Patent Publication Number: US-2020302365-A1

Title: Lifecycle activity testing and error resolution

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates in general to approaches for testing for and resolving in automated, complex process flows having dynamic and non-dynamic activity nodes as well as resuming broken or disrupted process flows. 
     BACKGROUND 
     This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of art that may be related to various aspects of the present disclosure, which are described and/or claimed below. This discussion is believed to be helpful in providing the reader with background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the present disclosure. Accordingly, it should be understood that these statements are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art. 
     Organizations, regardless of size, rely upon access to information technology (IT) and data and services for their continued operation and success. A respective organization&#39;s IT infrastructure may have associated hardware resources (e.g. computing devices, load balancers, firewalls, switches, etc.) and software resources (e.g. productivity software, database applications, custom applications, and so forth). Over time, more and more organizations have turned to cloud computing approaches to supplement or enhance their IT infrastructure solutions. 
     Cloud computing relates to the sharing of computing resources that are generally accessed via the Internet. In particular, a cloud computing infrastructure allows users, such as individuals and/or enterprises, to access a shared pool of computing resources, such as servers, storage devices, networks, applications, and/or other computing based services. By doing so, users are able to access computing resources on demand that are located at remote locations, which resources may be used to perform a variety of computing functions (e.g., storing and/or processing large quantities of computing data). For enterprise and other organization users, cloud computing provides flexibility in accessing cloud computing resources without accruing large up-front costs, such as purchasing expensive network equipment or investing large amounts of time in establishing a private network infrastructure. Instead, by utilizing cloud computing resources, users are able redirect their resources to focus on their enterprise&#39;s core functions. 
     In an enterprise or organization, certain operations may be managed using one or more applications or resources running on a cloud-platform. Such operations may be associated with a lengthy chain of activities or task that may span days, weeks, months or years and that may include actions to be performed by multiple actors. Further, certain downstream actions may be conditional on decisions or actions performed prior or by other actors. In some contexts, computer- and cloud-based approaches may be employed to design, implement, and track such process flows associated with defined activities performed in an organization or enterprise. However, due to the complexity of the activity interrelationships, the lengthy time frames that may be involved, the potential number of actors, and so forth, it may be difficult to troubleshoot failures in a given flow in an efficient manner. 
     SUMMARY 
     A summary of certain embodiments disclosed herein is set forth below. It should be understood that these aspects are presented merely to provide the reader with a brief summary of these certain embodiments and that these aspects are not intended to limit the scope of this disclosure. Indeed, this disclosure may encompass a variety of aspects that may not be set forth below. 
     The present approach relates to techniques that may be used to test and troubleshoot complex chains of activities (e.g., tasks), often associated with multiple actors and long time frames, in an efficient manner. In particular, functionality is provided for testing changes to a process flow comprising a complex chain of activities and/or for testing a given process flow under different circumstances, such as testing for errors when applied to individuals having certain characteristics, locations, and so forth. In addition, functionality is provided for allowing only portions (e.g., a temporal subset) of the process flow to be tested while excluding upstream or downstream portions. Further, functionality may be provided for, in a production environment, restarting a failed process flow from the point of failure, as opposed to having to repeat previously completed steps. 
