SAP (Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing) is an integrated system developed by the German company, SAP SE, which streamlines company management. Thanks to the system’s various tools, processes in accounting, logistics, HR, and much more, can be handled. However, the system itself is not enough, you also need a specialist, who can operate it.
A SAP Consultant is a person, who deals with the implementation and upgrade of SAP systems. It is a forward-looking, well-paid, but also extremely demanding position. The tasks of a SAP Consultant include:
Until recently, the list of the most important duties of a SAP consultant, also included testing the functionality of applications in SAP systems, and detecting and fixing errors, but the work on this software started to become so extensive, that it was too much for one person. To solve this problem, positions were created, specialising in particular SAP areas. One such position is the SAP Tester, which, as the name suggests, tests the functionality of the application.
In order to find yourself in a job as a SAP Tester, you should have a similar set of competencies as a Consultant of this software, plus the knowledge of manual and/or automated testing. The most important skills in this field, include:
Of course, as with any position, in addition to hard skills, soft skills are also important, which include both working independently, and in a team, the ability to solve problems, and the willingness to improve one’s qualifications. For those who, some time ago, wanted to try their hand at the SAP environment, but were terrified of contact with the customer – we have some good news: the customer is still dealt with, in the first place, by the SAP Consultant, and the Tester is unlikely to have any such contact at all.
In working within SAP, an interesting aspect is the knowledge of a foreign language, because while, in other positions in the IT industry, it has almost become the norm – to use perfect English – in SAP, it is more common to find compulsory knowledge of German, which, however, is a niche in our country. This is due to the fact that SAP itself, originates from Germany, and communication with German teams is sometimes necessary.
Working in SAP professions is a very promising direction, due to the constantly developing demand in this area. The industries that, currently, have the greatest desire to work with SAP specialists, are consulting, finance, accounting, and logistics.
As far as the position of SAP tester is concerned, there are not many job offers in Poland at the moment, but there are quite a lot of them abroad, so we can safely predict that the demand for these specialists, will continue to grow in our country. This is, therefore, the perfect time to think about this direction, because when SAP Testers become more desirable on the Polish labour market, an educated specialist will be one step ahead of the competition.
