After you have confirmed the build of the application, it is always a good idea to test the application from the applicant’s perspective.

It’s suggested that you have at least two or three, if not more, individuals test your application.  You will want your testers to test from the applicant’s perspective and therefore will need to have applicant user accounts to test.  If your testers already have user accounts in the CommunityForce site, that are not applicant accounts, they will need to create their own, separate applicant accounts using a different email address then their other user account. It is best to use an email that is valid, so that they can retrieve the emails that are sent to them, as the test applicant, and be able to review the messages, follow any required instructions, and click the links that may be included.

Since you need to keep your application unpublished until it has been tested and ready to go live, you will need to have your Global Administrator set up the Application Invitation process for your application form and invite your test users to apply to the unpublished application.  (See Module 6 – Application Invitation Setup).  You will want you testers to test how to create a user account, so prior to setting up the Application Invitation have those user go in and create their applicant accounts. Once their accounts have been established, your Global Administrator can then go in and assign them to the Application using the Application Invitation Process.

Once your testers are invited to the application they will receive an email with a link to click on to apply, they must use this link to access the application.  Therefore, remind them to watch for this email.

Once you have review and tested your application and feel confident that the application will suit the needs of the applicant and your application process, you can then publish the application for your applicants to start applying to it.

If your application is a private application, and will not be published to the public.  When testing, only invite your test users to the application form.  Then once it has been tested you can add the actual applicants to the application’s invitation listing.

4.1 Test Application flow

The following section below will outline the steps needed to test the application flow from the applicant’s perspective.  You will want to test all aspects of the applicant’s experience, starting with creating the applicant account, to actually applying to the application, completing the form, and then submitting the application.

Complete the entire application, answering all questions and completing all sections as if you were the applicant applying:

1. Create an applicant profile login – using a different login email from your admin account.
   • Did you receive the new account confirmation email?
   • Check the message, does it make sense to the applicant?
2. After the Application Invitation has been set up, an email will be sent inviting you to login to the application. Click the link in the invitation email you received.
3. Login – using your Applicant user account
4. Click the Apply to begin applying to the application
5. Pre-qualification questions – If you have pre-qualification questions, did these appear and did the login combination work as expected?
   • Test this both ways to confirm the deny message is appearing as expected, you will need to test the wrong way first, then login and test the correct combination.
6. Dashboard Instructions – Are the application’s dashboard instructions displaying correctly? Are they easy to read and understand?
7. If using the Import Responses from Existing Applications – After you complete the first application and are starting the second, click the import button and import from your first application, did the items import successfully.
8. Sections - Are the section’s appearing as expected and in the order you wanted them to?
   • Are the sections that should be hidden until a specific question is answered showing or are they hidden as expect?
   • If they are hidden, then locate the trigger question and answer it, do they now appear as expected?
   • Are each sections’ instructions appearing as expected?
9. Questions – Answer the questions and confirm all conditional logic.
   • Are the questions, appearing and disappearing according to the logic set?
   • Are numeric, date, phone, email and text questions taking the correct formats?
   • If you have calculations questions, are those calculations correct and adding the correct values?
   • Upload a document. Did it upload properly?
   • Are essay questions set for the correct word limit?
   • If you created bubble instructions – how are they appearing?
   • If you have sections that are to appear according to how questions are answered. Answer those questions using all the appropriate scenarios, to confirm that logic is functioning properly.
10. Click on the Request Section Icon – are the instructions easy to follow? Do you understand how to complete the section below and recommend someone?
11. Confirm Request Section – (test all request sections, not just one of them)  – Recommend yourself or another staff member in the request section so that you or they get the email and enter date in the comment field (Note: If using yourself, use a different email than the one you used to create the test applicant account – (i.e. you can use your admin account email for this option), and enter date in the comment field
    • Confirm the email is sent to your address as intended.
    • Click on the link in the email to be directed to the request section – is it going to the right section, are the instructions on the section clear so that the recommender understands what they are to do on that section?
    • Are you able to upload documents?
    • Are calculation fields calculating?
    • If essay/comment fields – word limit correct length?
    • Test if the recommender does not yet submit but saves for later. Can they still access later using the same email and link?
    • Submit Request Section – Does this submittal send an email to the applicant that it has been completed?  Does this submittal show on the applicant dashboard request section as completed for that recommender?
    • Do the test again but this time deny the request. Confirm that if the recommender denies request. An email is going to be sent to applicant and if denied it will show on the applicants request section for that recommender.
    • If denied from the applicant’s dashboard, test the ability to re-assign a recommender.
12. Confirm Text Tabs – if using, are the tabs showing as expected?
13. Matching Funds Eligibility question – If using the Matching funds eligibility question – answer the eligibility questions within the application that apply specifically to those Funding Sources?
    • Are the correct eligible Funding Sources appearing as selected when the correct eligibility questions are answered?
14. If using the Common Application process –
    • Do the correct matched funding sources appear in the Funds Associated with this Common Application Icon
      • Are the instructions clear on this section
    • Test the Common Application submit process by submitting your completed application
      • Do you understand the instructions on the submit page.
      • Are the applications showing in the My Application’s tab once you have completed the submittal of the Common Application?
15. Preview & Submit your completed application
    • Did you get both the online confirmation and the email confirmation?