In October, IBM hosted a Business Agility Executive Forum in New York City that was streamed live around the world. The event was focused on how organizations can transform their businesses for continued growth in today’s marketplace. During this information-rich forum, those of us in the audience and streaming the video live, were able to hear how successful companies are improving agility through interconnected business processes supported by a flexible infrastructure.
The Business Agility launch was focused on three key levers – decision management, process management and technologies. Another key theme of the event was how organizations should “Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast.” All of these themes resonated well with Prolifics and our customer, IDP, who was the keynote client speaker at the event in NYC. Prolifics also had the opportunity to participate, as our VP of BPM and Connectivity, Anant Gupta, was chosen to speak on the panel with IDP. We were pleased to be a part of such a highly informative and interactive panel discussion.
I’d like to discuss IDP’s solution in greater depth, which is a great example of the three levers in action.
Achieve better decisions driven by analytics and business rules - IDP incorporates a sophisticated business rules engine (via ILOG JRules) which is insurance carrier specific and involve algorithms that determine policy rates in real time. Not only does JRules provide the complex logic behind the ratings, but its ease of use allows business analysts, not programmers, to create the rules for each carrier. Another key feature is the governance around the rules. Each configuration can be versioned, and the auditability feature means that it is easy to show compliance with any regulatory needs.
Take a smarter approach to process and integration - IDP integrates data through its usage of IBM WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus across the platform and can deliver data via Web 2.0 on desktops and mobile devices. IBM WESB mediates between the Agent Portal and the third-party Web services carriers use, such as credit reports, payment processing, and claim history repositories. The beauty of the enterprise service bus is that it enables each carrier to link to Web services without affecting the core SaaS solution. No matter how customized the user experience is, the SaaS solution doesn’t have to know anything about the back-end systems it is calling.
Accelerate application, service and information delivery with SOA and extend reach to cloud and mobile – IDP’s solution is a SaaS-based insurance agent portal. Since SaaS is administered by the provider on a one-to-many basis, it’s easier for the provider while also freeing carriers and agents from software administration. Additionally, SaaS is future-proof by scaling and allowing for growth. IDP also offers 24/7 access from anywhere in the world thanks to its mobile component which requires zero architectural changes to the platform. That means that companies can immediately increase efficiency by having insurers, agents and customers all have access to the tools they need and be self-serving.
Another key theme at the launch, “Think Big, Start Small, Scale Fast,” is a philosophy that Prolifics has always adopted helping customers move toward SOA and BPM. In previous years we won the Impact award for work that we did at customer, Equinox Fitness. I recall for that account we created a 3-year strategic plan and roadmap for them, yet we created quick wins to help them realize value immediately while moving them toward fulfilling their long term vision. This is definitely an approach that I would recommend, combining both strategic and tactical activities.
For a video replay of the Business Agility Executive Forum, please click here. I would also like to share some photos from the event. You can read about Prolifics' solution at IDP in this case study. To learn more about how Prolifics is helping companies with their SOA and BPM initiatives, visit our website: www.prolifics.com.
Devi Gupta, Vice President, Marketing for Prolifics
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Thursday, November 17, 2011
IBM Security Portfolio
Ever wanted a quick, no nonsense explanation of what IBM security products are and where they came from? Well, here it is:
Alex Ivkin is a senior IT Security Architect with a focus in Identity and Access Management at Prolifics. Mr. Ivkin has worked with executive stakeholders in large and small organizations to help drive security initiatives. He has helped companies succeed in attaining regulatory compliance, improving business operations and securing enterprise infrastructure. Mr. Ivkin has achieved the highest levels of certification with several major Identity Management vendors and holds the CISSP designation. He is also a speaker at various conferences and an active member of several user communities.
- ISS – network and host security (X-Force acquisition)
- TIM – identity management (access360 acquisition)
- TAMesso – desktop single sign on (Encentuate acquisition)
- TFIM – federation of access (homegrown)
- TDI – data transformation (Metamerge acquisition)
- TAMeb – web app access control (Dascom acquisition)
- TSIEM – security event management (Q1 Lab acquisition)
- TCIM – compliance dashboard (Consul Risk Management acquisition)
- DataPower – XML gateway
- i2 – crime prevention
- BigFix – patch management
- Guardium – database security
- Openpages – governance risk and compliance
- Algorithmics – financial risk management
Alex Ivkin is a senior IT Security Architect with a focus in Identity and Access Management at Prolifics. Mr. Ivkin has worked with executive stakeholders in large and small organizations to help drive security initiatives. He has helped companies succeed in attaining regulatory compliance, improving business operations and securing enterprise infrastructure. Mr. Ivkin has achieved the highest levels of certification with several major Identity Management vendors and holds the CISSP designation. He is also a speaker at various conferences and an active member of several user communities.
