Modelling Business Processes and Rules
Organisations need confidence that critical business processes, such as order-to-cash procedures, human resource on-boarding, or production planning, can be performed without disruption. This is known as “business process assurance” and it is an essential objective of acceptance testing. In this context, two standards exist that provide a common language for business analysts and testers for graphically representing business processes and business rules: Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and Decision Model and Notation (DMN). These models support the design and implementation of tests and help to determine the priority for execution.
Business process/rule models describe the business flow and the expected behaviour of the test object. Representing business processes and rules to be tested using a graphical notation helps to establish a common understanding of what is expected. A business process corresponds to a flow of tasks, alternative paths, and the various events at the start, the end or possibly during the control flow. Business rules define explicit criteria for guiding behaviour, shaping judgments, or making decisions.
Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN), maintained by the Object Management Group (OMG), is a recognised standard for business process modelling which uses a flowcharting technique. In this article, a subset of the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) notation is used that is sufficient to draw simple business process models in the context of acceptance testing activities.
Decision Model and Notation (DMN), also standardised by the Object Management Group (OMG), is complementary to the BPMN standard. While Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) is used to represent workflows, DMN is used to represent decisions, business rules and outcomes/output within the workflow. In this article, a subset of the Decision Model and Notation (DMN) notation is used that is sufficient to define business rules in conjunction with simple business process models in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN).
Deriving Acceptance Tests from Business Process/Rule Models
A business process model with business rules, described with the Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and/or Decision Model and Notation (DMN) notations, provides a precise definition of the scenarios to be tested, including the cases related to business rules. It is a good basis for generating acceptance tests using coverage-based test selection criteria as defined in a model-based testing approach.
Coverage-based test selection follows the principle that the business analyst and tester agree on the coverage items that shall be fully tested. Typical coverage items for business process models when generating acceptance tests include the following:
- User stories, requirements, and risks annotated in the business process model.
- Decisions in the decision tables describing the business rules.
- User scenarios defined by different paths through the business process model.
- All paths (usually without loops) through the business process model.
Once the coverage items are defined, the tester then identifies a set of test cases that covers those items. Full coverage is achieved if the test suite covers each occurrence of the coverage item in the model at least once during execution.
Different coverage criteria may be combined to meet the acceptance testing objectives. For example, the objective may be to cover all paths of a given main scenario, but only one path of each alternative scenario.
Business Process Modelling for Acceptance Testing
Business process/rule models describe the business flow and the expected behaviour of the test object. The use of business process/rule modelling in the context of acceptance testing is based on good modelling practices and supports visual ATDD practices.
Good Practices for Business Process Modelling for Acceptance Testing
The following good practices should be considered when using Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and Decision Model and Notation (DMN) for acceptance testing:
- It is not necessary to describe everything in a business process model. The graphical representations of business processes in BPMN should focus on requirements to be tested. Therefore, workflow descriptions that only partially cover the behaviour of related software systems are acceptable, as long as they represent what is to be tested.
- Especially for rule-based business processes, using decision tables helps manage dependencies. DMN supports the definition of conditions and outcomes corresponding to the business rules under test.
- Diagrams should be as simple as possible and be structured in sub-processes when needed to limit the number of graphical elements in a single business process diagram. This improves readability and facilitates reviews.
- Business process modelling for acceptance testing should be a collaborative work between business analysts and testers. Artefacts produced should be shared between and reviewed by both roles. Early and close communication between those two roles improves the quality of requirements or user stories as well as tests. (This is true for all test levels.)
- Additional information such as links to user stories, requirements, risks, priorities and any other information useful for acceptance testing should be added to the diagrams using annotations. By keeping all relevant information in a single location, it becomes easier to make decisions and reasons are better documented.
Using Business Process Models for ATDD
During the refinement sessions for requirements and user stories, the business process and business rule models will help the team to get into the details of the expected behaviour and the acceptance criteria. The representation of workflows in Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) and of rules in Decision Model and Notation (DMN) directly enable testers to design appropriate test cases that verify the acceptance criteria.
Business process modelling for ATDD is based on the following principles:
- Business analysts and testers collaborate to model workflows and business rules using graphical notations such as BPMN and DMN.
- These business process/rule models are reviewed with relevant stakeholders and contribute to the validation of the requirements and acceptance criteria.
- Testers derive tests from these business process/rule models to ensure and demonstrate the required coverage through the different paths and business rules.
- Business analysts and testers may also use the models to identify changes that necessitate test case maintenance and to select regression test cases.
- Business process/rule models created and maintained for ATDD can be viewed as living documentation used by business analysts to present the actual behaviour of
the test object. - Automated test generation techniques can be used to produce and maintain automated test scripts. The model-based testing approach can also be combined with keyword-driven testing and data-driven testing approaches.
Business process/rule modelling in ATDD provides a visualisation of the workflows to be tested. This is the major difference from the Gherkin language used in BDD.