Automation that breaks after small changes costs more than it saves. The business pays twice: once to build it, and again to babysit it.

Testing is the practical way to make automation safe to improve. It proves the workflow still works after changes, before those changes hit customers or operations.

Modular testing in plain terms

Modular means you can test a small piece without needing the whole system running. A unit test is a small check for one rule or function. An integration test checks that two systems still talk to each other as expected.

Test what creates real business pain

You do not need “perfect coverage”. You need confidence in the workflows that create immediate damage when they fail.

• Money paths: invoices, payments, refunds, reconciliation, and ledger updates.
• Customer-impact paths: lead routing, onboarding, notifications, access changes.
• Data integrity paths: field mappings, deduplication, and source-of-truth updates.

Edge cases are normal in operations

An edge case is a real scenario that happens less often but still happens: missing fields, unexpected formats, duplicates, cancellations, partial shipments, or a system timeout. If your workflow fails on these, staff create manual workarounds that you cannot measure or control.

How good teams keep tests alive

Tests only help if they run automatically on every change. Continuous integration (CI) is an automated check that runs tests whenever code changes. You do not need the jargon; you need the outcome: no deployment without proof that key flows still work.

When a business rule changes, update the test at the same time. That forces clarity and reduces surprise behavior.

Questions to ask your technical team

• Which workflows are “release blockers” if they fail, and how are they tested?
• What are the top exceptions you see in production, and do tests cover them?
• Do tests run automatically before anything goes live, every time?
• What is the rollback plan if an update fails after hours?