Monday, October 24, 2011
Modernization Project Using IBM Case Manager
Business Application:
Service Purchase Plan Process
Business Challenge:
Prolifics is currently involved in a project at a large public retirement system. In an effort to modernize its infrastructure, the company wanted to ensure that the architecture is interoperable and robust by proving architecturally-significant functionality rather than demonstrate complete business functionality. Equally important is the need for the system to demonstrate that it is agile enough to be modified (e.g. associated business processes and rules) significantly faster than its UPS (Unified Pension System) counterpart. In addition, the Project must demonstrate that straight-through processing is achievable by allowing exception-free instances of processes to execute to completion without any manual intervention.
IBM Case Manager provides an installation framework where you can install IBM Case Manager in a distributed architecture where IBM Case Manager is installed on a separate system from FileNet P8. The IBM Case Manager installation program installs Case Manager Builder, Case Manager Client, the IBM Case Manager administration client, and the IBM Case Manager API.
The distributed system architecture is ideal for large production environments. The following graphic shows the typical architecture of IBM Case Manager in a distributed environment and the features that IBM Case Manager can integrate with.
Solution:
The company supports Member Service Request transactions online and risk-based quality control, giving them the ability to shorten cycle times, improve service levels, and mitigate risks across their Service Processes. This enables increased throughput and capacity with existing resources and eliminates costs associated with document shipping, inbound document processing and operations processes.
How does IBM Case Manager help our customer?
Key benefits IBM Case Manager Solution:
Khaled Moawad is a business consultant with 15+ years of experience in the field of IT. He has participated in large IT projects at multinational organizations in different fields. Khaled's business consulting experience is in IBM Enterprise Content Management, IBM FileNet, IBM Advanced Case Manager, and Lombardi Business Process Management. Khaled has excellent analytical and wide application-based process re-engineering skills, including project management expertise. During his career, he has gained a wealth of experience throughout all stages of pre-sales, implementation, support, software development and project management.
Service Purchase Plan Process
Business Challenge:
Prolifics is currently involved in a project at a large public retirement system. In an effort to modernize its infrastructure, the company wanted to ensure that the architecture is interoperable and robust by proving architecturally-significant functionality rather than demonstrate complete business functionality. Equally important is the need for the system to demonstrate that it is agile enough to be modified (e.g. associated business processes and rules) significantly faster than its UPS (Unified Pension System) counterpart. In addition, the Project must demonstrate that straight-through processing is achievable by allowing exception-free instances of processes to execute to completion without any manual intervention.
IBM Case Manager provides an installation framework where you can install IBM Case Manager in a distributed architecture where IBM Case Manager is installed on a separate system from FileNet P8. The IBM Case Manager installation program installs Case Manager Builder, Case Manager Client, the IBM Case Manager administration client, and the IBM Case Manager API.
The distributed system architecture is ideal for large production environments. The following graphic shows the typical architecture of IBM Case Manager in a distributed environment and the features that IBM Case Manager can integrate with.
Solution:
- Using an existing business process, Purchase Service Request, we designed and built the environment, which will be established on a VM configuration. This includes the installation of the requisite IBM Case Management, ILOG JRules, Lotus Forms, Datacap and Thunderhead software. Here is an example of the process flow and how the difference technologies in Case Manager are leveraged:
- Case Builder is used for Business Process Modeling and configuring workflows
- ILOG Rules Studio authors and tests rules in JRules that are harvested from the existing UPS system
- Develop and integrate Lotus Forms user interfaces
- Configure a Datacap batch class and release scripts to load documents into FileNet
- Define and generate XML payloads containing the data necessary for the production of member correspondence
- Create test data, test cases and validation of the testing results
- Functional and integration testing of the ICM, ILOG JRules, Lotus Forms, Datacap and Thunderhead application components
The company supports Member Service Request transactions online and risk-based quality control, giving them the ability to shorten cycle times, improve service levels, and mitigate risks across their Service Processes. This enables increased throughput and capacity with existing resources and eliminates costs associated with document shipping, inbound document processing and operations processes.
How does IBM Case Manager help our customer?
