Robot meets Agriculture

Test automation at AGRAVIS

30th May 2023

AGRAVIS Raiffeisen AG is a modern agricultural trading company in the segments of agricultural products, animal nutrition, plant cultivation and agricultural technology. It also operates in the segments energy and Raiffeisen stores, including building materials outlets, as well as in project construction. As one of five main agricultural cooperatives in Germany, AGRAVIS, headquartered in Münster and employing around 6,600 people, generates a turnover of approx. 9.4 billion € per year.

The DOCK program initiated by AGRAVIS in 2019 focuses on the group-wide introduction of SAP S/4HANA to support the company's core merchandise management processes – with consenso as the implementation partner.

AGRAVIS does not only rely on consenso for the topic of S/4HANA transformation. Following the PriceEngine, the second milestone in the digitisation of retailing at AGRAVIS is now being set by consenso in the form of test automation. In a joint proof-of-concept, 15 regression tests have already been automated with the help of test automation bots. Solutions that complement the project portfolio of the DOCK program in a meaningful and, above all, beneficial way!

A project such as the DOCK program entails a great deal of work for the core project team, but also for the business departments affected by the transformation: for workshops, training and – at the latest with the deployment of the first solutions on the Q-systems – for tests.

Testing is very time-consuming and also lacks variety due to the constant repetition of tests, so the tasks are often considered a burden. As a result, errors are more or less inevitable.

Subsequent troubleshooting can often be time-consuming and expensive, but also blocks valuable resources for other, more important activities. Automating regression and functional tests can therefore provide valuable free time for the team members.

Traditionally, all SAP documents such as order confirmations, goods receipts, delivery notes or invoices are created, checked and saved by the team – however, these steps can be fully automated now.

The intelligent software solutions offer the possibility to create and file the documents in SAP, but also check whether the correct document has been uploaded. For control purposes, a screenshot of the result is forwarded to the test management tool.

As a starting point, the SAP Solution Manager is used to capture and start the test cases. Furthermore, analyses can be displayed in a cloud test management tool in the form of bar charts, representing the success or failure of the tests. Should a test fail, the result can be shared immediately with the responsible developer(s). The test automation bot records all information needed by the developer to quickly find and eliminate the cause of the error.

Since the test bots do not need to be supervised while working on distributed machines, employees can concentrate on their daily work in parallel to the automated tests.

Implementing test automation reduces manual testing efforts that would be required at weekends, e.g., improving the employees‘ day-to-day work in the long term. As a result, people feel better, as they notice a clear relief without losing accountability.

Digital maturity increased; measurable benefits generated. We look forward to further exciting projects at AGRAVIS!

Photo: 2ragon (stock.adobe.com)