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

With companies pouring millions of dollars into SAP R/3 implementation, the question remains whether proper documentation, standards, strategy, and approach are all in place in order to successfully test the components of their SAP system. Designed for SAP managers, consultants, testers, and team leads, Testing SAP R/3 equips companies and SAP professionals to protect their multimillion dollar investment and build their system the right way and with quality.

Written by renowned SAP practitioners, this book reviews testing standards and techniques supported by the Software Engineering Institute, IEEE, and Unifying Modeling Language (UML) that have dominated the landscape for producing software-based applications, providing readers with information for conducting a major SAP testing cycle for either an SAP upgrade or initial SAP installation.

With the advent of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, companies more than ever have the burden of demonstrating that their enterprise resource planning (ERP), financial, inventory, and supply chain systems are properly working. Providing much-needed industry guidance, this thought-provoking guide enables public companies to prove their SAP applications are running correctly and delivers powerful, straightforward, proven testing techniques and approaches for:

• Building a system with quality as opposed to merely testing for quality
• Adhering to testing practices from SAP's ASAP Roadmap Methodology, IBM's Ascendant Methodology, IEEE standards, and the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI)
• Construction of a requirements traceability matrix (RTM) to verify all in-scope requirements
• Diagramming processes and requirements with Unifying Modeling Language (UML) notation
• Documentation and adherence to test plans and test strategies that are subjected to version control
• Inclusion and enforcement of quality assurance standards

A must-read for project managers, test managers, and configuration leads who want to establish a testing framework from the ground up based on industry-established principles, Testing SAP R/3 contains contributions from industry leaders in the fields of SAP testing, test tool automation, and templates to help project managers and test managers establish immediate testing best practices. Its step-by-step discussion covers all aspects of SAP testing from preparation to resolution of defects in order to achieve an efficiently managed SAP system.

About the Authors

Jose Fajardo is a former SAP consultant of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), he has worked as an independent SAP consultant for Fortune 100 companies utilizing automated testing strategies and in particular implementing SAP R/3. His competency in automated test tools includes products from Mercury Interactive as well as Rational Corporation.

With subject matter expertise in validating and managing testing of ERP systems, Fajardo has participated in verification of customized implementations of SAP R/3, SAP R/3 bolt-ons, custom applications, and non-SAP applications interfacing with SAP R/3. Fajardo has been instrumental in guiding and mentoring Fortune 100 companies in the development of testing strategies and methodologies, creating testing standards, documenting Test Readiness Review checklists, documenting entrance/exit/release criteria, implementing testing best practices, creating quality assurance (QA) teams and QA processes, mentoring junior programmers, staffing testing efforts with resources, performing verification and validation activities, managing outsourcing agreements, preparing for audits of testing results, managing the execution of test scripts, and implementing automated testing strategies.

Fajardo has published several articles on automation strategy, performance testing, regression testing, functional testing, implementing testing best practices, and testing standards and procedures.

Elfriede Dustin is author of Effective Software Testing and lead author of Automated Software Testing and Quality Web Systems, books that have been translated into various languages and have sold tens of thousands of copies throughout the world. Her latest book, The Art of Software Security Testing, coauthored with security experts Chris Wysopal, Lucas Nelson, and Dino Dai Zovi, was published by Symantec Press in November 2006. Dustin has also authored various white papers on the topic of software testing, teaches various testing tutorials, and is a frequent speaker at various software testing conferences. She is the cochair of VERIFY, an international software testing conference held in the Washington, D.C., area. In support of software test efforts, Dustin has been responsible for implementing automated test, or has performed as the lead consultant/manager guiding the implementation of automated and manual software testing efforts. Dustin has a BS in computer science with over 15 years of information technology experience and currently works as an independent consultant in the Washington, D.C., area.