     Various refinements of the features noted above may exist in relation to various aspects of the present disclosure. Further features may also be incorporated in these various aspects as well. These refinements and additional features may exist individually or in any combination. For instance, various features discussed below in relation to one or more of the illustrated embodiments may be incorporated into any of the above-described aspects of the present disclosure alone or in any combination. The brief summary presented above is intended only to familiarize the reader with certain aspects and contexts of embodiments of the present disclosure without limitation to the claimed subject matter. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Various aspects of this disclosure may be better understood upon reading the following detailed description and upon reference to the drawings in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an embodiment of a cloud architecture in which embodiments of the present disclosure may operate; 
         FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a multi-instance cloud architecture in which embodiments of the present disclosure may operate; 
         FIG. 3  is a block diagram of a computing device utilized in a computing system that may be present in  FIG. 1 or 2 , in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment in which a virtual server supports and enables the client instance, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 5  depicts an example of a screen for reviewing and managing a personalized workflow, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 6  depicts the screen of  FIG. 5  with testing options additionally displayed, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 7  depicts an example of a screen for configuring one or more search parameters to identify a test subject, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 8  depicts the screen of  FIG. 7  with selectable options for configuring the screen displayed, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 9  depicts the screen of  FIG. 7  configured with a condition for identifying a test subject, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 10  depicts an example of a screen depicting test subjects meeting one or more search criteria, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 11  depicts an example of a workflow and test screen personalized based on a selected test subject, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 12  depicts an example of a screen that may be displayed as a test preview step is performed, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 13  depicts an example of a screen displayed after a test preview in which applicable activities are shown along with inapplicable and indeterminate activities, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 14  depicts the screen of  FIG. 13  with user selectable options to override the exclusion of certain inapplicable and indeterminate activities, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 15  depicts the screen of  FIG. 14  with certain activities overridden for inclusion or exclusion in a test, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 16  depicts an example of a screen displayed after a test process and displaying a link to a corresponding set of test results, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG. 17  depicts an example of a test results screen, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     One or more specific embodiments will be described below. In an effort to provide a concise description of these embodiments, not all features of an actual implementation are described in the specification. It should be appreciated that in the development of any such actual implementation, as in any engineering or design project, numerous implementation-specific decisions must be made to achieve the developers&#39; specific goals, such as compliance with system-related and enterprise-related constraints, which may vary from one implementation to another. Moreover, it should be appreciated that such a development effort might be complex and time consuming, but would nevertheless be a routine undertaking of design, fabrication, and manufacture for those of ordinary skill having the benefit of this disclosure. 
     As used herein, the term “computing system” refers to an electronic computing device such as, but not limited to, a single computer, virtual machine, virtual container, host, server, laptop, and/or mobile device, or to a plurality of electronic computing devices working together to perform the function described as being performed on or by the computing system. As used herein, the term “medium” refers to one or more non-transitory, computer-readable physical media that together store the contents described as being stored thereon. Embodiments may include non-volatile secondary storage, read-only memory (ROM), and/or random-access memory (RAM). As used herein, the term “application” refers to one or more computing modules, programs, processes, workloads, threads and/or a set of computing instructions executed by a computing system. Example embodiments of an application include software modules, software objects, software instances and/or other types of executable code. 
     The present approach relates to techniques that may be used to test and troubleshoot complex sequences of activities (e.g., a process flow), which may be provided as tasks to one or more individuals or groups. Such activities are often associated with multiple actors and long time frames and may be difficult to test or troubleshoot in an efficient manner. In particular, approaches are discussed herein for testing changes to a process flow comprising a complex chain of activities and/or for testing a given process flow under different circumstances, such as testing for errors when applied to individuals having certain characteristics, locations, and so forth. In addition, functionality is provided for allowing only portions (e.g., a temporal subset) of the process flow to be tested while excluding upstream or downstream portions. Further, functionality may be provided for, in a production environment, restarting a failed process flow from the point of failure, as opposed to having to repeat previously completed steps. 
     In order to provide useful, real-world perspective, certain of the examples of process flows discussed herein may be put in the context of lifecycle events. Such lifecycle events are examples of complex process flows comprising milestones and associated activities or tasks that may be designed and tracked in an organization using suitable applications related to and/or impacting human resource management, accounting, information technology management, and so forth. Examples of such lifecycle events include, but are not limited to, employee on-boarding, employee off-boarding, employee relocation and/or reassignment, employee promotion or other changes within an organization, and so forth. It should be appreciated however, that while such lifecycle events are useful examples of real-world process flows, the present techniques are suitable for use with various other types of complex process flows, and are not limited to use in the context of such lifecycle events. 
