Case StudyConducting Comprehensive Testing of EBS with Oracle Application Testing Suite at an Oilfield Services Company

The client was looking to implement a future-ready EBS that could help enhance efficiency and flexibility of its business process. Once implemented, the application undergoes upgrades, patch installs, application enhancements, rollouts to new business units/regions and other major/minor releases involving defect fixes and change requests. The client partnered with Acolade to develop a test automation framework and to perform the functional, regression and performance testing on its enterprise application.

The ClientThe client is a global oilfield services company that caters to customers across the entire spectrum of the oil and gas asset lifecycle on a stand-alone or integrated basis, under flexible commercial models specifically tailored to the customer’s needs.

Business NeedsTo boost organizational responsiveness, the client had made considerable investments towards implementing Oracle Applications. The challenges for the client arose due to the continuous stream of patches and family packs released by Oracle in response to defects and problems detected in the application, along with internal enhancements made to align the application with changes to the business process.

These upgrades necessitated that the client should continuously test the application against break-age, which in turn called for significant investment in terms of time on the part of the business users. Such frequent testing also had implications on the cost, time and quality of testing.

The business needs, therefore, were:l To develop a reusable and user-friendly test automation framework for functional and

regression testing

l Offshore the test automation activities for improved cost benefit

l Identify potential performance problems and provide recommendations to address them

l Ensure that with the rollout of ERP application into new business units, the ERP application operates at optimum performance levels in the integrated environment for the increased number of users

ChallengesComprehensive testing for EBS was quite challenging. Some of the major challenges encountered are enumerated below:

l Planning and drawing up an infallible test strategy by taking into account all the intricacies involved was time consuming.

l While drawing up the test strategy, it was important to determine what needed to be tested with application developers, business analysts and end users. Furthermore, the priorities also had to be decided.

l Then the test requirements and critical use cases were defined, which had to be reviewed with key stakeholders to get consensus on testing objectives and for identifying any critical gaps.

l It was imperative to agree on general logistics upfront, such as when will one test, who will test (i.e. users, business analysts, dedicated QA/test team) and how the tests will be run. Based on this, a test plan had to be published and made accessible to the entire team. Then all test assets had to be centralized in a bid to promote collaboration and ensure an effective test management system.

l The testing team had to make sure that comprehensive testing included reports, upstream and downstream interfaces, customizations, enhancements, and workflows. The team also had to budget for testing resources in its upfront planning and resource allocations as well.

l Finally, once testing was underway, a centralized test management system enabled the team to report regularly on testing status and overall application readiness.

page.2

The Acolade ApproachTo perform the assigned task comprehensively, successfully and in an optimum manner, the Acolade team conducted the following types of tests.

l Functional testing

l Regression testing

l Performance testing

Functional testing: Functionality testing is employed to verify whether the ERP Applications meet the intended specifications and functional requirements. The testing can be done either manually or by using automation. For this project, the team made use of automation testing with Acolade’s test auto-mation framework. The modules that were tested included:

l HRMS

l Finance

l Projects

l Procurement

Regression testing: This testing is undertaken to uncover new software bugs or regressions in exist-ing functional and non-functional areas of a system after modifications such as enhancements, patch-es or configuration changes have been made to them. Our team performed regression testing for the following Business groups.

l HRMS: The United Kingdom, The United Arab Emirates, Malaysia and India

l Finance: The United Kingdom, Sharjah, Malaysia and India

l Projects: The United Kingdom, Sharjah, Malaysia and India

l Procurement: The United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, The United Kingdom and India

Performance testing: The client was rolling out ERP solution to its new business units. Such rollouts normally result in a significant increase in the user community carrying out day-to-day activities in ERP. In a bid to confirm that the prevailing environment can fully support this, load/stress testing were car-ried out covering key business processes in ERP with the following objectives:

l To ensure that with the rollout of ERP application into new business units, it operates at optimum performance levels in the integrated environment for the increased number of users.

l To understand if there is degraded performance anywhere, so that it can be addressed prior to going live.

l To determine if the existing hardware and network infrastructure can fully support the anticipated future daily transaction volumes.

As per the client’s requirement, Acolade team prepared different kinds of graphs based on the perfor-mance parameters and generated performance test results with Oracle load testing tool (OLT) in order to make sure the client follows the complete analysis of its EBS-load sustain capacity.

Business BenefitsMajor benefits that have accrued to the client’s overall business are:

l Reduced risk of business interruption from system failure

l Affordable test execution costs

l Flawless EBS application in place

l Enhanced system reliability

l Lower support costs

l Increased customer satisfaction

page.3

About AcoladeAcolade (www.acolade.com.au) is an IT services company based in Sydney, Australia with an offshore centre in Technopark, Trivandrum, India. Acolade helps customers improve business resilence by providing solutions that integrate deep industry insights, leading technologies and future-ready processes. Acolade’s application testing services enhance the quality of the applications whist reducing costs, saving development time, maximizing customer’s ROI from QA and Testing.

We are highly proficient in the areas of application testing and providing high-end solutions around quality management products. We also specialize in ERP application implementation, customization and business analysis. We address the critical challenges of today’s business community with innovation and initiative.