Running UAT in SAP Cloud ALM or a similar test management tool

UAT needs a system of record: where scripts live, who is assigned to what, what passed, what failed, what evidence was captured and which defects are open. SAP Cloud ALM is SAP's reference tool for this in SAP Activate projects, and SAP's private cloud implementation guidance expects UAT results to be documented in its test management apps. Projects on SAP Solution Manager or a similar test management tool follow the same pattern with different screens. This lesson uses SAP Cloud ALM as the example; app names and options change with its frequent releases, so check the in-app help for your tenant.

Test cases and test plans

In SAP Cloud ALM, a manual test case starts from a business process. In the Test Preparation app you create the test case, link it to the scope and a solution process, and choose which of that process's activities are in scope and in what order. Each activity then gets actions: the steps a tester performs, each with instructions and an expected result. When SAP Best Practices content is used, activity titles can be proposed from it, but the detailed steps and expected results are yours to write in business language. When the case is complete, set it to Prepared so it can be executed. Test cases can also be uploaded from a spreadsheet, which helps when key users drafted scripts offline.

A test case is not assigned to anyone until it sits in a test plan. For UAT, create a plan per cycle and process area, for example "UAT1 Order to Cash," with a responsible person and a start and end date. Add the prepared test cases and assign a tester to each. The same test cases can be reused in later plans, so UAT2 or a regression cycle does not require rewriting them. Testers need SAP Cloud ALM users before they can be assigned. When the cycle opens, set the plan to In Testing so testers see their work; when it closes, set it to Finished.

Executing, recording and raising defects

Testers work in the Test Execution app. They filter to their plan and their name, open a test case and start a test run. For each action they perform the step in the SAP S/4HANA test client, compare what happened with the expected result, and rate the action as passed or failed. The app offers more than one pass and fail rating, so agree as a team which to use and when. A comment explains each failure and records evidence: document numbers, a screenshot, an output file. An incomplete manual run can be resumed later, and each run is kept as history, so a retest after a fix becomes a new run rather than an overwrite.

When an action fails, the tester raises a defect from the test execution so the link to the test case and plan is kept. A good defect has a title that states the business impact, the steps and data, expected versus actual result, evidence, and a proposed priority. In SAP Cloud ALM the defect then has its own lifecycle, with a status, priority, a team and an assignee, and is handed back to the tester for retest once a fix reaches the test client. Status names vary by release, so publish your project's mapping of statuses to meanings.

SAP Cloud ALM also reports test execution progress and traceability from processes and requirements through test cases to defects. That is the raw material for daily reporting in the next lesson. In SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition the same Cloud ALM apps are used, and automated tests from SAP's test automation tool can run alongside manual UAT; the business acceptance itself still comes from manual runs by business users.