One of the challenges SSIS developers often face is being able to meaningfully test our SSIS packages or components within the packages. Pragmatic Works has released a new component to BI xPress that allows you to easily create a suite of tests to perform on an SSIS package.

Unit Tests can be performed on entire packages or individual components in a package. And those Unit Tests are grouped into Test Suites, so think of a Test Suite as a series of unit tests designed to test the functionality  of a set of components in a package or a series of packages.

Set up steps can be configured to make retesting very easy. If a file needs to be created or a T-SQL command executed before a test can be performed, those steps can be configured within the BI xPress unit testing interface. And these set up steps can be performed once for the Test Suite or once for each Unit Test within the Test Suite.

Once the packages have been added to the Test Suite, creating the Unit Test is as simple as selecting the package or task within a package to execute. Then specify the expected results.

Then its time to create the Unit Test Assertions, which are the steps to check to execution of the packages or package components. An Assertion could be anything from checking a table for a certain number of rows, checking for the existence of a file, or checking a property within the package, among many others.

The entire Test Suite can be executed or an individual Unit Test can be fire. The test results are displayed in an easy to read format.

Take a look at SSIS Unit Tests with BI xPress if you’re looking for a way to streamline testing of your SSIS packages. I’ve personally used this tool during client engagements and its a great way to standardize testing of your SSIS packages.