     With the preceding in mind, the following figures relate to various types of generalized system architectures or configurations that may be employed to provide services to an organization in a multi-instance framework and on which the present approaches may be employed. Correspondingly, these system and platform examples may also relate to systems and platforms on which the techniques discussed herein may be implemented or otherwise utilized, though other system implementations, including on a stand-alone local area network, wide area network, or even on a stand-alone computer, are also possible. Turning now to  FIG. 1 , a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a cloud computing system  10  where embodiments of the present disclosure may operate, is illustrated. The cloud computing system  10  may include a client network  12 , a network  14  (e.g., the Internet), and a cloud-based platform  16 . In some implementations, the cloud-based platform  16  may be a configuration management database (CMDB) platform. In one embodiment, the client network  12  may be a local private network, such as local area network (LAN) having a variety of network devices that include, but are not limited to, switches, servers, and routers. In another embodiment, the client network  12  represents an enterprise network that could include one or more LANs, virtual networks, data centers  18 , and/or other remote networks. As shown in  FIG. 1 , the client network  12  is able to connect to one or more client devices  20 A,  20 B, and  20 C so that the client devices are able to communicate with each other and/or with the network hosting the platform  16 . The client devices  20  may be computing systems and/or other types of computing devices generally referred to as Internet of Things (IoT) devices that access cloud computing services, for example, via a web browser application or via an edge device  22  that may act as a gateway between the client devices  20  and the platform  16 .  FIG. 1  also illustrates that the client network  12  includes an administration or managerial device, agent, or server, such as a management, instrumentation, and discovery (MID) server  24  that facilitates communication of data between the network hosting the platform  16 , other external applications, data sources, and services, and the client network  12 . Although not specifically illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the client network  12  may also include a connecting network device (e.g., a gateway or router) or a combination of devices that implement a customer firewall or intrusion protection system. 
     For the illustrated embodiment,  FIG. 1  illustrates that client network  12  is coupled to a network  14 . The network  14  may include one or more computing networks, such as other LANs, wide area networks (WAN), the Internet, and/or other remote networks, to transfer data between the client devices  20  and the network hosting the platform  16 . Each of the computing networks within network  14  may contain wired and/or wireless programmable devices that operate in the electrical and/or optical domain. For example, network  14  may include wireless networks, such as cellular networks (e.g., Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) based cellular network), IEEE 802.11 networks, and/or other suitable radio-based networks. The network  14  may also employ any number of network communication protocols, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and Internet Protocol (IP). Although not explicitly shown in  FIG. 1 , network  14  may include a variety of network devices, such as servers, routers, network switches, and/or other network hardware devices configured to transport data over the network  14 . 
     In  FIG. 1 , the network hosting the platform  16  may be a remote network (e.g., a cloud network) that is able to communicate with the client devices  20  via the client network  12  and network  14 . The network hosting the platform  16  provides additional computing resources to the client devices  20  and/or the client network  12 . For example, by utilizing the network hosting the platform  16 , users of the client devices  20  are able to build and execute applications for various enterprise, IT, and/or other organization-related functions. In one embodiment, the network hosting the platform  16  is implemented on the one or more data centers  18 , where each data center could correspond to a different geographic location. Each of the data centers  18  includes a plurality of virtual servers  26  (also referred to herein as application nodes, application servers, virtual server instances, application instances, or application server instances), where each virtual server  26  can be implemented on a physical computing system, such as a single electronic computing device (e.g., a single physical hardware server) or across multiple-computing devices (e.g., multiple physical hardware servers). Examples of virtual servers  26  include, but are not limited to a web server (e.g., a unitary Apache installation), an application server (e.g., unitary JAVA Virtual Machine), and/or a database server (e.g., a unitary relational database management system (RDBMS) catalog). 
