Practical Checklist for Testing Automations Before Production Launch

A DEV Community guide argues that building a working automation is not enough, since workflows can behave unexpectedly with real data, unavailable APIs, or missing permissions. It recommends first documenting the automation's purpose, expected inputs, and what successful execution looks like. Testers should go beyond ideal sample data and examine scenarios such as missing or invalid fields, API failures, duplicate events, and partial failures. The article advises using sample data, test accounts, mocked responses, and limited-permission credentials, with sandboxes helpful but not foolproof when production credentials are involved. Finally, it stresses verifying dependencies, permissions, and secure credential management before deployment.