Digital Mines is an advanced release management stream within the KTern.AI suite, purpose-built for orchestrating SAP releases with automation, intelligence, and control. It serves as a centralized platform for SAP DevOps, leveraging Change Impact Analysis and intelligent digital bots to assess the consequences of changes before they hit production. By identifying risks, simulating impacts, and enabling optimized testing and governance, Digital Mines ensures seamless and risk-free go-lives across the enterprise SAP landscape.

Autonomous Enterprise Release Impact (AERI) is the central capability of Digital Mines, offering automated, AI-driven impact analysis across technical components, business processes, and testing layers. It intelligently mines transport requests, process dependencies, and test coverage to provide a comprehensive view of change impact within the SAP landscape. By delivering predictive insights and prioritized actions, AERI enables faster release cycles, reduces manual intervention, and significantly minimizes the risk and impact of changes across the SAP environment.

KTern.AI drives intelligent quality assurance with test fits & gaps, thanks to release impact mining in Digital Mines. It connects to the SAP system using standard RFC protocols without requiring third-party plugins. This connectivity enables rapid system scans and results generation that feed into dashboards for testing and release decision-making.

To initiate this connectivity:

1. Download and Launch the KTern Connector
   
   Begin by navigating to the Landscape Management section. Click "Download KTern Connector", extract the zip file, and launch the connector.
   
   
   
   
2. Add Your SAP System
   
   
   
   Click "Add New System" and input your SAP system details:
   
   
   • System Type (e.g., DEV, QAS, PRD)
     
     
   • SAP System Version (e.g., ECC or S/4HANA)
     
     
   • System ID, Application Server ID, Instance, and Client Number
     
     
   • After adding, click “Connect” and enter the SAP credentials to complete the setup. A green checkmark indicates successful connection.
     
     

     

     
     
     

Once the SAP system is connected, go to Digital Mines > Autonomous Enterprise Release Impact and click “Add Release Impact Mining Bots”.

You’ll follow these steps:

1. Bot Configuration
   
   
   • Enter a preferred bot name.
     
     
   • Select the required bots from the available list (Transport, Change, Process, Technical, Test).
     
     
   • Choose your integration tool (e.g., Jira XRay, KTern.AI Digital Labs).
     
     
     
     
2. Bot Preferences
   
   
   • Select the mining type: SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA.
     
     
   • Choose the source and target systems for your release.
     
     
   • Define execution preferences, such as the timeframe for the analysis.
     
     
     
     
3. Launch Your Bots
   
   
1. Click “Launch my Bots” to trigger the simulation. Each bot will begin analyzing the release data based on its domain (transport, process, etc.).
   
   
2. After launch, each bot is listed with:
   
1. A unique ID
   
2. Bot Name and Status (Success, Failed, In Progress)
   
3. Creation Date
   
4. Last Update Message (e.g., “Transport mining completed successfully!”)
   
5. Real-time progress indicators
   
6. This visual bot cockpit helps teams instantly track status, insights, and overall readiness across the SAP landscape.
   
   
   

This flow outlines the streamlined process of how KTern.AI automates and enhances the QA lifecycle, ensuring precision and efficiency in release testing.

Key Steps in the Flow:

1. Release Initiation: User initiates release from SAP Solution Manager – ChaRM.
   
   
2. RFC Connection: A standard SAP RFC connection is established to link with KTern.AI.
   
   
3. Test Impact Analysis by KTern.AI: KTern identifies Test Fit and Test Gap based on the impacted objects. Notification is triggered to QA Owner via mail.
   
   
4. Test Plan Creation: KTern auto-creates test cases and test plans and pushes them to Jira (Test Repository).
   
   
5. Automation Setup: Jira test plan is sent to Tricentis Tosca for automation execution.
   
   
6. Automated Testing: Tosca runs the test cases and generates results.
   
   
7. Results Synchronization: Test results are pushed back to KTern via REST API.
   
   
8. Insight & Acknowledgement: KTern generates risk-based insights, acknowledges test gaps, and informs QA Owner.
   
   
9. QA Review & Certification: QA Tester reviews the results and sends them. KTern generates QA Approval Certificate.
   
   
10. Approval of Quality Gate: User approves or rejects the final Quality Gate in Solution Manager.
    

KTern.AI KTern.AI ensures reliable and disruption-free SAP releases through intelligent automation, simulation, and analytics via Digital Mines:

1. Change Impact Analysis – Evaluates how transport changes affect business processes, test coverage, technical components, and users, enabling complete visibility and traceability.
   