     To utilize computing resources within the platform  16 , network operators may choose to configure the data centers  18  using a variety of computing infrastructures. In one embodiment, one or more of the data centers  18  are configured using a multi-tenant cloud architecture, such that one of the server instances  26  handles requests from and serves multiple customers. Data centers  18  with multi-tenant cloud architecture commingle and store data from multiple customers, where multiple customer instances are assigned to one of the virtual servers  26 . In a multi-tenant cloud architecture, the particular virtual server  26  distinguishes between and segregates data and other information of the various customers. For example, a multi-tenant cloud architecture could assign a particular identifier for each customer in order to identify and segregate the data from each customer. Generally, implementing a multi-tenant cloud architecture may suffer from various drawbacks, such as a failure of a particular one of the server instances  26  causing outages for all customers allocated to the particular server instance. 
     In another embodiment, one or more of the data centers  18  are configured using a multi-instance cloud architecture to provide every customer its own unique customer instance or instances. For example, a multi-instance cloud architecture could provide each customer instance with its own dedicated application server and dedicated database server. In other examples, the multi-instance cloud architecture could deploy a single physical or virtual server  26  and/or other combinations of physical and/or virtual servers  26 , such as one or more dedicated web servers, one or more dedicated application servers, and one or more database servers, for each customer instance. In a multi-instance cloud architecture, multiple customer instances could be installed on one or more respective hardware servers, where each customer instance is allocated certain portions of the physical server resources, such as computing memory, storage, and processing power. By doing so, each customer instance has its own unique software stack that provides the benefit of data isolation, relatively less downtime for customers to access the platform  16 , and customer-driven upgrade schedules. An example of implementing a customer instance within a multi-instance cloud architecture will be discussed in more detail below with reference to  FIG. 2 . 
       FIG. 2  is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a multi-instance cloud architecture  100  where embodiments of the present disclosure may operate.  FIG. 2  illustrates that the multi-instance cloud architecture  100  includes the client network  12  and the network  14  that connect to two (e.g., paired) data centers  18 A and  18 B that may be geographically separated from one another. Using  FIG. 2  as an example, network environment and service provider cloud infrastructure client instance  102  (also referred to herein as a client instance  102 ) is associated with (e.g., supported and enabled by) dedicated virtual servers (e.g., virtual servers  26 A,  26 B,  26 C, and  26 D) and dedicated database servers (e.g., virtual database servers  104 A and  104 B). Stated another way, the virtual servers  26 A- 26 D and virtual database servers  104 A and  104 B are not shared with other client instances and are specific to the respective client instance  102 . In the depicted example, to facilitate availability of the client instance  102 , the virtual servers  26 A- 26 D and virtual database servers  104 A and  104 B are allocated to two different data centers  18 A and  18 B so that one of the data centers  18  acts as a backup data center. Other embodiments of the multi-instance cloud architecture  100  could include other types of dedicated virtual servers, such as a web server. For example, the client instance  102  could be associated with (e.g., supported and enabled by) the dedicated virtual servers  26 A- 26 D, dedicated virtual database servers  104 A and  104 B, and additional dedicated virtual web servers (not shown in  FIG. 2 ). 
     Although  FIGS. 1 and 2  illustrate specific embodiments of a cloud computing system  10  and a multi-instance cloud architecture  100 , respectively, the disclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments illustrated in  FIGS. 1 and 2 . For instance, although  FIG. 1  illustrates that the platform  16  is implemented using data centers, other embodiments of the platform  16  are not limited to data centers and can utilize other types of remote network infrastructures. Moreover, other embodiments of the present disclosure may combine one or more different virtual servers into a single virtual server or, conversely, perform operations attributed to a single virtual server using multiple virtual servers. For instance, using  FIG. 2  as an example, the virtual servers  26 A,  26 B,  26 C,  26 D and virtual database servers  104 A,  104 B may be combined into a single virtual server. Moreover, the present approaches may be implemented in other architectures or configurations, including, but not limited to, multi-tenant architectures, generalized client/server implementations, and/or even on a single physical processor-based device configured to perform some or all of the operations discussed herein. Similarly, though virtual servers or machines may be referenced to facilitate discussion of an implementation, physical servers may instead be employed as appropriate. The use and discussion of  FIGS. 1 and 2  are only examples to facilitate ease of description and explanation and are not intended to limit the disclosure to the specific examples illustrated therein. 
