Refactoring and automated testing of distributed ERP systems

Software development offers various techniques to improve the quality of code. One possibility is Refactoring. It goals are restructuring software code without changing its behavior and improving systems design to make it more extensible and reusable. This can be achieved by very simple renaming of variables and classes up to complex restructuring activities, such as the replacement of inheritance by compositions. Especially large software systems e.g. ERP systems (particular SAP) are developing into heterogeneous application environment over time. For this reason they have to be able to respond to new challenges at the system operating departments continuously, which requires a high degree of extensibility and reusability. This paper summarizes a practical example to show the complexity of SAP FICO systems. It illustrates how the applications source code can be prepared to be more extensible by using specific Refactoring. Moreover, the relationship between Refactoring in ABAP and automated testing of changes in SAP are shown.