- Provides knowledge workers with a contextual environment and 360-degree case view
- Helps knowledge workers create and participate in ad hoc and structured workflows
- Delivers real-time case metrics and integrated sentiment and content analyses to streamline workloads and remediate obstacles
- Offers a business–focused design that includes interview-style interfaces for case construction and the ability to capture industry best practices in templates
- Facilitates sophisticated decision management using an integrated business rules management approach, which uses automation and dynamic business rules to simplify assessment and payment processes and easily respond to ever-changing policies and legislation
- Simplifies collaboration and boosts productivity through social software and communication
Key benefits IBM Case Manager Solution:
- Program efficacy: achieve better outcomes and results
- Employee and case worker effectiveness: handle more cases with fewer resources
- Optimal case outcomes: improve safety, cut costs and increase revenue
- Process efficiency: leverage automation wherever possible and focus on exceptions
- Compliance and visibility: manage risk and achieve compliance cost-efficiently
Khaled Moawad is a business consultant with 15+ years of experience in the field of IT. He has participated in large IT projects at multinational organizations in different fields. Khaled's business consulting experience is in IBM Enterprise Content Management, IBM FileNet, IBM Advanced Case Manager, and Lombardi Business Process Management. Khaled has excellent analytical and wide application-based process re-engineering skills, including project management expertise. During his career, he has gained a wealth of experience throughout all stages of pre-sales, implementation, support, software development and project management.
Self Service Applications and Case Management
In today’s electronic world, any organization that serves its customers should have a means of communication to provide higher levels of service. Gone are those days where customers use to make phone calls or visit a customer service center to get their work done. Today customers are using electronic mediums like PCs, mobile devices, tablets, kiosks, to perform their tasks. Need therefore arises to build self service applications that are intuitive and time sensitive to information that customers need.
IBM Case Manager is an enterprise case management system that provides a 360 degree view of any case that is being worked upon. Information flow to and from the case management system can be from multiple sources. Case Management systems are predominantly viewed as an internal application to be used by knowledge workers and the management in an organization. Customers normally do not have access Case Management system. In order to provide a seamless integration between the customers and the Case Management system a self service application is required. Self Service Applications could be internet enabled web applications that have seamless connection to the Case Management System. The IBM Case Manager provides industry standard interfaces to enable such Self Service Applications to communicate with the Cases and their data.
Case Study:
Our customer, a large city organization, is in the process of modernizing its systems to provide better services to its members. As part of this Modernization effort, Prolifics is helping this customer in building an enterprise case management solution leveraging IBM Lotus Forms to capture the member inputs in electronic format and submit it to IBM Case Manager for further processing. Members can also view the status of the case using the Self Service Portal deployed in IBM WebSphere.
Benefits of Member Services Self Service Application:
Members can log on to submit their request over the web either from PC or other web enabled devices like smart phones, tablets, touch pads, etc.
Members can have a 360 degree view of their service requests and collaborate with their service provider for processing their requests
The turnaround time for processing member service requests is reduced from weeks (using paper request) to few days (using electronic forms)
Technologies Used:
IBM Case Manager 5.0, IBM Lotus Forms, IBM ILOG JRules Engine, IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM Cognos Now, IBM FileNet P8 5.0 Platform, DB2, Red Hat Linux
Kiru Veerappan is a senior ECM Consultant with 15 years of Software Development and Management experience. He has been working on Enterprise Content Management and Business Process Management solutions for more than 10 years. He has created unique solutions while mentoring team members in solving real business issues in a timely and cost effective manner using the latest technologies. He believes in interacting with clients not just to deliver a piece of software but acting as an agent for change, delivering ideas while gathering requirements and providing real knowledge transfer. He has specialized in Content and Workflow Management solutions using IBM FileNet suite of products.
IBM Case Manager is an enterprise case management system that provides a 360 degree view of any case that is being worked upon. Information flow to and from the case management system can be from multiple sources. Case Management systems are predominantly viewed as an internal application to be used by knowledge workers and the management in an organization. Customers normally do not have access Case Management system. In order to provide a seamless integration between the customers and the Case Management system a self service application is required. Self Service Applications could be internet enabled web applications that have seamless connection to the Case Management System. The IBM Case Manager provides industry standard interfaces to enable such Self Service Applications to communicate with the Cases and their data.
Case Study:
Our customer, a large city organization, is in the process of modernizing its systems to provide better services to its members. As part of this Modernization effort, Prolifics is helping this customer in building an enterprise case management solution leveraging IBM Lotus Forms to capture the member inputs in electronic format and submit it to IBM Case Manager for further processing. Members can also view the status of the case using the Self Service Portal deployed in IBM WebSphere.
Benefits of Member Services Self Service Application:
Members can log on to submit their request over the web either from PC or other web enabled devices like smart phones, tablets, touch pads, etc.