     As may be appreciated, the respective architectures and frameworks discussed with respect to  FIGS. 1 and 2  incorporate computing systems of various types (e.g., servers, workstations, client devices, laptops, tablet computers, cellular telephones, and so forth) throughout. For the sake of completeness, a brief, high level overview of components typically found in such systems is provided. As may be appreciated, the present overview is intended to merely provide a high-level, generalized view of components typical in such computing systems and should not be viewed as limiting in terms of components discussed or omitted from discussion. 
     By way of background, it may be appreciated that the present approach may be implemented using one or more processor-based systems such as shown in  FIG. 3 . Likewise, applications and/or databases utilized in the present approach may be stored, employed, and/or maintained on such processor-based systems. As may be appreciated, such systems as shown in  FIG. 3  may be present in a distributed computing environment, a networked environment, or other multi-computer platform or architecture. Likewise, systems such as that shown in  FIG. 3 , may be used in supporting or communicating with one or more virtual environments or computational instances on which the present approach may be implemented. 
     With this in mind, an example computer system may include some or all of the computer components depicted in  FIG. 3 .  FIG. 3  generally illustrates a block diagram of example components of a computing system  200  and their potential interconnections or communication paths, such as along one or more busses. As illustrated, the computing system  200  may include various hardware components such as, but not limited to, one or more processors  202 , one or more busses  204 , memory  206 , input devices  208 , a power source  210 , a network interface  212 , a user interface  214 , and/or other computer components useful in performing the functions described herein. 
     The one or more processors  202  may include one or more microprocessors capable of performing instructions stored in the memory  206 . Additionally or alternatively, the one or more processors  202  may include application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and/or other devices designed to perform some or all of the functions discussed herein without calling instructions from the memory  206 . 
     With respect to other components, the one or more busses  204  include suitable electrical channels to provide data and/or power between the various components of the computing system  200 . The memory  206  may include any tangible, non-transitory, and computer-readable storage media. Although shown as a single block in  FIG. 1 , the memory  206  can be implemented using multiple physical units of the same or different types in one or more physical locations. The input devices  208  correspond to structures to input data and/or commands to the one or more processors  202 . For example, the input devices  208  may include a mouse, touchpad, touchscreen, keyboard and the like. The power source  210  can be any suitable source for power of the various components of the computing device  200 , such as line power and/or a battery source. The network interface  212  includes one or more transceivers capable of communicating with other devices over one or more networks (e.g., a communication channel). The network interface  212  may provide a wired network interface or a wireless network interface. A user interface  214  may include a display that is configured to display text or images transferred to it from the one or more processors  202 . In addition and/or alternative to the display, the user interface  214  may include other devices for interfacing with a user, such as lights (e.g., LEDs), speakers, and the like. 
     With the preceding in mind,  FIG. 4  is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment in which a virtual server  300  supports and enables the client instance  102 , according to one or more disclosed embodiments. More specifically,  FIG. 4  illustrates an example of a portion of a service provider cloud infrastructure, including the cloud-based platform  16  discussed above. The cloud-based platform  16  is connected to a client device  20  via the network  14  to provide a user interface to network applications executing within the client instance  102  (e.g., via a web browser of the client device  20 ). Client instance  102  is supported by virtual servers  26  similar to those explained with respect to  FIG. 2 , and is illustrated here to show support for the disclosed functionality described herein within the client instance  102 . Cloud provider infrastructures are generally configured to support a plurality of end-user devices, such as client device  20 , concurrently, wherein each end-user device is in communication with the single client instance  102 . Also, cloud provider infrastructures may be configured to support any number of client instances, such as client instance  102 , concurrently, with each of the instances in communication with one or more end-user devices. As mentioned above, an end-user may also interface with client instance  102  using an application that is executed within a web browser. 
