5 arguments why you need SAP business key users for your SAP (test) project

To elaborate a little more on why key users should be involved, the 5 arguments below should convince an organization that business key users should be invited and involved more in SAP Testing?

• Importance of meeting business requirements: By involving key users in testing, you can ensure that the new SAP solution meets the specific needs and requirements of the business. This can help ensure user adoption and overall success of the project.
• Early identification of issues: Key users are the ones who will be using the SAP solutions on a daily basis. Their involvement in testing can help identify issues early in the testing process, which can reduce the risk of project delays, cost overruns, and user dissatisfaction.
• Minimizing business disruption: By involving key users in testing, you can minimize disruption to their day-to-day work once the new SAP solution is implemented. If the system does not work as expected, business users may feel forced to revert to their old ways of working, which can cause frustration and delay in achieving the benefits of the new system.
• Compliance with regulations and standards: Key users are often responsible for ensuring compliance with regulations and standards within their specific areas of the business. Their involvement in testing can help ensure that the new SAP solution meets these requirements and avoids potential legal or financial consequences.
• Drive change and take ownership: Key users know the SAP and E2E business processes. Based on their experience and knowledge key users should drive innovation, suggest new features and improve the solution over time. By driving innovation from a key user perspective, the key users take ownership for the evolved solution, which is again important to meet the business requirements.

How can key users proof and add value in different project phase and test varieties while testing SAP?

Based on the project’s duration, impact and scope, different types of testing are conducted during different project phases. Common varieties of testing which are needed during an SAP implementation are:

• Functional testing: This involves testing individual functions, processes or features of the system to ensure they work as expected. Key users can use their knowledge of business processes and requirements to design and then execute functional tests.
• Regression testing: This involves testing the system after changes have been made to ensure that existing functionality has not been negatively impacted. Key users can use their experience with the system to identify areas that are most likely to be impacted by changes and design regression tests accordingly. To avoid re-inventing the wheel time after time, it is recommended to setup and maintain a re-usable regression test set. (Automated) regression testing is strongly recommended during sprint developments and during the operational phase (a.k.a. run phase).
• Integration testing: This involves testing how different parts of the system work together. Key users can use their knowledge of business processes and system interactions to design and execute integration tests. System integration dependencies are mostly high risk areas, so in-depth user knowledge is very valuable.
• User acceptance testing: This involves testing the system from the perspective of end users to ensure it meets their needs and requirements. Key users can use their experience with the system up until then and their knowledge of the organization’s business processes to design and execute user acceptance tests.
• Performance testing: This involves testing the system's performance under various load conditions to ensure it can handle the expected volume of transactions. Key users can contribute to determine the ‘hard’ requirements for the business processes to perform under load.