Members can have a 360 degree view of their service requests and collaborate with their service provider for processing their requests
The turnaround time for processing member service requests is reduced from weeks (using paper request) to few days (using electronic forms)
Technologies Used:
IBM Case Manager 5.0, IBM Lotus Forms, IBM ILOG JRules Engine, IBM WebSphere Application Server, IBM Cognos Now, IBM FileNet P8 5.0 Platform, DB2, Red Hat Linux
Kiru Veerappan is a senior ECM Consultant with 15 years of Software Development and Management experience. He has been working on Enterprise Content Management and Business Process Management solutions for more than 10 years. He has created unique solutions while mentoring team members in solving real business issues in a timely and cost effective manner using the latest technologies. He believes in interacting with clients not just to deliver a piece of software but acting as an agent for change, delivering ideas while gathering requirements and providing real knowledge transfer. He has specialized in Content and Workflow Management solutions using IBM FileNet suite of products.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Choosing a Messaging System: WebSphere MQ vs. WebSphere Application Server Service Integration Bus
A question that sometimes comes up in our architecture whiteboarding sessions is about the different messaging strategies that are available in Websphere Application Server. IBM developerWorks has now published a great article detailing the differences between WebSphere MQ and the Service Integration Bus that comes with WebSphere Application Server. Check it out by clicking here.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Cyber Security in High Demand
The old adage says: "keep your friends close, but your enemies closer". In this day and age, the IT department of your organization does not have to worry about the second part. The enemies are already at the gates. And keeping them out is an increasingly challenging task.
A recent study sponsored by Juniper Networks showed that not only there has been a dramatic rise in the number of security breaches in the past year, but the targets have also gotten bigger. The CIA, the FBI, the U.S. Senate, and various state police agencies had their systems under attack. In the first half of 2011 security and data breaches have cost U.S. enterprises almost $96 billion. At this rate the cost for the whole 2011 will be almost twice as much as it was in all of 2010. Consider the fact that 2010 saw 90% of businesses compromised with least one security breach. More than 50% of the compromised businesses had at least two breaches.
Another problem is that "the gates", where the enemies are trying to get through, are everywhere now. The entry points are in the software used by employees. They are in files, emails, web apps, web sites, databases, in everything that is on the information highway. The number of incidents related to malware went up from 4 million in the first quarter of 2010 to 6 million in the first quarter of 2011. It is expected that last year's record $63 billion that companies spent on security will be $75.6 billion in 2011.
As the study showed, the enemies get smarter and the attacks get more complicated in every year. Throw all your defenses up, get every firewall ready, the host and network intrusion protection and detection system, anti-virus, anti-malware, application firewalls and it will still be not enough, because the enemies are a step ahead. The solution? "Know yourself and know your enemy" (Sun Zhu, "Art of War"). Get the right security talent on board and use the right strategy.
The correct strategy, rooted in the governance, risk management and compliance methodology can go a long way. Consider the governance, a system by which an organization controls and directs security development, as a backbone of the approach to managing security and how it relates to the business (http://www.cert.org/governance/ges.html). Then, focus on the compliance and regulations, a key to proactive defenses and enforced regulations of a company's behavior as it pertains to security for a specific nature of the business. Governance is strategic, while compliance is tactical and specific. Addressing compliance and security regulations allows business to focus on particular challenges and vulnerabilities specific to the business type and the vertical it operates in. Finally, adjust risk management, a set of technologies that address day-to-day security work, and include mature components of security such as penetration testing, application security analysis, firewalls and intrusion prevention systems. The success of the security strategy depends on the attention to all three components.
The talent is a different thing. With the increase in the demand for the security experts, in response to the increased attacks, the security talent is becoming more expensive and harder to find. So far, the number of college students with who focus on cyber-security has not been keeping up with the demand. There are even less opportunities in finding experienced security consultants who are up to par with the criminal masterminds of the security underground. Security may be on the radar for around 1.9 million people, but there are only around 346,000 fully dedicated security professionals.
There are, however, security consulting firms, like Prolifics Security Practice (http://www.prolifics.com/business-solutions-security.htm) that can help you both with the talent and the strategy. They bring the best and the brightest security personnel on site to analyze, architect, develop and implement proper defenses and policies to address modern security threats. They help set up proper strategy, so you protect the flanks, tie up the loose ends and govern smartly.
With the increasing number and the caliber of the security breaches you cannot afford to sit around and wait. Find what others are doing, go to conferences, ask consultants, bring help, but do something, because enemies are at the gate.
If you want to read more on the recent rise of the cyber attacks look here: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/05/business/la-fi-hacking-security-20110705
Prolifics will be discussing cyber security in greater depth as a sponsor and speaker at the upcoming Cyber Security for Energy Delivery Conference on September 27-28. The event takes place in San Jose, CA and brings together major utility and asset owners and key government agencies from across North America. I will be co-speaking with IBM at this conference. With experience providing security solutions for the energy and utilities industry, we will be sharing our security solutions and recent case studies around ID and password management, single sign-on, directory services, Web-based authorization, federation and other areas. For more information on the Cyber Security for Energy Delivery conference, please click here.
