You can find yourself working with a great test plan, comfortable with the test scope and the activities, yet still be doing the wrong testing instead of the right testing. Here is an example: You are tasked with testing the entire finance module in SAP. Because your company has both developed and outsourced custom applications for SAP, you know that you will have a lot of extra work to do. Instead of testing all of the custom work, wouldn’t you like to know where to focus specifically from the beginning?
Speeding Up Service Pack Implementations
If you are able to focus on testing exactly what code will be impacted, suddenly you have created a shortcut for yourself. On top of this, if you could test only the code that is being used and ignore the unused code, you have found another valuable shortcut. This is exactly what was happening to the people at FujiFilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FFDB) when they were trying to speed up their service pack implementations for their SAP ERP system. The IT department at the company needed to find a way to automate the testing process and make sure they were making the right tests, and the ERP system was falling behind. “We were not only doing more testing but also potentially the wrong testing,” according to Shirley Verrill, SAP System Manager, FFDB. “We didn’t know what to test.”
By automating the test execution process, FFDB was able to capture and record test steps and data at the press of a button. This resulted in FFDB saving 80 percent of the time that they normally spent on testing their ERP system.
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Real-time View of the Testing Cycle
Before moving to test automation, documentation of the testing process at FujiFilm Diosynth Biotechnologies was manual. They wrote what they did during the testing, then they wrote what they found, sending screenshots around to document everything. Then when it was time to correct the code, they worked in pairs, with one person tracking and reading out the fixes while their partner executed the corrections. “In the old manual days,” according to Campbell Kay, FFDB IT Manager, ”the project manager used spreadsheets for visibility and tracking over the upgrade. Now the project manager has a granular, real-time view of the testing cycle with the ability to track the tests, change controls and identify bottlenecks, achieving complete efficiency.”
In addition to Fujifilm being able to cut their SAP testing time by 80%, they also were able to speed up their service pack implementation by 25%. Focusing on the right things to test made all the difference.
For more insights into speeding up service pack implementation, server migration, roll outs and routine change projects, read the Fujifilm case study »