Building a Scenario in WorkBench

The Scenario Workbench is a powerful, AI-driven orchestration capability that simplifies the automation Scenario development process by eliminating the need for prerequisites or supporting entities.

It guides users through the Scenario development process step-by-step, by presenting options for the next step as they build the flow. Users have the flexibility to choose from existing Actions or easily create new logic for missing Actions. Additionally, the Workbench promotes modularization of logic through the use of Actions, and offers comprehensive options for input and output parameterization.

Building Scenario Steps

Recall that Scenario is a business process you are automating. A Scenario is comprised of a series of Steps. Each Step of a Scenario is an Action.

There are two ways to build a Scenario: by selecting Actions directly in the Scenario page or by recording the flow in the Workbench.

The Workbench provides advanced features to enhance the Scenario development experience. These include the ability to automatically playback the steps as they are added, immediate feedback on flow and validations, an AI-driven relevance engine for intuitive and easy selection of next steps, the option to record new Actions on the fly, and real-time guidance for aligning the Scenario flow with the business process semantics.

Opening Workbench

To invoke Workbench, open a Scenario and click on "Record in Workbench" (for new Scenario) or "Edit in Workbench" (Scenario with existing steps).

When you open the Workbench for an existing Scenario, all the steps will be displayed as Action-call statements in the logic editor. By default, these statements are populated with parameter data from the first test case of the Scenario. However, you have the option to select other test cases for data if necessary.

Please note that when you open a Scenario in the Workbench, any changes you make will be saved in draft mode until you save them before exiting the Workbench. In the meanwhile, if you open the Scenario again, you will find a "Resume in Workbench" button, which will open the Workbench with the current draft updates.

Adding Steps in Workbench

To add a new step to the Scenario, click on the "Add Step" button in the Workbench. This will open a list of available Actions, where the most relevant Actions are listed at the top and presented as clickable tags. The system also suggests additional relevant Actions, indicated by a purple dot on the Action icon. These suggestions are calculated specifically based on the point where the step is being inserted in the Scenario flow. Select the appropriate Action from the list to add it to the flow.

Depending on the selected Action, you may at times be prompted to enter the name of the page where this Action takes place, also known as the Origin Context. To do this, select one of the existing Contexts from the list or type a meaningful name for the page.

Recording Logic during Scenario Creation

If the required Action is not already available in your Project, you can create a new one by recording the necessary logic. To do this, load the URL of your application in the Recorder (for web-based applications) and record the necessary logic. For other types of applications, you can create the logic just as you would for a normal Action. The Playback feature provides immediate feedback as you record different statements. Additionally, you can check out this article on the Logic Recorder for more information.

Persisting the changes from Workbench

Before saving changes made in the Workbench to the corresponding Scenario, it is important to ensure that the Scenario only includes a series of Actions. An Action is a reusable block of logic that performs a specific step in application validation.

If there are any independent statements that were recorded or any logic that was built as part of missing Actions, these should be modularized into appropriate Actions. In the Workbench, all statements are indicated with a line number in the margin area. If the statement is an Action-call, the line number is enclosed in a grey circle. To create new Actions, focus on the remaining statements, and group related statements together and follow the step-by-step process.

tbd: image after the workbench look & feel done...select some statements in the flow and show "create new action" menu.

You can refer this detailed article for more information on how to convert independent statements into modular and reusable Actions. It is crucial to establish new Actions with accurate parameterization and appropriate granularity to make it more maintainable and efficient.

Validating the Business Process flow

When you exit the Workbench, the system will perform a validation to ensure that the series of steps are consistent with the expected business process flow. If any discrepancies are detected, the system will present a modal dialog asking you to review the pages where certain steps in the Scenario may have originated.

Note about Scenario parameter configuration

In the current Release, configuring step parameters such as linking and overriding is not supported from within Workbench. To configure step parameters, please navigate to the Scenario page and click the respective parameter link. For more information on parameter configuration, please refer to this article.

Please note that when you exit Workbench, any existing parameter configuration for the Scenario at the time of opening Workbench will be retained. Any new steps added while in Workbench will have their parameter values saved to the initial test case that the Workbench was opened with.

Senario editability when Workbench is open

When a Scenario is opened in Workbench, editing of step-level details such as parameter configuration and output parameter linking are disabled on the Scenario page. However, other tabs within the Scenario, such as test cases and requirements traceability, can still be edited. Once changes are discarded or saved in Workbench, step-level editing will be re-enabled.