Why read this article
Service virtualization and testing (SVT) solutions like Int4 IFTT (Certified ABAP addon for SAP Solution Manager – SAP Solman) provide the developers and functional consultants with ways to quickly simulate the interfaces of any 3rd party, non-SAP systems as well as B2B partners – EDI. This allows not only to quickly run test scenarios during the development (DEV) and integration (SIT) phases of the project but also run the regression testing on any non-productive environment. Not having to install and maintain many new test instances of non-SAP systems also allows the SAP S/4HANA transformation projects to be more sustainable as projects use less resources and can be done much faster, therefore reducing carbon footprint significantly.
Key takeaways
SVT solutions like Int4 IFTT can make SAP Developers’s and SAP Function Consultants’s lives much easier
How can I get a few test messages from my EDI partner or 3rd party logistic provider (3PL) to validate my development? Who can send me a few test messages from our company’s non-SAP warehouse management system? If you’re an SAP developer or SAP Functional Consultant (OTC, P2P, LE) you’ve most likely stumbled upon some of those questions quite often. Now with Int4 IFTT you can just open Int4 IFTT SAP transaction and simulate any 3rd party system and EDI partner in no time. You can finally remove the delays caused by dependency on those non-SAP applications and continue with your SAP S/4HANA projects to deliver it on time.
Avoid duplicating production systems copies used for testing environments to reduce cost, maintenance, infrastructure and energy carbon footprint
How many 3rd party systems does your SAP S/4HANA systems communicate with? Is that more than 20 or even 100 in many cases. Do you need to install, configure and maintain all of them for the SAP S/4HANA transformation program? Why not simulate all those systems to save all the costs and effort and at the same time speed up the SAP S/4HANA project – this is all possible with SVT like Int4 IFTT as shown in Figure 1
Figure 1 – simulate EDI partners and non-SAP 3rd party systems
Native to SAP SVT solutions like Int4 IFTT are easy to set up and use
Int4 IFTT unlike other SVT solutions was designed specifically to support SAP S/4HANA transformation programs. It’s very easy to install (certified ABAP addon) and set up (only one connection to the company’s Enterprise Service Bus (SAP Process Orchestration, SAP Integration Suite, Boomi, Webmethods, Azure Integration Services) is required. Creating test cases is also very simple due to the Repeater technology which takes already processed electronic messages directly from any supported Enterprise Service Bus in a matter of minutes.
Why use Int4 IFTT SVT for SAP S/4HANA transformation programs?
Some of the problems of SAP S/4HANA transformation include:
1. 3rd party systems and EDI partners either don’t exist of are very difficult to reach
2. Manual creation of mockups is either very time consuming (transaction WE19) and cannot be reused or does not work at all (in case of outbound IDOC messages, ABAP proxy messages)
3. The time to create and maintain non existing, before the SAP S/4HANA project, 3rd party non-SAP systems causes one issue – all SAP developers and Functional consultants need to wait to have their business processes tested as shown in Figure below – Figure 2
Figure 2 – lack of access to 3rd party non-SAP systems causes SAP S/4HANA project delays
Benefits of using Int4 IFTT STV solution include:
1. Significant decrease of testing time during development (DEV) and integration (SIT) testing phases of the project
2. Cost avoidance – since most of the test landscapes for 3rd party systems can be simulated SAP S/4HANA projects can reduce the overall project costs and make it more sustainable compared the traditional approach where all 3rd party systems need to be installed and supported by external resources (in most cases decoupled from the main project so their availability is limited) as shown in Figure 3
3. Early defect detection – with Int4 IFTT SVT solution SAP developers and Functional consultants can run a much larger number of tests which directly leads to early defect detection and large annual savings related to less issues on production landscape
Figure 3 – simulation of 3rd party non-SAP systems to speed up SAP S/4HANA testing
What exactly Int4 IFTT SVT does for SAP S/4HANA transformation programs?
