Beating SAP Testing Bottlenecks with TestComplete
Testing SAP is hard for all the familiar reasons, complex UIs, transports that tweak screens, sensitive data, and heavy audit needs. Below are the common bottlenecks and how TestComplete helps you cut through them.
1) Fragile object locators in SAP GUI
The bottleneck: SAP GUI controls can be tricky to identify reliably minor UI changes or different dynpro states can break scripts.
How TestComplete helps: It provides native support for SAP GUI for Windows with extended objects (buttons, edit fields, grids, etc.), so you work with properties and methods not coordinates. Pair that with Name Mapping (a central, alias-based object repository) to make tests readable and resilient.
2) UI drift after transports equals flaky tests
The bottleneck: After a support pack or transport, object properties change and tests fail even though the flow still works.
How TestComplete helps: Self healing tests automatically look for close matches when an object isn’t found, reducing “false red” failures and maintenance.
3) “Hard” screens, canvas elements, or remote sessions
The bottleneck: Custom controls or canvases don’t expose stable object trees.
How TestComplete helps: Use AI-powered OCR (and the OCR Action in Keyword Tests) to find text on screen and create easy validation as a fallback when classic object IDs aren’t reliable.
4) Test data sprawl (pricing, partners, plants…)
The bottleneck: You need many variants to cover conditions, taxes, partners, plants, and languages without hand cloning tests.
How TestComplete helps: Built-in data driven testing lets you drive one test with rows from Excel/CSV/DB, multiplying coverage while keeping scripts lean.
5) Audit evidence for SOX/GxP
The bottleneck: Auditors want traceable, reviewable evidence: who ran what, where it clicked, and what was on screen.
How TestComplete helps: Test Visualizer captures step-by-step screenshots during record/playback; Video Recorder can capture full-run videos; detailed logs tie everything together. These are ideal for defect triage and audits.
6) CI/CD traceability (and repeatability)
The bottleneck: Manual runs don’t scale; teams need runs linked to commits/builds.
How TestComplete helps: Use the Jenkins plugin to trigger suites in jobs or Pipelines and view results in Jenkins, creating a clean chain of custody for each build.
Final thought
SAP is always changing, your tests shouldn’t break every time it does. TestComplete’s native SAP GUI support, Name Mapping, self-healing, OCR fallback, and data-driven runs help you keep testing stable and audit friendly with less maintenance.
The following demo illustrates these features in practice, automating the creation of a purchase requisition within SAP while maintaining stability across UI changes.
Demo: Automating Purchase Requisition Creation in SAP with TestComplete