Use data in Business Process Testing

Relevant for: business process testing

You can affect the behavior and results of a business process test by using parameters to define the values that components and flows receive and return. This process is known as parameterization. Parameterization enables you to perform operations on the application you are testing with multiple sets of data. Each time you run a business process test, you can supply different values for the parameters in the test (or its components and flows).

Parameterization is performed at a number of different levels in a business process test:

Test parameters

These parameters are created at the test level. The parameter and value is available to all flows and components contained in the test (provided they are linked).
Flow parameters

These parameters are created at the business process flow level. Like a test parameter, these parameters are available to all components contained in the flow (provided they are linked).
Component parameters

These parameters are created in the individual business component. The parameter and value is available to all test steps contained in the component.

Component parameters can be used in any test that contains the component (provided that you promote the parameter to the test level in a specific test).

Example: To test the business process of a banker logging into an online banking application, you might structure a business process test from components that:

  • Log into the application (Login)
  • Select a customer loan (SelectLoan)
  • View transactions for the loan (ViewLoan)
  • Log out (Logout)

You can set up the steps in each of these business components to receive data from the business process test that runs the components (for example, the loans that a customer has). You can also parameterize any element of data, which may have different values each time the business component is run. For example, the banker may choose a different customer and customer loan to view each time he or she logs in.

Here are parameters that you might create for this scenario, listed by category:

Category Parameters
Input parameters for a component
  • LoginName, entered as input by the banker when logging in
  • AccountNo, entered by the banker, perhaps from a written inquiry.

These parameters are created as input parameters for an individual component, and then you can use them for any step inside the component.
Output parameters for a component
  • SessionNo, a number for the login session, outputted by the business component when the banker successfully logs in
  • SelectedAccountNo, outputted by the business component after the banker selects a loan from a list
Test Parameters CustomerLoans, a comma-delimited list of all loans for a particular customer, accessed from the test level.

For task details, see Use data in a business process test.