Preparing business testers

Business testers have day jobs. They will give UAT a few hours a day for two or three weeks, and every hour they spend lost in a script, locked out of the system or hunting for a customer number is an hour of acceptance you do not get. Preparation is where a test lead earns the result.

Preparation has four parts: the people (who tests and what they know), the scripts (what they follow), the access and data (what they log on with and work on), and the support (who helps when they are stuck). Each part needs to be ready before day one, and each needs a check.

Testers who took part in Fit-to-Standard already know the processes. They still need a short session on the new system and a separate session on how to test. Keep both practical. Show how to log on to the test client, find their apps on the Fiori launchpad, open their test plan, record a step result and attach evidence. Show what a good defect looks like and what a bad one looks like. Ninety minutes is enough for most groups; longer sessions blur into end-user training, which is a different deliverable.

Training and script walkthroughs

Before execution starts, walk through each script with the tester who will run it, ideally in the test system. The walkthrough catches unclear steps, missing data and wrong expected results while there is still time to fix them. It also gives the tester ownership: Maria will defend a script she helped correct.

• Each step names the app (or transaction) and the business action, not the configuration behind it.
• Each step has an expected result the tester can observe: a document number, a status, a posting, an output.
• Data is named in the script or in a data sheet: customer, material, plant, quantity, price.
• Evidence is specified: what to capture and where to attach it.
• The scenario ends with a business outcome the process owner cares about, such as "invoice posted, revenue in company code 1710."

Test users and test data

Each tester needs a user in the UAT client with the production-like roles agreed in scoping. Create these early, and have the security team assign the same composite or business roles planned for production, not a copy of the consultant profile. Then do a logon test a few days before UAT: every tester logs on, opens the launchpad, launches each app their scripts use, and reports anything missing. Missing tiles and authorization errors found in the logon test are cheap. Found on day one, they stall a whole team.

UAT data should look like the business: migrated customers and suppliers from the latest mock load, real material numbers such as CMC-ALT-100 and CMC-RTR-200, open purchase orders with Lakeside Components, and stock in storage locations 171A and 172A. Agree a data sheet per scenario, reserve data per tester so two people do not consume the same stock or open item, and plan how to refresh or replenish data mid-cycle.

Set up a UAT support desk before day one: a named channel, a floor walker or a virtual room, and consultants on rota for each process area. Testers should know where to ask "is this a defect or am I doing it wrong?" without raising a defect for every question. Log questions too; ten questions about the same step means the script or the training needs work.