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ADAPTING TEST AUTOMATION

TECHNIQUES TO IMPROVE ORACLE ERP

CONFIGURATION PROCESS

- Author(s)

Shivika Khare, Associate Analyst

Vandana Singh, Sr. Quality Analyst

Hardik Gahoi, Test Automation IT Quality Analyst

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Abstract

Eaton is a power management company with 2013 sales of $22.0 billion. Eaton

provides energy-efficient solutions that help customers effectively manage electrical,

hydraulic and mechanical power more efficiently, safely and sustainably. Eaton has

approximately 101,000 employees and sells products to customers in more than 175

countries. For more information, visit www.eaton.com.Eaton has multiple Enterprise

Resource Planning (ERP) system environments operating in various manufacturing

and inventory management facilities which come from different ERP vendors (such as

Oracle, MAPICS, SAP and MfgPro).

Oracle ERP at Eaton electrical sector has single global instance architecture (SGI).

Cloning happens multiple times in a year for SGI from the production environment.

During this activity, all configuration setups are over-ridden for the UAT users

(development team, BA and QA) Each time, user has to request the configuration

team for setting up roles and responsibilities, providing access and grants, building

up approval hierarchies etc. in UAT environment required for testing. Configuration

team has to manually do the above setups after UAT refresh which is time-

consuming .The time frame to complete setups is 5 days / resource from the Oracle

Configuration Team. This lengthens the cycle time for testing to be completed by

UAT users (development team, BA and QA) impacting project schedules. Additionally

it takes away important resource from their normal tasks for a week’s time. Any

human errors during these repetitive tasks means more time lost. This paper

describes about “A successful solution which has been identified is an

implementation of automated setup and configuration process on the UAT

environment after cloning”.

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Problem Statement

Oracle ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) at Eaton electrical sector has single global

instance architecture (SGI). Cloning happens multiple times in a year for SGI from the

production environment.

During this activity, all configuration setups are removed for the UAT users

(development team, BA and QA) Each time, user has to request the configuration

team for setting up roles and responsibilities, providing access and grants, building

up approval hierarchies etc. in UAT environment required for testing.

Configuration team has to manually do the above setups after UAT refresh which is

time-consuming .The time frame to complete setups is 5 days / resource from the

Oracle Configuration Team. This lengthens the cycle time for testing to be

completed by UAT users (development team, BA and QA) impacting project

schedules. Additionally it takes away important resource from their normal tasks for

a week’s time. Any human errors during these repetitive tasks means more time lost.

This paper discusses about how implementing automated setup and configuration

process on the UAT environment after cloning has been identified as the successful

solution.

Possible Solutions

Three solutions were identified to reduce the manual efforts spent on configuration

processes setup-

1. Solution 1 – Create Data Migration Scripts: Develop migration scripts which

contain data from pre-refresh stage. These scripts contain data which is required

for configuration setup right from user credentials to all the data involved for

each process.

2. Solution 2 - Automated setup for configuration process: Using test

automation techniques, the configuration processes can be automated by

creating scripts which can then be executed every time setup is required to be

performed.

3. Solution 3 - Separate team for configuration setups: As several human

resources get tied up on this activity, we can create a separate team with few

people dedicated to support only the configuration setup for UAT users after

cloning.

Solution 1 describes creation of migration scripts which are similar to scripts

developed for database migration. The migration scripts are very complex to

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develop due to constraints involved such as flow of data and accuracy of data

etc. The time efforts and maintenance cost is too high and not feasible.

Solution 2 discusses developing automated scripts which can be executed

when setup is required to be performed. The maintenance cost of these

scripts is comparably low. Test automation imitates the efforts of a human

tester and reduces the chances of human error as well. The same human

resource can be employed for a better task at hand.

Solution 3 proposes setting up of a dedicated set of people deployed to

support the configuration setups after cloning every time.

Automated Solution reduces weeks of configuration in 37 Operating Units (OUs)

and 128 Inventory Orgs (IOs). It reduces the repetitive tasks, the manual efforts and

also the bugs and errors. The use of automation improves quality and provides

comparably better consistent results which helps to increase support response time.

Solution Derivation

Project in Scope

To design & develop the Automated solution in HP Unified Functional Testing (UFT) tool

to do the setup for 37 OU’s; for services, PO, HR, Shipping, and Open periods for the QA

team on the UAT Instance after the refresh process from production; to reduce manual

work of OCT team.

Configuration Process Description

Define Buyer Define buyers

Grant Role to User Grant various roles to users

Currency Conversion Rate Define various currency conversion rates

Open Periods Open account receivables, account

payables, control purchasing, inventory,

general ledger and project accounting

periods

User Setup as Resource in Services module Setup an employee as a resource in

Services module

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Assign Role in Install Base Assign different roles to user resource in

Install Base

PO Approval Hierarchy

Employee/Supervisor Approval Hierarchy

Employee Creation

Automation Framework

Test Automation framework approach simplifies the automation efforts and provides

a basis for test automation.

