PRACTICES UP is an acronym for all ERP focus areas which stands for:
All these focus areas are more or less part of a complete or partially ERP implementation, upgrade or migration for test.
Processes
| Business processes are leading! |
SAP and other ERP systems support critical business processes. Examples are:
- Policy to claims
- Hire to retire
- Order to cash
The business processes are leading in de PRACTICES UP test approach.
Reports
| Everything that is being sent to the customer has to be 100% OK |
Ever gone through a change of a company house style? This is not an easy task to develop and test.
Reporting is often customized, this means more possible errors. But everything that is being sent of the customer has to be 100% OK. So Reporting needs special attention.
Authorizations
| Authorizations have an important role in SAP process handling |
SAP is used for large companies with lots of different users:Purchase, Production,HR, Sale, Accounting. All these users have different permissions in the application. Some sensitive data, like HR data, needs to be shielded from standard users. Some actions, like approving certain amounts is only available for certain people. Authorisations have a important role in SAP process handling and are important to test thourougly in any ERP system.
- Signatory authority matrix
- Approval of orders with a specific amount
- Shielding of payroll data
- Authorizations in SAP do not function the same in all SAP modules
Customizations
| Understand the intended behavior that is achieved through customizing |
- Setting up SAP by parameterization
- Separation of various company entities
- Different company codes
- Another customization per country
- Specific sequence of process steps
- Workflow
Transports
| A mistake in a transport can cause serious issues |
- Transports ensure within ERP tot ensure migration of changes into the development landscape (DTAP)
- Changes have to be transferred in the proper sequence
- Sometimes an object is forgotten in a transport
- Overwriting of code is a possible risk, especially with variables used.
Interfaces
| Testing interfaces is a multi-discipline activity |
- The world is often greater than ERP: communication with other systems is necessary
- Payment interfaces
- Interfaces with other production systems
- EDI traffic interfaces
- Usually customization
- Often transcends IT departments (other development language or middleware)
Conversions
| Verify (early) if the processes can handle the converted data |
When implementing new processes in ERP, often required a conversion of:
- Master- or transaction data from ERP
- Master- or transaction data from other systems
- Owner of data is not always clear
- For example when used by multiple departments
- Inadequate monitoring of converted data
- Is conversion complete
- Do business processes correctly process converted data?
Enhancements
| Enhancements require extra test attention and effort |
- Software created specifically for customer
- Software which is part of a process
- Other word for Customization
Screens
| SAP Screens can be heavily modified |
- ERP screens are sometimes modified to make it easier for the user (i.e. too many tabs)
- Which fields are mandatory to fill in?
In case of upgrades, take the following into consideration:
- Each customized screen is customization
- With each upgrade must be checked that screen adjustments still work correctly
User Experience
| To what extend is User Experience a focus point in testing an ERP solution? |
...
Platform
| SAP does have various platforms. What is the impact on testing? |
- SAP Cloud Platform
- Multi-cloud Digital
- Platform Data Management
- Integration Suite
- Extension Platform
- Digital Experience