Alex Ivkin is a senior IT Security Architect with a focus in Identity and Access Management at Prolifics. Mr. Ivkin has worked with executive stakeholders in large and small organizations to help drive security initiatives. He has helped companies succeed in attaining regulatory compliance, improving business operations and securing enterprise infrastructure. Mr. Ivkin has achieved the highest levels of certification with several major Identity Management vendors and holds the CISSP designation. He is also a speaker at various conferences and an active member of several user communities.
A recent study sponsored by Juniper Networks showed that not only there has been a dramatic rise in the number of security breaches in the past year, but the targets have also gotten bigger. The CIA, the FBI, the U.S. Senate, and various state police agencies had their systems under attack. In the first half of 2011 security and data breaches have cost U.S. enterprises almost $96 billion. At this rate the cost for the whole 2011 will be almost twice as much as it was in all of 2010. Consider the fact that 2010 saw 90% of businesses compromised with least one security breach. More than 50% of the compromised businesses had at least two breaches.
Another problem is that "the gates", where the enemies are trying to get through, are everywhere now. The entry points are in the software used by employees. They are in files, emails, web apps, web sites, databases, in everything that is on the information highway. The number of incidents related to malware went up from 4 million in the first quarter of 2010 to 6 million in the first quarter of 2011. It is expected that last year's record $63 billion that companies spent on security will be $75.6 billion in 2011.
As the study showed, the enemies get smarter and the attacks get more complicated in every year. Throw all your defenses up, get every firewall ready, the host and network intrusion protection and detection system, anti-virus, anti-malware, application firewalls and it will still be not enough, because the enemies are a step ahead. The solution? "Know yourself and know your enemy" (Sun Zhu, "Art of War"). Get the right security talent on board and use the right strategy.
The correct strategy, rooted in the governance, risk management and compliance methodology can go a long way. Consider the governance, a system by which an organization controls and directs security development, as a backbone of the approach to managing security and how it relates to the business (http://www.cert.org/governance/ges.html). Then, focus on the compliance and regulations, a key to proactive defenses and enforced regulations of a company's behavior as it pertains to security for a specific nature of the business. Governance is strategic, while compliance is tactical and specific. Addressing compliance and security regulations allows business to focus on particular challenges and vulnerabilities specific to the business type and the vertical it operates in. Finally, adjust risk management, a set of technologies that address day-to-day security work, and include mature components of security such as penetration testing, application security analysis, firewalls and intrusion prevention systems. The success of the security strategy depends on the attention to all three components.
The talent is a different thing. With the increase in the demand for the security experts, in response to the increased attacks, the security talent is becoming more expensive and harder to find. So far, the number of college students with who focus on cyber-security has not been keeping up with the demand. There are even less opportunities in finding experienced security consultants who are up to par with the criminal masterminds of the security underground. Security may be on the radar for around 1.9 million people, but there are only around 346,000 fully dedicated security professionals.
There are, however, security consulting firms, like Prolifics Security Practice (http://www.prolifics.com/business-solutions-security.htm) that can help you both with the talent and the strategy. They bring the best and the brightest security personnel on site to analyze, architect, develop and implement proper defenses and policies to address modern security threats. They help set up proper strategy, so you protect the flanks, tie up the loose ends and govern smartly.
With the increasing number and the caliber of the security breaches you cannot afford to sit around and wait. Find what others are doing, go to conferences, ask consultants, bring help, but do something, because enemies are at the gate.
If you want to read more on the recent rise of the cyber attacks look here: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jul/05/business/la-fi-hacking-security-20110705
Prolifics will be discussing cyber security in greater depth as a sponsor and speaker at the upcoming Cyber Security for Energy Delivery Conference on September 27-28. The event takes place in San Jose, CA and brings together major utility and asset owners and key government agencies from across North America. I will be co-speaking with IBM at this conference. With experience providing security solutions for the energy and utilities industry, we will be sharing our security solutions and recent case studies around ID and password management, single sign-on, directory services, Web-based authorization, federation and other areas. For more information on the Cyber Security for Energy Delivery conference, please click here.