   
2. Release Impact Simulation – Simulates the effect of upcoming changes before deployment, allowing project teams to foresee impacts and prevent failures proactively.
   
   
3. Test Optimization – Highlights both impacted and missing test cases using Test Fits and Test Gaps, leading to smarter test planning and minimized regression effort.
   
   
4. Process Impact Analysis – Reveals which standard or custom business processes are impacted and who owns them, enabling better alignment and smoother functional validation.
   
   
5. Technical Impact Analysis – Identifies affected ABAP objects, classifies their criticality, and ties them to responsible developers, streamlining the technical review process.
   
   
6. Transport Request Analysis – Offers deep visibility into the content of TRs (type, captured objects, owners), helping BASIS teams validate completeness and readiness before cutover.

KTern deploys five bots for impact analysis in every mine:

1. Change Impact Simulation Bot
   
2. Transport Analysis Simulation Bot
   
3. Process Impact Simulation Bot
   
4. Technical Impact Simulation Bot
   
5. Test Impact Simulation Bot
   

These bots analyze SAP transport requests and derive insights related to processes, technical objects, test cases, and stakeholders impacted by changes.

1. Change Impact Simulation Bot
   
   
1. Tailored for ERP Managers and Project Managers, this bot generates insights on how SAP releases impact test cases, business processes, users, and technical objects. It offers a 360-degree view of changes to help teams mitigate disruptions, prioritize test scope, and manage release cutovers more confidently. It enables data-driven decision-making by mining and analyzing test fits, gaps, and change footprints across the landscape.
   
   
2. User Personas: ERP Managers, Release Managers, Test Managers, Test Engineers, IT Consultants, IT Architects, Business SMEs, LoB Managers, Project Managers, RPA Managers, RPA Developers
   
   
1. The Change Impact Simulation Bot offers a unified dashboard view that helps teams understand the release's end-to-end impact across business processes and testing.
   
   
   
   
   

1. All Business Process Steps
   
1. Gives a baseline to compare how much of the system is impacted. Helps scope the release breadth.
   
   
2. Impacted Business Process Steps
1. Allows users to focus only on affected areas for review, testing, and stakeholder alignment.
   
   
3. Impacted Test Fits
1. Shows test readiness. If high, it means less effort is needed to validate changes.
   
   
4. Impacted Test Gaps
1. Guides QA teams to create new test cases and avoid untested releases.
   
   
5. Impacted Process Steps 
1. Visual priority indicator. Users can plan efforts based on low/medium/high/critical impact areas.
   
   
6. Impacted Test Cases 
1. Quickly communicates whether test coverage is strong or lacking.
   
   
7. Top Impacted Business Process Steps
1. Helps functional teams identify and prepare for process disruptions ahead of time.
   
   
8. Top Impacted Business Stakeholders
1. Ensures the right people are looped in for validation and communication during release.
   
   

1. How cross-functional teams can use it?
   
   
1. 360° Impact Visibility
1. Offers a unified dashboard view of impacted test cases, business processes, technical objects, and users — enabling complete traceability for every release.
   
   
2. Smarter Testing & Planning
1. Highlights test fits and gaps, top impacted process steps, and stakeholder responsibilities — helping teams prioritize efforts and close testing gaps early.
   
   
3. Aligned & Confident Execution
1. Empowers ERP and project managers with actionable insights to manage release cutovers, stakeholder alignment, and QA certification confidently.
   
   

2. Transport Analysis Simulation Bot
   
   
1. Ideal for BASIS consultants, this bot provides detailed insights into each Transport Request (TR). It shows captured objects, descriptions, request types, owners, and statuses. It gives a comprehensive view of what is being moved, allowing better planning and validation before execution. Additionally, it empowers Release and BASIS Managers by simulating and orchestrating SAP TR Releases, enhancing DevOps optimization.
   
   
   
   
   
2. User Personas: BASIS Consultants, Release Managers
   
   
3. Each row in the bot’s dashboard presents critical data under the following key columns:
   
   
1. Transports and Objects – Lists TR IDs and related nested objects.
   
   
2. Type – Indicates whether the transport is a Workbench Request, Customizing Request, or Transport of Copies.
   
   
3. Objects Captured – Shows the count of technical artifacts included in that TR.
   
   
4. Description – Provides context and change descriptions, often linking parent TRs for traceability.
   
   
5. Status – Reflects the release status of the transport (e.g., Released).
   
   
6. Owner – Points to the responsible developer or stakeholder managing the transport.
   
   
7. User Selection – Indicates if the user has acknowledged or reviewed the TR (True/False).
   
   
4. How can release teams use this?
   
   
1. Validate Readiness of TRs Quickly confirm whether transports have been released, by whom, and with what contents. It ensures no critical objects are missed or misaligned during deployment.
   
