Top 6 SIGNS Your Enterprise Can Benefit from SAP API Testing

Signs that Your Enterprise Can Benefit from SAP API Testing

Whether you foresee a big SAP Program such as SAP S/4HANA Implementation or Integration Platform Migration, or you would simply like to increase your confidence in the system without performing the costly and complicated End-To-End testing, SAP API Testing might be a solution worth exploring.

During one of the latest episodes of the show “Navigating SAP API Testing”, we discussed the best use cases for SAP API Testing and the signs that a company should be implementing this approach. Here’s a full conversation:

But before we jump into the signs, let’s start with the basics.

What is SAP API Testing?

SAP API Testing is an approach that allows you to automatically see if your Application Programming Interfaces work in a correct way after making changes in the system, by leveraging real, historical messages, instead of having to rely on UI testing – without the need to record scripts.

In the book “Testing SAP APIs: Strategy and Execution” you can read, that…

SAP API testing is emerging as a new type of testing compared to the user interface (UI) testing and base to fulfill some testing paradigms, such as continuous testing where testing is done on a daily basis, and continuous deployment where no approvals are required for moving the development to the production landscape.

For more in-depth information on why SAP API Testing is a hidden gem, take a look at this video:

And if you’re wondering about some possible signs, that your Enterprise could benefit from this approach, here they are:

1. Your Enterprise has a complex supply chain

If your Enterprise has a complex supply chain, it will usually have complex integration needs. Because your business processes are defragmented – meaning that some of their parts happen outside of your IT landscape, which makes testing much more difficult in a traditional approach.

Although there are lots of industries that successfully utilize SAP API Testing, the customers of Int4 Suite (SAP API Testing and Service Virtualization platform) usually stem from industries such as Retail, Manufacturing, FMCG, Consumer Goods or Pharma.

2. Your SAP is integrated with many legacy, third-party or non-SAP systems.

To properly test your integrations with non-SAP systems, you’ll likely need involvement from others. But you cannot expect that the people who are assigned to these non-SAP systems will be available for you exactly when you’ll need them to perform testing.

3. Your company has more than a 100 interfaces that are crucial to daily operations

If your company sells, buys or ships by using APIs, their health is vital to performing your most important business processes. 

Although the number of 100 is a symbol, rather than a specific threshold, the more interfaces your enterprise has, the more important it is to be able to independently, thoroughly test them. 

4. You’re experiencing testing challenges related to External Dependencies

The challenge of testing integration with non-SAP systems only gets worse if we consider the systems that are completely outside of your IT landscape. Like your EDI/B2B partners. 

Such partners are completely outside of your control and have their own business goals that are completely separated from yours and may not be available to you at all. This is what we call “External Dependencies” in the context of testing.

Are External Dependencies slowing down your projects? See the video below to find out:

Maybe because of their unavailability you can’t test as thoroughly as you’d like and need to cut the testing scope, which undermines your confidence in the system? Or maybe because of the slow response times, the delay seems unavoidable? 

5. The coordination efforts and ping-pong communication are taking their toll on your ability to effectively test

Enterprise business processes can get pretty complex. And if they go through multiple different systems (like your Order-To-Cash probably does for example), coordinating your testing efforts with hundreds of partners and third-party resources can be a very challenging task. 

And what’s more – exchanging emails or calls back and forth to get the details just right is a long and grueling process that requires huge time investment from your team. 

Imagine having to call someone every time you’d like to open your email inbox.

6. You foresee a big, important SAP Project (such as SAP S/4HANA Implementation or Integration Platform Migration) and can’t afford testing-related delays.

If you’re making big changes to your landscape, you need to make sure that your business processes are working end-to-end. But doing that through constantly trying to engage people outside of your project into testing is an easy way to generate project delays… Since usually, nobody is as invested in the project as your project team. 

So instead of trying to engage everyone else, how about giving the project team the tools to make their job easier?

And when considering the use of SAP API Testing in the project, please remember: the earlier in the project you can implement it, the bigger are the benefits – for example when it comes to saved time. 

Remove External Dependencies from your SAP Testing with Int4 Suite

If some of the signs above sound familiar, you should definitely get more familiar with the concept of SAP API Testing. One of the leading tools in this space is Int4 Suite.

Int4 Suite allows you to remove the External Dependencies and test your integrations automatically and on scale, without having to rely on third-parties.

If you’d like to learn more about how to overcome the challenges described in this article, take a look at our Int4 Suite crash course that will allow you to quickly familiarize yourself with the basics of our approach on testing: