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The answer to this commonly asked query comes down to two simple answers: yes and no. If you are using a desktop version, then no. If you are using a web version of SAP, then yes, you can use Selenium. But it’s not ideal. Here’s why:
Selenium is a great tool. It’s open-source which means you don’t have licensing costs. You can extend and modify the source code, and it supports multiple programming languages. And while that sounds great on paper, in practice, it’s difficult to set up and use, leading to high start-up costs.
The biggest time sink is in the maintenance of an automation framework with Selenium. Test development is slow, and once a test has been built it requires constant updating to make sure it is not spitting out false positives. This makes it an unreliable solution for quality-focused businesses.
And finally, if you’re using a non-web version of SAP, it won’t work.
While some businesses have transitioned to the cloud-based SAP solution, SAP S/4HANA, not all have.
The transition can take years, and with a deadline for 2027, we’re still some way away from all SAP customers being fully in the cloud. Hence, using Selenium for testing SAP isn’t possible. This is because Selenium is a browser-based API, which means it does not work outside of a browser.
There are, however, other solutions for testing SAP with automation. We’ll cover that in the next section.
Some of the options available for automating SAP are through commercial solutions (you can read more on that below, linked here). However, there are also open-source and SAP-owned solutions available.
Commercial solutions fall into three buckets. You have heavy code, low-code, and no-code solutions.
The answer to this question will differ depending on the organization.
If you have a wealth of developer resources available that are given the green light to write a test automation script or a QA team with a high level of coding experience, a code-based testing solution may work for you.
If you have a strong testing team, in the sense that they are very familiar with SAP processes on the front-end, but they don’t have coding experience, then a codeless solution may be a better option.
If you are opting for a codeless solution, here are some of the capabilities to consider:
To find out more about testing SAP with codeless automation, watch our on-demand webinar with consultancy NNIT. In the webinar, you will see a demonstration of no-code SAP automation, and learn about ensuring the continued functionality of business-critical processes.
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