Level: Intermediate

Tim Mitchell

Data Platform MVP

Principal

Tyleris Data Solutions

Senior developer: "How do you test your code?"

Junior developer: "Compile it."

It's an old joke, but this often reflects the reality of testing. If the code compiles, it has passed its test. Sadly, this principle is sometimes applied to Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) processes as well. "When the SSIS package runs without error, testing is complete."

As in software development, testing SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages should not end when the package executes successfully. You must also confirm the package does what it was intended to do without placing an undue performance burden on the system. This session will walk you through design patterns for testing SSIS packages during and after the development process. The session covers topics such as these:

• Performance testing
• Patterns for validating execution results at runtime
• Validating package metadata before execution
• Design time versus runtime testing
• Making a graceful exit: testing for error handling