5. Missing test bed

Within the SAP client landscape a dedicated QA environment should be allocated to the testing team for the various testing phases. The environment should be production sized, and contain production like data, have a stable baseline, and frozen configuration by the time the testing cycles commence.

What I have seen at many projects is a so-called “dedicated testing environment” that many SAP teams have access to for training, last minute configuration, etc during the middle of a testing cycle. This creates conflict among the teams and causes confusion over the ultimate ownership of the testing environment.

The test manager should insist on a test environment where the testing team has complete control (for instance control over the accounting periods, running payroll, etc) and where the environment is not shared with other entities in particular during the test execution phase.

Please note: All contents hereby presented are copyrighted material from Jose Fajardo.  Copyrighted 2002. All rights reserved. Must obtain permission from Jose Fajardo to reproduce, disseminate or publish this article. Email: jfajardo@octanesystems.net