Automated Translation of Test Cases with Focused Build Test Steps

Introduction

With Focused Build Test Steps, designing and executing manual tests with SAP Solution Manager is simplified and accelerated. Many features like content-driven test case design, guided test execution or in-depth reporting capabilities enable a testing experience which was not possible before in SAP Solution Manager.

In one of my previous blog posts I gave an overview on the most important capabilities & features of Focused Build – Test Steps. In this article I want to focus on how to work with multi-lingual Test Cases in an international business environment.

Multilingual test cases are supported since the very first release of Focused Build Test Steps. For instance, test engineers can start creating a test case with Test Steps Designer in English. Afterwards, they can switch to German and proceed with the translation. The test case is then available for testers in multiple languages during test execution.

However, the translation is still manual and therefore also time consuming.

With Focused Build SP03 an Automated Translation API for Test Steps is introduced! This aids the user during test case design and significantly accelerates the creation of multilingual test cases. Automated translations can be processed by calling external translation services. You can integrate services offered by your own organization or by external providers like SAP.

In the Video below, we demonstrate the workflow for the test engineer to perform a translation with Test Steps Designer:

Prerequisites to use Automated Translation for Test Steps

Before you can perform an automated translation of your test cases in Focused Build Test Steps Designer, you need to decide for an external translation service. For instance, SAP offers the SAP Translation Hub with a machine translation into 39 different languages.

Afterwards you need to follow the configuration steps as described in the respective chapter of the Focused Build Configuration Guide for SP03.

Now you’re done and ready to use automated translations of your Test Cases with Test Steps Designer! As soon as you switch to a language which is not maintained yet, you will find the Perform Translation function in Test Steps Designer. Pressing the link will immediately perform the translation into the selected target language and return the translated test case on the screen. It is as easy as it could be!

Monetary Benefits when using Automated Translations API

Besides the obvious benefits for your test engineers when applying an automated translation, you might also recognize significant monetary benefits. In the following sample calculation, I will compare the machine translation offering by SAP with a manual translation of 100 Test Cases. For each Test Case I assume 20 Steps which leads to an average amount of approx. 1000 translatable characters per Test Case.

Using SAP Translation Hub (subscription model), the translation of 100 Test Cases would cost only 2,82 €. That would be significantly cheaper compared to approx. 2000 € you would have to afford for a manual translation.

Relative cost savings in this example: 99,85%

Further Support by SAP Language Service Partners

While machine translations by SAP are continuously improved, there is still the need to review the translated results. Especially when using the machine translation for masses of test cases this might generate some additional effort. If you need further support to review the translation proposals you can contact the SAP Language Service Partners (see general description of their services and a list of those partners).

Update Notes:

2 April 2020: The blog article was adjusted due to changes to service offerings by SAP in the area of machine translation.

2 September 2021: the price model for SAP Translation Hub was adjusted. Hence the calculation in this blog article was revised.