     With the preceding in mind, the present approach relates to techniques that may be used to test and troubleshoot complex sequences of activities (e.g., a process or workflow, such as may be associated with a series of tasks to be performed for a lifecycle event). Such activities may be provided as tasks to perform by one or more individuals or groups (i.e., fulfillers). Such activities are often associated with multiple actors and long time frames and may be difficult to test or troubleshoot in an efficient manner. In particular, approaches are discussed herein for facilitating such testing and troubleshooting operations, as well as for resuming broken process flows in an efficient manner. 
     With this in mind, and turning to  FIG. 5 , an example is provided of a screen  350  that may be employed for viewing and/or managing a lifecycle event for an employee, which as noted above may be one example of a type of process flow for which the present techniques are suited. In this example, various activities  352  (here depicted as cards containing summary activity information) are arranged under sequential milestones  354  (which may be based on dates or time ranges). The activities  352  listed under each sequential milestone  354  represent the activities or tasks to be performed on or by that milestone and may include a task or activity title and/or descriptor as well as an associated fulfiller (i.e., person or entity responsible for performing the task. 
     In the depicted example, the workflow is related to “New Hire Onboarding” and includes milestones  354  based on “Pre-Hire”, “Pre-Boarding”, “Day 1”, “Week 1”, “Week 2”, and further into the future. For each milestone  354  appropriate activities  352  are listed underneath as separate cards that describe the task to be completed and the respective fulfiller of the activity  352 . Options to add (control  360 ) or delete (controls  362 ) are also provided to add or delete activities for the respective workflow. Similarly, additional milestones  354  may be added (or existing milestones  354  removed) if needed. 
     In practice, certain activities  352  may be conditional on other activities being completed, such as in a preceding milestone  354 . In addition, certain activities  352  may not apply to all individuals (such as based on age, gender, job title, educational background, citizenship status, and so forth), or may have different applicability based on geographic location or jurisdiction (i.e., different cities, states or countries may have different laws or regulations). As a result, the interrelationship among activities can be complex not just due to a logical interrelationship between activities, but also due to factors such as individual demographics or characteristics, geographic location, and legal jurisdiction. 
     In the depicted example, the workflow illustrated is a personalized workflow and illustrates activities and milestones associated with a designated individual (in this example, an individual being onboarded as a new hire). Thus, as activities  352  are performed and milestones  354  reached, the personalized workflow may be updated to reflect the milestones  354  being reached, activities  352  being completed (or not being completed) and so forth). 
     An aspect of the personalization of the workflow is that only applicable activities should be triggered for completion for a given individual. Thus, each activity  352  may have an associated trigger or condition that determines if it will apply. By way of example, an activity related to providing information related to retirement account catch-up contributions may be applicable only to individuals age 50 or older in a given year, and thus may not be included as an activity for those not meeting this age requirement. Similarly, other activities may be specific to a geographic location or legal jurisdiction, so that an individual&#39;s location determines whether certain activities  352  apply and are shown. 
     With these considerations in mind, it may be appreciated that the variety of possible workflow activity combinations for a given process (e.g., employee onboarding in the depicted example) may be large and it may be difficult to test all possible flows for logical continuity and possible errors. The present approach addresses this difficulty by providing simplified test functionality to that a given set of condition and a given workflow can be tested, either in its entirety or from a specified time or milestone  354 . 
     Turning to  FIG. 6 , such testing may be implemented to allow a user to perform criteria and condition testing for a personalized workflow, as described herein. Such testing may allow a user to test particular use cases, such as to make sure activities that should or should not be triggered in a given personalized workflow perform as expected. As discussed herein, such testing may take into account location and/or jurisdiction, personnel information, a subset of activities or activities occurring on certain milestones or dates, and so forth. 