Choosing the right framework directly affects the costs involved in script

development and maintenance. Various framework/scripting techniques are

employed. The framework specifically used at Eaton is data-driven framework. But

the solution discussed in the paper can be fitted within any automation framework.

Figure 1.Automation Framework Structure

The function libraries are files which contain reusable functions pertaining to the

functional test cases. All the objects captured by the automation tool while

developing the scripts are stored in the common global object repository file. The

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driver script controls the execution and association of all the modules.

A framework integrates the function libraries, object repositories, test input data and

recovery scenarios. The main advantage of a framework approach for automation is

the low maintenance cost. In cases of change to the test cases, the changes are only

to be reflected in the test case files and the driver script remains the same.

Automation Approach

The automation team at Eaton follows a standard process for test automation

projects.

Figure 2.Process for Test Automation

Step 1: Automation Feasibility

Configuration team approached QA Team for automated solution using HP

Tool. A Proof of Concept (POC) was performed by the automation team to

understand the application functionality and to evaluate the compatibility of

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the tool with the application to be automated. After successful POC, an

automation demo was presented to the Configuration team.

The request for automation of configuration setup was then converted to a

project.

Step 2: Automation Planning

A QA team comprises of resources from functional point of view and test

automation was identified. Initial meetings were setup between the Oracle

Configuration Team (OCT) and the QA team to finalize the automation scope

and prepare an automation approach document.

This document defines the scope of the project, the key stakeholders

involved, proposed automation schedule along with project estimation. The

estimates calculated were only from automation point of view.

The document was then reviewed and finalized by the stakeholders and a final

test automation schedule along with automation effort estimates and

schedule was created.

Step 3: Automation Creation

Using the final scope and the functional test cases provided by the function

team, test scripts were developed with the use of the standard automation

tool. In Eaton, the tool employed is HP Unified Functional Testing version12.0

(UFT).

Two automation resources were involved in automation right from the script

development to framework integration.

The scripts were developed module/configuration-process wise. The dry runs

were performed after one process has been automated.

The UAT execution was performed by the Functional Team. After a process

has been automated, the QA team hands it over to Functional team for UAT

execution.

A member from the Functional team is trained on automation to handle

minor changes which may occur during UAT.

Step 4: Automation Execution

The entire framework was handed over to the Functional team. The team then

executed the scripts process by process and ensured that the required

criterion was met as per the scope.

The results files generated in excel format were analyzed and in case of

defects, they were logged in the HP Application Lifecycle Management Tool

(ALM) and appropriate resource was assigned to solve the defect.

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In this stage, cycle time savings to automation were calculated and reported.

The impact to script due to changes after defects was also reported.

Step 5: Automation Maintenance

In this stage, we performed impact analysis of the changes.

In case of any minor defects, the functional team fixes them. But in case of

major changes, the functional team reverts back to automation team. No

major changes were identified in the scripts.

A maintenance matrix data was maintained to evaluate the cost involved in

maintaining this solution for future purposes.

Major Issues Identified and Resolved during project

During script development, the automation tool UFT version 11.0 was identified

as having issues automating Oracle objects especially the Oracle table methods.

To overcome this issue, the tool was upgraded to version 12.0 and was made the

standard tool for this project

Opening GL periods and Inventory periods have the pre-condition that for the

current month to be opened, the previous month should also be opened. The

script handled this condition explicitly

Site specific enhancements were incorporated in the PO Approval Hierarchy script

Risks Involved

The most major risk involved is that automation has now become a critical part of

business due to instable environment as well as rapid change in software.

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Key Benefits

Automating the Oracle Configuration setup has benefits in terms of time efforts

and cost savings.

The total number of tickets raised by the QA team to the Configuration team for

setup has been reduced by approximately 50% due to the automated solution.

Below are the hours which were spent by the configuration team before the

automation and also after the solution was incorporated.

Figure 3.Hours spent by Config Team

After the automated solution has been placed, 65% of the overall efforts have

been reduced.

It has also freed up a resource to do more intellectual and value added work

where his/her expertise is required.

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Conclusion

The organizations implementing ERPs can utilize this Automated Solution which will

ultimately help to perform Pre-Setup or Configuration required for Smooth Running

Functions in Business and reduce the cycle time, Time to Market.

By implementing the automated setup, below advantages can be availed by

Organization:

Reduce manual efforts

Time saving

One click solution

Less intervention with other teams

More organized work

Help streamlining the process

Improve Reusability

Less repetitive activities

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Bibliography

1. www.Open2Test.org Framework - while designing In House Automation

Framework

2. Referred to In House Project Charter

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Acknowledgement

We would like to acknowledge

Gomez, Jorge - Oracle Configuration Manager , Sandu Dhanwai – Project Manager and

Devanand Pare- Resource Manager for providing guidance and feedback during

implementation of the solution

Srinivas Joshi, Rahul Bengali ,Sujata Dutta, Rajshri Chawla – From QA COE, for providing

guidance and feedback during implementation of the solution

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THANK YOU!