7 actionable key takeaways

A snapshot view of the 2026 report's key takeaways

Treat Quality Assurance as a lifecycle business capability, not a project phase

QA is now embedded from strategy and design through build, deployment and run. Continuous assurance enables earlier risk detection, faster releases and stronger operational stability, which is especially important in cloud-based, continuously changing SAP environments.

Insight: While only 19.6% of organizations have mature QA/QE practices, 75% of those that do report dramatic improvements to business outcomes, with Shift-Left plus continuous testing reporting significantly lower migration risk.

Make data a core transformation workstream

Data integrity is the single biggest risk to SAP transformation success. Legacy data issues, duplication and poor governance delay migrations and undermine trust in cloud and AI, but ‘start early, govern rigorously’ approach makes data it’s own work stream.

Insight: Legacy data complexity is the leading migration challenge, with SAP transformations failing or underperforming due to data rather than configuration.

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Embed shift-left, risk-based, process driven end-to-end testing

The most successful transformations have shifted testing left, to focus on early validation of critical business processes, rather than isolated testing later on. Risk-based prioritisation ensures effort is focused where failure would cause the most business disruption.

Insight: Manual testing is still dominant and a major bottle neck to business transformation, whether in cloud migrations or the resulting continous innovation once on the cloud. Integration testing, risk-based testing and E2E process validation should be top QA priorities.

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Validate end-to-end business processes across SAP and non-SAP systems

Testing SAP in isolation is no longer enough. Modern SAP landscapes are integrated across MES, CRM, PLM, finance platforms and other systems. The organizations winning here, validate complete business processes across the full app ecosystem, ensuring continuity and compliance.

Insight: SAP transformations are now eco-system transformations, with integration failures a top cause of post-go-live incidents that can be reduced through E2E process validation.

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Industrialize automation with an Integrated SAP-native QA Platform

Automation needs to be properly scaled and governed to deliver value. While fragmented tools increase risk, unified platforms enable consistent quality at speed. Leading organizations implement SAP-native QA platform spanning automation, data validation, change impact analysis and monitoring.

Insight: 75% of organizations report high test impact on agility, although fragmented tools and script-heavy automation are still common. SAP-native solution extensions outperform disconnected implementations.

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Adopt AI safely through governed, industry-specific frameworks

AI is transforming SAP assurance, but maturity varies widely. Governance, transparency and industry alignment are all key to ensuring that AI is trusted, compliant and secure. AI shows strong potential but requires clear operating models before scaling.

Insight: 66.9% of organizations are aware of AI, but adoption is still low with the biggest barriers to adoption including trust, governance and ROI clarity. Early adopters have reaped the benefits, with up to 60% QA efficiency gains.

Establish QA governance with strong ownership and accountability models

The QA future is hybrid, with organizations retaining strong internal QA ownership, clearly defined integration responsibilities, and engaging specialist partners for complex situations. Clear accountability ensures quality outcomes align with business risk as well as delivery speed.

Insight: Programs succeed when QA is clearly separated from delivery responsibility. 72.6% of organizations plan to increase accountability for external partners, QA partners SIs and OEMs, with hybrid sourcing models outperforming SI-only testing.