     To facilitate the testing process, a set of testing options  370  may be toggled to display (or be hidden) by selection of a testing icon  372 . The testing option  370  in the depicted example include a slider  376  that controls whether inapplicable activities are displayed (where inapplicable activities are those that, for a given subject, are known not to apply) and a slider  378  that controls whether indeterminate activities are displayed (where indeterminate activities are those that, for a given subject, are conditional and may or may not apply depending on an event or answer provided earlier in the workflow). 
     In addition, the testing options  370  in the depicted example include a start selector  374  through which an activity, date, or milestone, may be selected or otherwise specified and from which the test process will proceed from. That is, activities and/or milestones occurring before the selected start time/activity are not processed as part of a test run. This helps increase efficiency of the testing process as known good portions of a workflow can be skipped and/or a known bad portion can be more closely focused on. In addition, though not shown, an option may additionally or alternatively be provided to specify an end time or activity so that testing is terminated after testing a portion of the workflow without processing the remainder of the workflow. 
     A subject person may also be specified (field  380 ) having one or more characteristics consistent with the testing to be performed. That is, if the workflow is to be tested for continuity with respect to individuals from a certain location or having a certain demographic characteristic, a subject person may be selected who has the desired characteristics or location so that the corresponding personalized workflow is appropriate for the contemplated test. A suitable subject person may identified by performing a search of available individuals. In the depicted example, such a search may be invoked using a search button  382 , which invokes a search customization screen, as shown on  FIG. 7 . 
     Turning to  FIG. 7 , the advanced search screen  390  of the present example is configurable to allow a searcher to select a subject person from different sets or subsets of users (as shown be selection box  392 ) and based on one or more conditions  394  specified by the searcher. This is illustrated in  FIGS. 8-10  where, turning to  FIG. 8 , a field  400  in which a subject person characteristic (e.g., a demographic characteristic, location or jurisdiction characteristics, employment characteristics, and so forth) may be defined. In this example, selection of the field  400  causes the display of a list  402  of available characteristics, one of which can be selected by the user on the interface. 
     Turning to  FIG. 9 , an example is illustrated where “country code” (i.e., a geographic characteristic) has been selected in field  400 . In addition a logical operator (here “is”) is specified in configurable field  406  and a country (here “Japan”) is specified in field  410  such that the condition “country code is Japan” is specified as a condition for identifying a subject person for a test process. Based on this criterion, an indicator  412  that dynamically indicates the number of matches based on the currently specified criteria is displayed. A user of the interface may view this indicator to determine if enough, too few, or too many individuals are matched based on the specified criterion and may modify, add, or delete criteria as needed to identify a suitable test pool. 
     Once the criteria are deemed satisfactory, a user of the interface  390  may select (i.e., press) the indictor  412 , causing a list  420  of matches  422  to be displayed, as shown in  FIG. 10 . The user may then select a suitable subject person from the list of matches  422  for the contemplated test process. This is illustrated in  FIG. 11  where, as illustrated, the test options  370  have been updated to include the selected subject person at field  380 . In this example, the selected subject person has the characteristic(s) to be tested in the contemplated test case scenario, and thus can be used to test the integrity of the workflow in question for a person have those characteristics. Thus, once selected, the personalized workflow displayed to the left of the test pane is particular to the selected subject and includes the activities  352  and logical interrelationships between activities to be tested. 
     Once the test subject and associated personalized workflow are selected, a user of the interface may selected an option to perform a preview (e.g., selecting preview button  440 ) of the selected lifecycle (e.g., workflow). An example of such a preview operation being performed is shown in  FIG. 12 , where a progress pane  450  is shown depicting the steps and percent completion of such a workflow simulation process. During this preview process, the simulation determines that activities will apply and which will not based on the subject&#39;s characteristics. 
     Once the preview step is completed, preview results are provided, as shown in in  FIG. 13 . Based on the results of the lifecycle simulation operation performed as the preview step, activities  452  may be visually flagged as activities that apply to the subject (applicable activities  352 A) in the test case scenario and those that do not (inapplicable or indeterminate activities  352 B) (differentiated by the absence or presence of shading in the depicted example). In addition, subsequent to the preview step being concluded, an option to perform a test run (e.g., test button  460 ) may be made active and selectable. 
