Reducing end-to-end product testing duration from 3 weeks to 6 hours

Client challenge: To support its increasingly agile methodologies, the client wanted to improve the speed and efficiency of its testing processes through the introduction of more automation.

Solution: Through a collaborative effort with Sogeti, they implemented the SAP S/4HANA platform as well as new processes and workflows to enable end-to-end automation and continuous testing.

Benefits:

• More than six times the number of test cases completed daily
• Reduced reliance on SMEs and manual effort
• Decreased costs associated with testing processes
• Greater accuracy and security
• Reducing regression test duration from 3 weeks to 6 hours.

As agile methodologies have become increasingly common in a variety of industries and markets, businesses have needed to address new challenges. Among these, testing has formed a major hurdle to the shift from traditional workflows. One of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world, had run into this exact limitation. Testing had led to excessive time demands and higher than desired costs while remaining necessary to ensure the quality of the products released by the company.

So, to facilitate greater effectiveness in its agile methodology, they wanted to introduce a new testing solution and processes. Specifically, the company wanted to expand the role that automation played, which would increase the speed with which it performed testing while simultaneously lowering the associated costs. This led them to identify SAP S/4HANA as an ideal platform that could provide a standard solution with a structured approach that offered user interface (UI) automation as well as service virtualization and API automation.

However, introducing such a platform successfully required knowledge and expertise with SAP technology and similar implementations within the industry. To leverage these capabilities, they decided to coordinate once again with Sogeti, as part of Capgemini.

Maturing testing in four stages

Based on their pre-existing relationship, the partners were able to quickly determine a pathway that was best suited to the company’s expectations and the requirements of the project. This involved a four-stage process that would lead from primarily manual testing to an automation-led approach that fit the client’s vision for the future.

At the project’s outset, the partners needed to implement SAP S/4HANA to introduce automation to support the existing manual test-tool-based structure. A series of sprints enabled the project team to apply the SAP Agile Automation framework while supporting the entire implementation with Quality Assurance processes. Throughout this stage, the European automotive manufacturer and Sogeti updated the company’s overall testing strategy and established a new regression baseline that, together, formed an updated operational model.

With this foundation established, the partners then looked to expand the presence of automation in the second stage. At this point, the project team added UI and test data automation, all while providing continuous maintenance support. Then in the third stage, the partners build upon this to add end-to-end automation capabilities. The addition of service virtualization for inbound interfaces, API automation for outbound interfaces, and the identification of integration scopes ensured that testing could be managed while dramatically reducing the need for manual tools and effort.

Finally, the client and Sogeti performed a transition to support the newly automated processes. By shifting to the Azure Devops pipeline and Tosca Distributed Execution (DEX) solution, the partners developed a new pipeline and workflow that could be easily tracked and managed. As a result, they possessed the tools and methodology needed to simulate third-party systems and enabled the organization to perform all regression testing in a sandbox environment. This reduced the regression test duration from 3 weeks to 6 hours.

Delivering efficiency and impact

Following an effort that lasted a year-and-a-half, the partners delivered an SAP-based, end-to-end automated testing solution. By doing so, the client has managed to complete more than six times the number of test cases daily, largely due to the tremendous reduction in the amount of time needed for each. Furthermore, the expansion of automated processes enabled the company to free up experienced employees to support other tasks that added value.

At the same time, the reduction of manual involvement in the process has led to a reduction in errors while security has only grown stronger. The combination of these results has led to a substantially reduced cost as the need for third-party systems has receded and the time and effort required to assure product quality has similarly decreased.

The integration of UI and test data automation, end-to-end capabilities, and the powerful Azure DevOps pipeline with Tosca Distributed Execution (DEX) and Int4 Service Virtualization propelled the manufacturer to new heights.

Moving forward, the partners will continue to explore new options for expanding continuous testing. Such efforts will enable the European automotive manufacturer to further increase the pace at which it can deliver new releases and fulfill its vision of the future.