Int4 IFTT being an SAP native Service Virtualization and Testing solution will simulate 3party non-SAP applications and EDI partners to test the functional and not functional behaviour of those systems as shown in Figure 4. It will also allow capturing the electronic messages running on any kind of supported Enterprise Service Bus (SAP Process Orchestration, SAP Integration Suite, Boomi, Webmethods, Azure Integration Services) and those electronic messages can be reused for testing.
Figure 4 – 3rd party non-SAP system and EDI partners simulation for SAP S/4HANA programs
Who can use Int4 IFTT SVT for SAP S/4HANA transformation programs?
Int4 IFTT SVT can provide tangible benefits for the following personas of a typical SAP S/4HANA transformation program:
◉ SAP Functional consultants (Order to Cash – OTC, Procure to Pay- P2P, Logistic Execution – LE) – most of their business processes run across multiple systems and B2B partners. Being able to retest those SAP business processes quickly and without going out of SAP environment (Int4 IFTT is an ABAP addon) speeds up the testing of any SAP customizing and, in many cases, allows to continue the project while non-SAP system resources are not yet ready (SAP Greenfield implementations)
◉ ABAP and SAP interface developers – IDOCs, ABAP proxies, SAP interface development on the SAP Process Orchestration, SAP Integration Suite, Boomi, Webmethods cannot be tested without having tons of real messages. Int4 IFTT SVT allows to capture messages from any landscape (production or test) and rerunning them easily on development landscapes.
◉ Project Management and release/cutover management – is it possible to coordinate test or release cycles which involve many 3rd party non-SAP applications in a few days? Yes, this is exactly how Int4 IFTT SVT works as we can simulate all non-SAP applications and only concentrate on the SAP S/4HANA testing.
◉ Testing teams – why would you need to test 3rd party non-SAP applications for SAP S/4HANA transformation projects? Those systems in most cases never change that much not to mention their API which they use to communicate with SAP S/4HANA systems. Why not put more attention on the core SAP S/4HANA system testing and simulate 3rd party components?
When to use use Int4 IFTT SVT for SAP S/4HANA transformation programs?
While it’s possible to use Int4 IFTT SVT for regression testing during the UAT phase of the project, some of the biggest benefits come when Int4 IFTT SVT is used much earlier in the SAP S/4HANA transformation programs – during development (DEV) and Integration (SIT) testing phases as shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5 – DEV and SIT phases of SAP S/4HANA transformation programs benefit most from SVT using Int4 IFTT
During those initial phases of the project 3rd party systems and EDI partners are not available so it’s amazingly difficult to test any real end to end scenarios. Int4 IFTT STV simulation mode will reverse it completely. Now any developer or SAP functional consultant can easily himself/herself simulate any 3rd party system and EDI partner in a matter of minutes. Quality testing of SAP S/4HANA is done earlier, more often and developers and functional consultants love it.
How does Int4 IFTT SVT work?
Int4 IFTT SVT was designed to support complex SAP S/4HANA transformation programs in mind.
Technically it runs on SAP Solution Manager (SAP Solman) as a certified ABAP addon. Being able to do service virtualization (simulate other systems) was one thing but another one was to make sure everyone can create test cases very quickly. That’s why Int4 IFTT SVT is the only enterprise level solution which can fetch messages directly from any Enterprise Service Bus (SAP Process Orchestration, SAP Integration Suite, Boomi, Webmethods, Azure Integration Services) connected to SAP S/4HANA out of the box. Later on those messages can be reused by development and SAP functional teams to simulate the behavior of any 3rd party non-SAP application or EDI partner as shown in Figure 6. We can take electronic messages from one landscape (production) and rerun them on any other landscape (DEV, TST).
Figure 6 – Repeater function of Int4 IFTT SVT
Creating thousands of test cases with Int4 IFTT SVT is as simple as selecting electronic messages and pressing a button to download them to the Int4 IFTT SVT repository.
Source: sap.com
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