Nutrien's SAP S/4HANA Migration Powered by Test Automation

The Challenges 

• Scalable Test Automation Tools and Strategy: Nutrien's global presence required scalable test automation tools and a rigorous test strategy for thorough testing of both functionality and data.
   
• Zero Impact on Business Processes: A seamless SAP S/4HANA transition was essential, ensuring no disruption to business processes across diverse regions and retail locations.
  
  
• Strict Timelines and Cost Efficiency: The project's ambitious timeline and budget constraints called for an efficient approach to minimise costs while safeguarding data integrity.
  
  
• Data Validation Across Diverse Systems: Nutrien's global operations meant there huge amounts of data residing in diverse systems, including millions of records that needed to be migrated to the new database.  This required a meticulous comparison of data between the As-Is and To-Be data sets. 

• Comprehensive Functional Testing: Thorough testing of functionality was paramount and needed to be repeatable, to allow regression testing to be run on demand, in a Continuous Integration / Deployment framework, all within the specified project timelines. 

The Prolifics Approach 

Nutrien engaged Prolifics, a leading Global IT Services organisation and specialist software testing company, to tackle these challenges. Prolifics designed a comprehensive approach with the primary focus areas being test automation and data validation. 

• Data Validation: Our team conducted rigorous schema validations, automating complex data comparisons and validations. Purpose-built Accelerators managed transformation and validation rules, ensuring data accuracy.
  
  
• Functional Test Automation with Tosca: Prolifics automated vital functional test cases for key SAP modules, including S2D, R2R, P2P, O2C Blending, MDG, and the Nutrien Commercial Finance System.  Our team used Tricentis Tosca which allowed us to take advantage of the SAP-specific built-in functions, the AI features for object recognition and the self-healing functions of the tool, making maintenance easier. These features, twinned with the expertise of the Prolifics Automation CoE, significantly streamlined the testing process. 

The Results 

The outcomes of Prolifics' strategic approach to SAP S/4HANA migration testing were transformative and included the following: 

• Reduction in Test Execution Time: Test automation, using Tosca, led to an astounding 70% reduction in test execution time compared to manual testing, resulting in significant time and resource savings, as well as making repeatable testing not just possible but easy.
  
  
• On-Time and On-Budget Delivery: The project was delivered on time and within budget, meeting stringent project timelines and financial goals.
  
  
• Early Defect Detection: our data validation accelerators enabled Shift Left testing, facilitating early defect detection and reducing the risk of costly post-production issues.
  
  
• Enhanced Transaction Processing and Reporting: The migration to SAP S/4HANA empowered Nutrien with enhanced transaction processing speed and reporting capabilities, ensuring continuity for operations and increased efficiency across their global network via a leading edge, cloud native software application. 

Conclusion 

In summary, Nutrien's partnership with Prolifics, driven by their expertise in test automation, data validation and SAP S4/HANA migrations, allowed the critical migration to complete smoothly, without interruption to business-as-usual activity.  Once the project was completed, the Prolifics team handed over all of the test assets to allow Nutrien to continue to benefit from the automated test suites for future changes and upgrades. 

This case study underscores the positive impact of test automation and data validation tools, particularly while using Prolifics accelerators, in the context of a major IT programme for a Global industry leader like Nutrien. The significant reduction in test execution time when compared to manual testing, demonstrates the benefits and efficiency of adopting advanced automation solutions in complex software migration projects.

Click here to connect with one of our SAP Testing experts for a no-obligation discussion and how we can help.

Jonathan Binks - Head of Delivery
Prolifics Testing UK