   
2. Perform Deep-Dive on Captured Objects Click into the transport to drill down on exact technical objects like reports, tables, enhancements, etc.
   
   
3. Align on Ownership The Owner and User Selection columns help ensure that transports are being reviewed by the correct developers or functional leads.
   
   
4. Trace Parent-Child Transport Relationships Descriptions reveal dependency across TRs, especially when transports of copies are involved.

   
   
   
3. Technical Impact Simulation Bot
   
   
1. Focused on ABAP developers and technical architects, this bot explores the depth of technical impact due to release changes. It analyzes standard and custom SAP objects—like function modules, tables, and reports—while classifying the degree of impact. It allows pinpointing critical changes, linking responsible users, and accelerating development tasks with higher visibility and fewer manual checks.
   
   
   
   
   
2. User Personas: Technical Consultants, Release Managers, IT Architects, IT Consultants, Technical Leads
   
   
3. From the dashboard, each row offers structured impact intelligence across these key dimensions:
   
   
1. ID – Unique identifier of the impacted technical object.
   
   
2. Title – The object name or description (e.g., function module, report, transaction).
   
   
3. Module Type – Whether the object is a PROG (program) or TRAN (transaction).
   
   
4. Module Category – Indicates if the object belongs to a Custom or Standard category.
   
   
5. Materiality Score – A numeric value (e.g., 9 or 10) reflecting how frequently the object is used across the system.
   
   
6. Business User Interface – Identifies how users access the object (e.g., SAP GUI, Fiori).
   
   
7. Module Stakeholders – The mapped individuals or roles accountable for reviewing and validating object changes.
   
   
8. Change Impact – Marked as High, Medium, or No impact, depending on the depth of impact.
   
   
9. Classification – Indicates how the object is categorized (e.g., Integration, Dialog).
   
   
10. Root Cause Type – Shows if the change is due to technical alterations such as code modifications.
    
    
4. How technical teams can use it?
   
   
1. Identify Critical Technical Changes
   
   
1. Clearly see which technical components are touched by a TR and evaluate their significance.
   
   
2. Streamline Development Review
   
   
1. Classify objects by type and interface to plan regression efforts or code reviews.
   
   
3. Engage the Right Stakeholders
   
   
1. Use the Module Stakeholders column to ensure developers or architects responsible for specific objects are looped in.
   
   
4. Prioritize Testing with Materiality Scores
   
   
1. High-usage objects (scores of 9 or 10) should be tested or reviewed first to prevent disruptions.
   
   
4. Process Impact Simulation Bot
   
   
1. Built for functional consultants and business stakeholders, this bot evaluates how TRs affect end-to-end SAP processes. It shows both standard and custom processes categorized by module and process area. The bot also maps impacted business owners, enabling smoother change management, root cause analysis, and communication alignment across functions.
   
   
   
   
2. User Personas: Business SMEs, LoB Managers, ERP Managers, Release Managers, Test Managers, Test Engineers, IT Consultants, IT Architects, IT Managers, Project Managers, RPA Managers, RPA Developers.
   
   
3. From the dashboard, each row provides a detailed insight with the following columns:
   
1. ID – Unique identifier of the impacted process step.
   
   
2. Title – The name or short description of the impacted transaction or program.
   
   
3. Process Type – Whether the object is a transaction (TRAN) or a program (PROG).
   
   
4. Process Category – Typically ‘Custom’ or ‘Standard’, indicating whether the impacted object is part of a custom enhancement or standard SAP process.
   
   
5. Materiality Score – A number (e.g., 9 or 10) that indicates how frequently the process is executed in live business operations.
   
   
6. Business User Interface – Shows the interface used, such as SAP GUI or Fiori, helping teams assess user-facing impact.
   
