Every newly inserted template must be tested adequately, because ‘going live’ may have a large impact: when a template becomes available to end-users, they will typically assume that the generated contracts are reliable and adequate. Effective template testing involves a number of steps. Start by deciding who should be testing what aspects of any template and checking the house style.

1. Testing roles

It is useful to distinguish between:

  • testing responsibilities: admin versus responsible end-user testing (to approve going live),
  • stage of implementation: first-time testing requires that you also review the look & feel of the contract.

The admin must make sure that:

  • all provisions are present,
  • all cross-references are correct,
  • all definitions, schedules and annexes are correctly tagged and dependent (where applicable) on questionnaire elements,
  • all questionnaire elements are present and produce a properly formulated question and (where applicable) some answer text (e.g. a default value or dropdown list with appropriate answers),
  • all questionnaire elements result in appropriate text output in the WYSIWYG view and generated document.

An end-user responsible for testing should be able to rely on the admin’s initial testing. The end-user should review whether:

  • the info on the New contract page/panel is appropriate,
  • the questionnaire is intelligible and sensibly designed (e.g. logical clustering of questions, acceptable number of questions per page),
  • conditionalities and interdependencies are correctly implemented in the questionnaire (the admin should be able to indicate where these exist),
  • questionnaire output is correct (e.g. selecting an answer option produces a visible and logical effect in the WYSIWYG view),
  • whether the contract house style – if new or changed – is correct.

2. Contract house style

A contract house style (‘look and feel’) will have been configured based on the original model contracts. This covers both the layout of elements (cover page, type of information in headers and footers) and font, indentation, numbering style, etc. Feedback may relate to all aspects.

It is strongly recommended that the number of house styles remains limited. In principle, subsequent templates will be based on the configured contract house styles. Contract house styles are centrally managed within the Weagree Wizard, so any required update for any number of templates can be performed instantly and at any time (for more information, see the Contract house styles subsection of this knowledge base’s Contract automation section).