Alex Ivkin is a senior IT Security Architect with a focus in Identity and Access Management at Prolifics. Mr. Ivkin has worked with executive stakeholders in large and small organizations to help drive security initiatives. He has helped companies succeed in attaining regulatory compliance, improving business operations and securing enterprise infrastructure. Mr. Ivkin has achieved the highest levels of certification with several major Identity Management vendors and holds the CISSP designation. He is also a speaker at various conferences and an active member of several user communities.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Test Automation for SAP Packaged Applications
SAP Packaged Applications allow you to rapidly configure and customize business processes as your environment changes. To ensure the quality, performance and reliability of these applications, you need a sophisticated testing solution that can be configured and customized as quickly as your SAP landscape. In this article, we will show you how you can use your IBM® Rational® Functional Tester (RFT) toolset along with tools from IBM Ready-for-Rational partner, Arsin.
In this blog entry, I will discuss:
A Structured Approach to SAP Testing
SAP implementations pose some of the most intriguing and difficult challenges in the QA universe. The thickly netted system is extremely integrated and is typically linked to every business process in the enterprise. To tackle such an immense system, QA engineers must approach SAP applications with care.
With more than a decade of experience in testing SAP systems for a large client base in myriad industry verticals, we have developed a test maturity model assessment and improvement framework to bring about an organized and a structured approach to SAP testing. This framework has a three pronged approach, which offers process improvement, knowledge management, and test automation, as follows:
1. Process improvement. Process improvement deals with the assessment of the current Test Maturity Model and developing a plan to improve the Test Maturity Model to the next level and then implement it. A mature test process that has standardized templates, well-defined processes, clear protocols, and no bottlenecks provides for a complete and comprehensively tested SAP system. By comparing the current test maturity model with industry standards and identifying the gaps and focusing on them, test maturity can be improved.
2. Knowledge management. Knowledge management deals with institutionalizing QA knowledge collected over time. Traditional testing for SAP systems relies on the functional and technical consultants of the SAP system for subject matter expertise to deal with various instances. In this phase, test artifact libraries are built for critical business process for regression. The following test artifacts are documented:
The remainder of this discussion focuses on the test automation aspect of the Structured SAP Testing Approach. Our belief is that RFT, in conjunction with Arsin's Effecta Validation Engine, makes SAP testing thorough, comprehensive, easy, and cost effective.
Importance of Test Automation in SAP Implementations
The SAP landscape is continuously changing, as a result of changes to SAP modules from SAP, business process changes within the client’s company, changes to the system environment, changes to applications interfacing with SAP, and a multitude of regulatory compliance mandates.
In order to keep up with these changes, SAP systems must be thoroughly tested. With every change, there is a regression library of test cases that needs to be executed to ensure stability. Each test requires time and effort when executed manually; by comparison, automated test take a very small fraction of the time and effort to execute. Automation also helps makes most of the test assets reusable.
Current SAP Testing Solutions and their Limitations
The existing SAP testing model on the market today makes a very rudimentary use of automation, in terms of:
Validation: In most cases, user interface (UI) tools that are available are used to automate test execution, which is only about 25% of the total testing effort. Validation represents more than 75% of this effort, and scrubbing the data using UI test automation tools is difficult. A certain level of validation is possible through UI based test automation tools, however it takes a long time to script this validation and any change requires a lot of coding following the first implementation.
Data management: Traditionally, data used for testing is captured and maintained in spreadsheets. Searching and sorting through this data is difficult, as is maintaining the consistency of data across users and locations. This difficulty is compounded by ever increasing volumes of test data to be maintained. In addition, there is no intelligent association between SAP metadata and its corresponding test data.
Managing change: Changes to SAP implementations occur during reconfiguration or the addition of custom-built components (programs). In these situations, the scripts for automated test execution need to be changed regularly, which is difficult. Moreover, when using UI tools for automation, 75% of the effort needs to be constantly re-worked to keep up with the changes to the SAP system.
Addressing these Limitations
The limitations above described call for a new solution that can address these issues. We offer a complete and scalable testing solution that combines Arsin Effecta Validation Engine with IBM Rational Functional Tester.
By automating the validation of data, business processes, custom development and integrations across SAP applications, you can increase the quality of implementation, support multiple changes in their environment and mitigate business risks. Also, by eliminating manual testing you can avoid greater difficulties in production that ultimately impact the quality and performance of the business. Arsin’s Effecta Test Suite provides the benefits of a complete testing solution by automating impact analyses of changes, test data maintenance, test execution and validation.
Figure 1: Arsin Effecta Solution Architecture for testing SAP applications
Test Data Manager
Stores test data along with criteria in the Effecta database. Before executing an automated test, validity of test data is checked on the target system and system is automatically updated. If the test data no longer exists in the target system or cannot be reused, the data set update feature will help to refresh with new valid data.
Script Manager
Automatically enhances recorded scripts and eliminates need for customization. Script manager enables script less automation of IBM Rational Functional Tester.