     A user of the interface, based on the preview results, may opt to include or exclude inapplicable activities  352 B from the actual testing process. For example, as shown in  FIGS. 14 and 15  inapplicable or indeterminate activities  352 B may be displayed with a checkbox  480  or other selectable option to allow a user of the interface to manually flag (i.e., override) indeterminate or inapplicable activity  352 B to be included in the testing process. In addition, this capability may be expanded to include all activities in the workflow, including applicable activities  352 A, so that a user of the interface has full flexibility in including or excluding any activity  352  from the testing process. 
     Once a user adds any indeterminate or inapplicable activity  352 B that are to be included, the test button  46  may be selected, prompting the test process to run for the active and selected activities  352 , from the date or time specified (field  374 ), and based on the characteristics of interest of the subject. In particular, the test process tests the logical interconnections and activity triggers based on the specified activities, as discussed herein. Upon completion of the test process, a test result file  490  may be created, as shown in  FIG. 16 . 
     The test result file  490  may be opened, as shown in  FIG. 17 , to display the test case results  500  for the respective test run. The test results may be reviewed to determine which activities  352  triggered and which did not, allowing a reviewer to determine if any activities triggered that were not supposed to, if any activities did not trigger that were supposed to, and so forth. In addition, the test results may indicate whether a given activity triggered at the correct time and/or in response to the appropriate trigger conditions. Based on these results, a user of the interface can return to the preceding test set-up screen and add or remove activities as appropriate to re-run the test, such as to test further scenarios to see if problems persists or are addressed by the addition or removal of activities  352  from the test case scenario. 
     With the preceding in mind, the above-described testing functionality provides several advantages over conventional approaches. In accordance with the present techniques, a workflow can be simulated during development or design with particular test cases or individual circumstances in mind so as to confirm that needs tasks and activities activate as intended. Likewise, testing can be limited based on dates or milestones so as to avoid testing portions of the workflow that are not at issue or otherwise not of concern. 
     The preceding relates to testing or troubleshooting, which may be done in a test or other non-production environment. Certain of the above-described concepts may also be leveraged in a production environment to provide certain benefits with respect to recovering or restarting a workflow in the event of a stop or break in the flow. 
     By way of example, in a production environment where a personalized workflow has been performed up through a given activity and milestone, and error or break in the workflow may occur that results in subsequent activities not being triggered. In conventional approaches, the entirety of the workflow would be canceled and restarted, resulting in wasted time and resources. 
     In contrast, aspects of the present approach would instead allow a personalized workflow to be resumed at the point where the workflow stopped. Unlike the test scenario outlined above, a test case is not created. Instead, in the resume context an existing case with activity data and feedback is already present in the production environment. The resume action can re-run activities and milestones in the personalized workflow while checking for the corresponding data in the production environment (e.g., the corresponding task or activity tables in the relevant databases) until an activity is reached in the workflow for which the data is not present, i.e., the point at which the workflow stopped. The first activity in the workflow for which data is missing may then be used to trigger that activity, automatically resuming the workflow at the point at which it was disrupted. 
     The specific embodiments described above have been shown by way of example, and it should be understood that these embodiments may be susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms. It should be further understood that the claims are not intended to be limited to the particular forms disclosed, but rather to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of this disclosure. 
     The techniques presented and claimed herein are referenced and applied to material objects and concrete examples of a practical nature that demonstrably improve the present technical field and, as such, are not abstract, intangible or purely theoretical. Further, if any claims appended to the end of this specification contain one or more elements designated as “means for [perform]ing [a function] . . . ” or “step for [perform]ing [a function] . . . ”, it is intended that such elements are to be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f). However, for any claims containing elements designated in any other manner, it is intended that such elements are not to be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f).