   
7. Process Stakeholders – Visual mapping of users accountable for validating or owning the impacted process steps.
   
   
8. Change Impact – Tagged as High, Medium, or No impact, depending on the severity and reach of the TR.
   
   
9. Root Cause Type – Typically marked as Technical change if the impact stems from code-level adjustments.
   
   
4. How functional teams can use it?
   
   
1. Understand Real Process Impact
   
   
1. Easily identify which transactions or programs are directly impacted by TRs—both in technical and business terms.
   
   
2. Target the Right Stakeholders
   
   
1. With Process Stakeholders listed visually, communication and follow-up become faster and more accountable.
   
   
3. Prioritize Based on Usage
   
   
1. Use the Materiality Score to focus testing and validation on high-usage processes first.
   
   
4. Improve Regression Planning
   
   
1. Ensure all impacted flows—especially those marked High impact—are tested in detail before go-live
   

   
   
   
5. Test Impact Simulation Bot
   
   
1. Ideal for QA Managers and Test Engineers, this bot examines test case coverage linked to impacted TRs. It identifies:
   
   
1. Test Fits – Existing mapped test cases in Jira impacted by the TR.
   
   
2. Test Gaps – Impacted areas with no corresponding test cases.
   
   

3. It promotes intelligent regression by reducing effort, filling test gaps, and ensuring test readiness. It plays a key role in orchestrating shift-left testing cycles and reducing post-go-live risks.
   
   
4. User Personas: Test Managers, Test Engineers, Testers, Technical Consultants, RPA Developers, Release Managers, IT Architects, ERP Managers, Business SMEs
   
   
1. Test Gaps
   
   
1. Test Gaps in KTern.AI highlight areas impacted by transport requests where no mapped test cases currently exist. These gaps are crucial indicators for missing validations, helping QA teams proactively improve test coverage before defects slip into production.
   
   
   
   
2. The image reflects a detailed KPI breakdown for each test gap:
   
   
1. Test Insight – Marked as Impacted Test Gap
   
   
2. References – Mapped to transactions or custom programs (e.g., TRAN:MIR4, PROG:SAPLPRM1M)
   
   
3. Materiality Score – A numeric score (e.g., 9, 8, 7) based on actual usage frequency and business relevance of the impacted object or process
   
   
4. Impact Level – Tagged as High, Medium, or Low based on overall change sensitivity
   
   
5. Test Stakeholders – Lists impacted roles for coordination
   
   
6. Root Cause Description – Technical details about the change (e.g., “Technical change due to object T041C”)
   
   
3. How can QA teams use it?
   
   
1. Prioritize Based on Usage
   
   
1. Focus first on test gaps with higher materiality scores, since they represent frequently used or critical transactions.
   
   
2. Even low-impact changes can carry high materiality if they’re used daily by business users.
   
   
2. Initiate Test Case Creation
   
   
1. Use the “Create Test Case” button to define new test cases directly from the gap insight.
   
   
2. Ensures gaps are closed before SIT or UAT begins.
   
   
3. Drive Shift-Left Testing
   
   
1. Identify test gaps early in the release lifecycle and act before defects reach QA or production.
   
   
2. Supports more automated, risk-based regression.
   
   
4. Collaborate Across Functions
   
   
1. With stakeholder tags, QA can work with functional leads or developers to understand the change and build meaningful test cases.
   
   
2. Test Fits
   
   
1. Test Fits are existing test cases that are already aligned with impacted processes or objects from Transport Requests (TRs).
   
   
   
   
2. These are automatically identified by KTern from integrated systems like Jira or Tosca and are enriched with insights from the following columns:
   
   
1. Test Insight – Denotes that this is an Impacted Test Fit, meaning the test case is relevant to the TR change.
   
   
2. References – Indicates the linked transaction code or program (e.g., VA01, IW31, VF02).
   
   
3. Materiality Score – A value out of 10 showing how often the process or transaction is used in business operations.
   
   
4. Test Stakeholders – Lists the users or roles responsible for validating the test case execution.
   
   
5. Change Impact – Categorized as Low, Medium, or High based on how significantly the change affects the test case.
   
   
6. Root Cause – Indicates the nature of the change, often shown as Technical change with relevant details.
   
   
3. How can QA teams use it?
   
   
1. Reuse Validated Test Assets
   
   
1. Avoid redundant test case creation. Directly execute mapped test fits for the impacted areas.
   
   
2. Prioritize Based on Impact and Frequency
   
   
1. High Change Impact + High Materiality Score → Test first.
   
   
2. Low Impact + Low Usage → Defer or batch with other test cycles.
   
   
3. Plan Shift-Left Testing
   
   
1. Run impacted test fits early in the release lifecycle to reduce last-minute delays.
   
   
4. Drive Accountability
   
   
1. Engage the listed Test Stakeholders to ensure ownership and timely test execution.