Change Impact Manager
When changes occur in a system, Change Impact Manager automatically extracts affected objects and identifies test cases to be executed for regression testing. It also identifies objects being changed that don’t have test cases in the library.
Report Manager
Report Manager provides out-of-the-box reports for tracking test artifacts, development and test execution. Detailed test results pinpoint failed events in test case.
Test Manager
Effecta promotes reusability and repeatability with the following features:
- Ability to create Test Requirements and link them to Test Cases and development objects
- Ability to create Test Cases and link them to Test Requirements for coverage analysis
- Ability to create separate Test execution steps in the form of Test Procedures and link them to Test cases
- Defect management
- Dashboard for reporting and metrics
Validation Manager for Middleware
Simulates inbound messages at various data interchange points and validates outbound messages.
Automatically validates translations and mappings
Validation Manager for Transactional Systems
Validation Manager for Transactional Systems is a completely configurable, customizable and readily deployable validation library of components for various business processes. It significantly accelerates validation by automatically extracting the actual data created by transactions and comparing it with expected results. The Validation Manager is specifically designed to support SAP systems.
Validation Manager for BI
Tests Business Intelligence systems during initial implementation and during maintenance and support pack deployments. It also automates the validation of data loaded from multiple ERP and other systems. Provides sophisticated reporting including detailed results.
Conclusion
The benefits of using automation in SAP testing are abundant. Test automation, deployed with minimal effort, enables increased test coverage, which in turn reduces cycle time and enables efficient bug detection early in the development cycle. Since test automation is designed for reusability, routine tasks are eliminated and total cost of ownership is reduced. Test automation is far more precise and consistent, and features standardized reporting, enabling clear test analysis across the QA environment.
Sarat Addanki is the Vice President, ERP Practice. He has 18 years of experience in the ERP arena including design, development and testing of ERP implementations. He was part of a SAP Quality professionals team contributing to the design of SAP Test Accelerator TAO. He founded the ERP Division at Arsin, which focuses on developing frameworks and accelerators to ensure delivery excellence, reduce the overall cost of ownership and increase productivity in ERP implementations. The Test Accelerators he designed significantly improve the testing process, knowledge management and test automation. His division focuses on providing quality services for SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Sterling, Retek and Middleware applications. His domain expertise ranges from Pharmaceutical Distribution, Hi-Tech, Manufacturing to Retail industries. He is a PMI (Project Management Institute) certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Sarat holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
In this blog entry, I will discuss:
- A structured approach to SAP testing
- SAP current test automation paradigm and its challenges
- The need for a new solution for SAP test automation
- How Arsin Packaged Test Automation for SAP integrated with IBM Rational Functional Tester helps address these challenges
A Structured Approach to SAP Testing
SAP implementations pose some of the most intriguing and difficult challenges in the QA universe. The thickly netted system is extremely integrated and is typically linked to every business process in the enterprise. To tackle such an immense system, QA engineers must approach SAP applications with care.
With more than a decade of experience in testing SAP systems for a large client base in myriad industry verticals, we have developed a test maturity model assessment and improvement framework to bring about an organized and a structured approach to SAP testing. This framework has a three pronged approach, which offers process improvement, knowledge management, and test automation, as follows:
1. Process improvement. Process improvement deals with the assessment of the current Test Maturity Model and developing a plan to improve the Test Maturity Model to the next level and then implement it. A mature test process that has standardized templates, well-defined processes, clear protocols, and no bottlenecks provides for a complete and comprehensively tested SAP system. By comparing the current test maturity model with industry standards and identifying the gaps and focusing on them, test maturity can be improved.
2. Knowledge management. Knowledge management deals with institutionalizing QA knowledge collected over time. Traditional testing for SAP systems relies on the functional and technical consultants of the SAP system for subject matter expertise to deal with various instances. In this phase, test artifact libraries are built for critical business process for regression. The following test artifacts are documented:
- Test Requirements
- Test Cases
- Test Procedures
The remainder of this discussion focuses on the test automation aspect of the Structured SAP Testing Approach. Our belief is that RFT, in conjunction with Arsin's Effecta Validation Engine, makes SAP testing thorough, comprehensive, easy, and cost effective.
Importance of Test Automation in SAP Implementations
The SAP landscape is continuously changing, as a result of changes to SAP modules from SAP, business process changes within the client’s company, changes to the system environment, changes to applications interfacing with SAP, and a multitude of regulatory compliance mandates.
In order to keep up with these changes, SAP systems must be thoroughly tested. With every change, there is a regression library of test cases that needs to be executed to ensure stability. Each test requires time and effort when executed manually; by comparison, automated test take a very small fraction of the time and effort to execute. Automation also helps makes most of the test assets reusable.
