal for either the tight deadlines
of S/4HANA migration projects or the
ongoing change associated with testing
the new infrastructure.
Tricentis Tosca uses model-based test
automation to interrogate the interface
and create building blocks that help
users more rapidly construct tests. Only
a minor degree of review and updating is
required when teams migrate their data-
base to S/4HANA (retaining ECC as their
interface) or evolve their SAP implemen-
tation after a partial or complete S/4HANA
migration. The automation logic and data
usage are updated in a central location,
then propagated to all impacted tests.
When migrating the interface to SAP Fiori,
only the test modules for similarly-named
components can be reused. New modules
for the new components are created
automatically, and the new modules can
be either plugged into existing test flows,
or combined with existing modules to
define new test flows.
Question 3: SAP test automation will become more important for ALL SAP
environments
What is your general prognosis SAP test automation will become more important for SAP S/4HANA
for SAP test automation in the SAP test automation remains a priority
next 2 years? The need for SAP test automation will actually be reduced

49% replied that test automation would

become more critical in all SAP environ-

Less of a priority; 5% ments (including S/4HANA) and an addi-

Remains a priority; 19%
More important for S/4HANA; 27%
More important for ALL SAP
environments; 49%
tional 27% said it would become more
important specifically for S/4HANA. This
adds up to a staggering 76% of respon-
dents predicting test automation would
be increasingly imperative for organiza-
tions using S/4HANA. 88% of respondents
believe that automation remains a priority
or will become more of a priority in the next
two years.

Methodology SAP Testing with Tricentis

In January 2019, Tricentis surveyed 848 IT professionals to assess
enterprises’ top SAP transformation priorities and testing chal-
lenges. The target audience was IT professionals who were leading
an SAP project and had a job title of manager, director, or above.
The survey was promoted via social media (Twitter + LinkedIn
groups), emails sent to the Tricentis database, and independent
outreach from Tricentis partners. The demographic breakdown of
respondents was:
Tricentis, #1 for “Enterprise End-to-End Testing” in Gartner’s
latest Critical Capabilities report, modernizes SAP business
process testing with the most advanced and comprehensive
SAP test automation on the market. Leading enterprises rely on
Tricentis to:
Modernize testing to reduce the risk of change

42% Americas Reduce risks and delays in S/HANA migrations

33% EMEA

25% APAC Accelerate quality processes for Agile speed

After collecting and analyzing the survey results, Tricentis reached

out to individual respondents for additional details and explanation. Ensure flawless performance in the cloud

TO LEARN MORE, VISIT THE TRICENTIS SAP TESTING RESOURCE CENTER