Difference between eCATT and CBTA

[Former Member]

Hi all,

I can't find any information about the difference between eCATT and CBTA. Both are included in SolMan and used for testing. The only difference I have found is that CBTA is working modular. But is CBTA the replacement of eCATT or just an additional tool? Is CBTA an stand alone tool?

I am glad if anybody knows the right answer.

Thanks a lot.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Neitzel,

Both eCATT and CBTA are test automation tools, included in SolMan ALM Test Option 1.

CBTA does not particularly replace eCATT, as the latter can still be used and is still supported.

However CBTA is definitely more modern (developed in 2012), and SAP is putting very much effort to promote it.

As it is a recent product, new features are released on a regular basis, and others are improved.

While eCATT requires development skills, CBTA can be created and maintained by functional people, at least to create basic scripts (when it comes to in-deep use of CBTA, including custom functions, you will need VBscripts skills).

In a few words:

- CBTA uses TCE (Test Composition Environment) as development interface

- it is user-friendly and intuitive to create simple scripts

- it uses eCATT's infrastructure: Composite scripts - eCATT scripts variants -, Test Data Containers and System Data Containers

- It requires a front-end application to be installed on every user's workstation

- no additional licence fees are necessary

I have less knowledge of eCATT.

From what I have seen, it is a very powerful tool, hugely flexible (the main limit is the developer's skills), but to me it is quite complex to develop scripts, and above all, maintain them.

I suggest you to visit SAP Solution Manager wiki about Test Management:

http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/SM/SAP+Solution+Manager+WIKI+-+Test+Management

And especially the overview of CBTA:

http://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700000042802014E.PDF

Hope it helps you getting a general idea.

Regards,

Rémi.

P.S.: Please also find hereunder the UI technologies that CBTA supports, depending on your SolMan SP level.