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Introduction
SAP offers a powerful test management tool as part of SAP Solution Manager 7.2: The Test Suite.
As a test manager, tester or developer, the Test Suite supports you during the whole test management process. You can use it for test preparation, test execution and test reporting.
Nevertheless, for the organizational setup of your test management, you still need a detailed test concept. The Test Suite is a test management tool with a lot of features. These features need to be customized and orchestrated by a detailed test management concept.
You can start the Test Suite via the well-known launchpad. It is possible to customize the dashboard based on roles and authorizations. Please see below for an example launchpad for a test manager.
The launchpad may be adapted and streamlined for other roles, e.g. for testers.
Because of its integration in SAP Solution Manager 7.2, you can use the Solution Documentation features to structure your test documentation by adding test case documents to the existing solution documentation nodes.
Then you gather all needed test cases and add them to a test plan, e.g. all needed test cases for a defined test phase. Based on this test case selection you create several test packages and assign them to the testers.
The testers execute the test cases with the help of a Fiori app. Once they find an error, they may create incidents. The incidents are routed to the developers to analyse and fix them.
As a test manager, you can use the powerful reporting tools in the Test Suite. For example, all relevant data is presented in the Test Suite Dashboard.
Test Preparation
When using the Test Suite for test management, a well-defined solution documentation is key. The solution documentation is the baseline for your testing activities. The test case documents are maintained in the business process structure. Function test cases are attached more to process steps whereas E2E test cases would be attached to scenarios.
When you start to plan your test phases, you start the Test Plan Management application with the tile “Test Plan Management” from the launchpad. Then you create a new test plan and select all needed test cases from the solution documentation. After this, you add them to a so-called test plan. From the test plan, you create test packages and distribute them to your tester community. Each tester may receive more than one test package.
First you must add some general administrative data to the test plan, e.g. the ID and the description.
The settings like the release schema or the start and end dates must be defined.
To get access to the selected test cases from the solution documentation, the test case hierarchy has to be generated.
Once this is done, the test cases from the solution documentation may be selected.
Now the test cases from the test plan have to be assigned to the testers. This is done by creating test packages.
Based on the test case selection of the underlying test plan, the test cases for the test packages are selected.
Finally, the dedicated tester(s) are assigned to the test package.
Test Execution
Once a tester was assigned to a test package, he may access the test package from the Tester Worklist. This list contains all test cases that shall be executed, structured by test packages
Within the Tester Worklist, the testers have instant access to both the test case and to the object to be tested, e.g. a SAP GUI transaction or a Fiori application.
In case the tester detects an error during the testing efforts, he can create an incident from the Tester Worklist. In the incident he should document all relevant information like the steps to reproduce or screenshots. Once created, the incident is routed to the relevant developer.
As soon as the incident is solved, the tester may re-test the test case in the Tester Worklist.
Test Reporting
Already during the test execution phase, you can create reports. You may measure the test progress or the status of created defects. Please see below for a complete list of test reports available in the standard Test Suite.
As an example, the Test Suite Dashboard (i.e. “KPIs Manual Testing") provides you with real-time data about the currently running test phase.
The reporting features a bunch of metrics for an operational reporting during the test phases, e.g. checking the progress within test plans. In addition to that, the reporting features may also be used for management reporting, e.g. creating a detailed test report as a Word document.
Summary, outlook and further information
With the features of the Test Suite in SAP Solution Manager 7.2, you can manage your test activities, starting with the preparation, followed by the execution and finalized with the reporting.
Since a lot of features were added lately, it is recommended to at least upgrade to SAP Solution Manager 7.2 SP7 when starting to use the Test Suite.
After having gained some experience with the manual testing in the Test Suite, you may consider having a look at the built-in test automation features of the SAP Solution Manager 7.2. It comes with the test automation tool CBTA (Component Based Test Automation) as the successor of eCATT.
A more advanced feature of the Test Suite is also BPCA (Business Process Change Analyzer). With BPCA you can identify the test cases that are needed to exactly test the changes you just transported in your system under test.
All features of the Test Suite, including CBTA and BPCA, are presented in more detail in the official Test Suite wiki available in SCN.
In case you need further input regarding the role concept used in the Test Suite, please have a look at this blog and at this blog.
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