How Applied Materials Deploys Faster SAP® Projects and Boosts Quality with Worksoft Test Automation
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Applied Materials has enhanced its SAP project deployment by utilizing test automation to accelerate processes, improve quality, and achieve cost savings. The establishment of a Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE) has led to significant improvements in business process coverage, efficiency, and risk mitigation. Future plans include expanding automation efforts across non-SAP applications and further enhancing quality assurance practices.
How Applied Materials Deploys Faster SAP® Projects and Boosts Quality with Worksoft Test Automation
- 1. External Use SAPinsider Webinar How Applied Materials Deploys Faster SAP® Projects and Boosts Quality with Test Automation Heather Whitfield, Program Manager, SAP Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE), Applied Materials Toby Cappello, Vice President, Services, Worksoft
- 2. What Today’s Webinar Will Cover How Applied Materials: • Accelerates IT projects, gains efficiencies and increases quality with automated business process validation • Builds and executes automated testing for better coverage, shorter test cycles and substantial cost savings over manual approaches • Expands its SAP Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE) and structures an automation roadmap to expand its business process coverage and success metrics 2
- 3. What You Will Learn How Automation Enables Applied Materials to: • Achieve high levels of coverage for core end-to-end business processes across SAP landscape • Improve business process quality and lower technology risk by catching defects before they enter production • Eliminate thousands of hours of manual effort and reduce test cycles by 40% or more • Deploy more projects faster to support company growth • Leverage reusable test scenarios to increase productivity and business process quality 3
- 4. Introduction to Applied Materials Applied Materials, Inc. is the global leader in precision materials engineering solutions for the semiconductor, flat panel display and solar photovoltaic (PV) industries. Our technologies help make innovations like smartphones, flat screen TVs and solar panels more affordable and accessible to consumers and businesses around the world. • Fiscal 2014 Revenue: $9.1 billion • Headquarters: Santa Clara, California • 81 locations in 18 countries 4
- 5. Enterprise Application Landscape - SAP 5
- 6. Business Needs and Drivers for Automation Manual testing accounted for 60% of project duration Manual testing took 6 to 8 weeks to complete and accounted for a significant portion of the overall Test budget Needed to save time and find a more cost effective way to test core business processes Needed to remove manual testing burdens and enable functional analysts to do more projects per year and more strategic product work Needed a way to deploy more projects faster with reduced manual effort to support company growth 6
- 7. Business Needs and Drivers for Automation Compelling Event: In 2014, an inadvertent date change put thousands of materials on a block/hold and had to be manually changed Outcome: Created corporate alignment and a renewed interest in automation and Automated Business Process Validation Mandated that a regression test run before any planned changes Recognition that automation was essential for testing 7
- 8. Organizational and Team Structure Renewed focus on Test leadership Test lead oversees a team of offshore automation developers – Fully funded by IT The new team automates validation of 40 to 45 end-to-end business processes per quarter The Worksoft Certify capture functionality enables the business to document automation needs and send those “captures” to the automation developers 8
- 9. Establishing a Testing Center of Excellence New initiatives launched to refine Applied Materials’ overall testing and quality practices through process, technology and people changes SAP TCOE: A centrally organized and funded team was established – Designated Program Manager – Team consists of test lead and offshore team of automation developers – Provides insight into processes and approaches to identify inefficiencies SAP TCOE reports into the SAP COE, which reports into the VP of Enterprise Process Solutions, who reports directly to the CIO 9
- 10. Building a Roadmap for Automation The key to measuring success (business process coverage) was to build the right foundation for automation Step 1 - Leveraged the key business functional analysts over a 6-week period to define their Core Business Processes Step 2 – Designated and determined a list of end-to-end business processes to serve as the roadmap for automation and a denominator for calculating coverage 10
- 11. Results Levels of Automation and Business Process Coverage Achieved Achieved higher levels of coverage for core end-to-end business processes across SAP modules Improved business process quality Resulted in a list of close to 500 end-to-end processes that were designated and now serve as the roadmap for automation The company now has coverage across 196 of the 500 processes and is continuing to work on increasing and improving coverage Business areas and projects now proactively seek out automation for SAP and non-SAP applications 11
- 12. Results Business Benefits: Savings and Efficiencies, Shortened Timelines, Quality Improvements Lowered technology risk by catching defects before they enter production – Defect Removal Efficiency (DRE) for last SAP technical upgrade project reached 86% - a significant improvement from the previous upgrade Eliminated hundreds of hours of manual effort and reduced test cycles by 40% or more Deployed more projects faster to support company growth – Enabled new key SAP functionality Leveraged reusable test scenarios to increase productivity and business process quality – Reduction of Test prep time for projects 12
- 13. Success Factors Creating Culture Change Start with initial, small projects Hold numerous awareness sessions Share project results frequently Best Practices for Automation Success Pursue executive support Seek visibility for you and your team Don’t take your foot off the gas; stay steady, move forward Publicize results with metrics and demonstrate the value your team can bring 13
- 14. Future Plans Applied Materials is expanding its Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE) to include other non-SAP applications such as Collaboration, Engineering and HR applications TCOE is engaging with IT PMO to insert QA governance into PM framework to ensure projects follow consistent QA processes TCOE is structuring an automation roadmap to expand its business process coverage and success metrics across applications The company is committed to expanding its use of automation 14
- 15. www.worksoft.com Modern Enterprise Application Landscape 15
- 16. 16 www.worksoft.com 17 Today’s End-to-End Business Processes
- 17. 17 COMPLEXITY PACE OF CHANGE LOSS OF CONTROL www.worksoft.com 18 With Technology Comes Technology Risk
- 18. The industry’s only platform for automated business process discovery, analytics, and validation Ensure they continue to work even when enterprise apps change Understand and analyze your critical business processes 19 www.worksoft.com 19 Worksoft: The Automation Technology Company
- 19. Q&A For more information, contact Heather Whitfield, Program Manager, SAP Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE), Applied Materials [email protected] Toby Cappello, Vice President, Services, Worksoft [email protected] 19