Current SAP Testing Solutions and their Limitations
The existing SAP testing model on the market today makes a very rudimentary use of automation, in terms of:
Validation: In most cases, user interface (UI) tools that are available are used to automate test execution, which is only about 25% of the total testing effort. Validation represents more than 75% of this effort, and scrubbing the data using UI test automation tools is difficult. A certain level of validation is possible through UI based test automation tools, however it takes a long time to script this validation and any change requires a lot of coding following the first implementation.
Data management: Traditionally, data used for testing is captured and maintained in spreadsheets. Searching and sorting through this data is difficult, as is maintaining the consistency of data across users and locations. This difficulty is compounded by ever increasing volumes of test data to be maintained. In addition, there is no intelligent association between SAP metadata and its corresponding test data.
Managing change: Changes to SAP implementations occur during reconfiguration or the addition of custom-built components (programs). In these situations, the scripts for automated test execution need to be changed regularly, which is difficult. Moreover, when using UI tools for automation, 75% of the effort needs to be constantly re-worked to keep up with the changes to the SAP system.
Addressing these Limitations
The limitations above described call for a new solution that can address these issues. We offer a complete and scalable testing solution that combines Arsin Effecta Validation Engine with IBM Rational Functional Tester.
By automating the validation of data, business processes, custom development and integrations across SAP applications, you can increase the quality of implementation, support multiple changes in their environment and mitigate business risks. Also, by eliminating manual testing you can avoid greater difficulties in production that ultimately impact the quality and performance of the business. Arsin’s Effecta Test Suite provides the benefits of a complete testing solution by automating impact analyses of changes, test data maintenance, test execution and validation.
Figure 1: Arsin Effecta Solution Architecture for testing SAP applications
Test Data Manager
Stores test data along with criteria in the Effecta database. Before executing an automated test, validity of test data is checked on the target system and system is automatically updated. If the test data no longer exists in the target system or cannot be reused, the data set update feature will help to refresh with new valid data.
Script Manager
Automatically enhances recorded scripts and eliminates need for customization. Script manager enables script less automation of IBM Rational Functional Tester.
Change Impact Manager
When changes occur in a system, Change Impact Manager automatically extracts affected objects and identifies test cases to be executed for regression testing. It also identifies objects being changed that don’t have test cases in the library.
Report Manager
Report Manager provides out-of-the-box reports for tracking test artifacts, development and test execution. Detailed test results pinpoint failed events in test case.
Test Manager
Effecta promotes reusability and repeatability with the following features:
- Ability to create Test Requirements and link them to Test Cases and development objects
- Ability to create Test Cases and link them to Test Requirements for coverage analysis
- Ability to create separate Test execution steps in the form of Test Procedures and link them to Test cases
- Defect management
- Dashboard for reporting and metrics
Validation Manager for Middleware
Simulates inbound messages at various data interchange points and validates outbound messages.
Automatically validates translations and mappings
Validation Manager for Transactional Systems
Validation Manager for Transactional Systems is a completely configurable, customizable and readily deployable validation library of components for various business processes. It significantly accelerates validation by automatically extracting the actual data created by transactions and comparing it with expected results. The Validation Manager is specifically designed to support SAP systems.
Validation Manager for BI
Tests Business Intelligence systems during initial implementation and during maintenance and support pack deployments. It also automates the validation of data loaded from multiple ERP and other systems. Provides sophisticated reporting including detailed results.
Conclusion
The benefits of using automation in SAP testing are abundant. Test automation, deployed with minimal effort, enables increased test coverage, which in turn reduces cycle time and enables efficient bug detection early in the development cycle. Since test automation is designed for reusability, routine tasks are eliminated and total cost of ownership is reduced. Test automation is far more precise and consistent, and features standardized reporting, enabling clear test analysis across the QA environment.
Sarat Addanki is the Vice President, ERP Practice. He has 18 years of experience in the ERP arena including design, development and testing of ERP implementations. He was part of a SAP Quality professionals team contributing to the design of SAP Test Accelerator TAO. He founded the ERP Division at Arsin, which focuses on developing frameworks and accelerators to ensure delivery excellence, reduce the overall cost of ownership and increase productivity in ERP implementations. The Test Accelerators he designed significantly improve the testing process, knowledge management and test automation. His division focuses on providing quality services for SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Sterling, Retek and Middleware applications. His domain expertise ranges from Pharmaceutical Distribution, Hi-Tech, Manufacturing to Retail industries. He is a PMI (Project Management Institute) certified Project Management Professional (PMP). Sarat holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India.
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