Introduction to Process Automation › Phase III: Testing and Deployment › Test the Process with Related Objects

Test the Process with Related Objects

Testing is essential to deploying the CA Process Automation management package that represents the processes you want to automate. Verify that all components work together as designed before you deploy the content package from the design environment to the production environment.

CA Process Automation has several features for testing processes:

• You can start a process in suspended mode in the Design palette and conduct runtime testing. You can start and pause the process instance as it runs.
• You can set breakpoints to pause and debug process steps.
• You can run processes in simulation mode, which lets you define specific outcomes for a step. Simulation mode returns the simulated results of each step without performing any real actions.

Testing occurs on the following levels:

• Content designers test and verify that each process and the automation objects it uses work properly in the design environment.
• Administrators test the deployment after export and import to verify that each process and the automation objects it uses work properly in the production environment. This process is seamless when administrators create touchpoints in the production environment with the same names as in the design environment. Each member of the touchpoint pair targets agents in their respective environments.

The entire deployment can pass all tests and can be operational while a specific form is still being redesigned and tested. The following terms reflect this difference:

• Unit testing as opposed to integration testing
• An internal release candidate build as opposed to a customer proof-of-concept build
• Development as opposed to production

Periodically retest mission-critical processes that do not run frequently (such as system failovers). Periodic testing verifies that the processes and users stay current and functional in the production environment and prevents incidents from becoming crises.

More information:

Run Processes Interactively

Debug a Process

Simulate Processing of Operators