Best Practice 16.6 – Develop mechanisms for simulating production load for analysis purposes

Having a clone of production data in a test system allows system administrators to simulate production SAP workloads and conduct vital performance tests, such as stress and volume testing. This type of testing can help identify potential performance bottlenecks and prevent performance issues from occurring in a live production environment.

Suggestion 16.6.1 – Define performance sensitive activities

Evaluate which transactions, reports, and operational activities could have an impact on your business if they do not meet peak load requirements or time-critical thresholds. For example, an overnight batch job which must complete in five hours, or a customer-facing transaction accessed concurrently by thousands of users during a quarterly business peak. Document and agree on the measurement approach, KPIs, and success criteria for these workload activities.

Suggestion 16.6.2 – Create an automated test approach for key activities

If required, develop a test strategy to confirm that your SAP workload performance benchmarks are met. Evaluate how test landscapes and tools can enable a repeatable suite of tests to measure the impact of operational activities, change releases and major patching on the performance of your workload.