Which of the following is not a logical step to take when debugging an FME workspace?

• A. Interpret the log for warnings and errors
• B. Inspect the output datasets
• C. Review connection feature counts
• D. Create a duplicate workspace from scratch

Answer: (D)

When debugging an FME workspace, you rely on run-time insight and data validation to locate where things go wrong. Interpreting the log for warnings and errors is essential because the log captures transformer behavior, error messages, and exact points of failure, guiding you to the likely source of the problem. Inspecting the output datasets at various stages lets you confirm what each part of the workspace actually generates, so you can spot mismatches, missing attributes, or data-quality issues as data flows through the transformers. Reviewing connection feature counts helps you verify that the expected number of features moves from one stage to the next, revealing problems like unintended filtering, early termination, or incorrect joins that alter counts.

Creating a duplicate workspace from scratch isn’t a productive debugging step because it doesn’t shed light on the current issue or its causes. It can waste time and obscure the specific problem you’re trying to diagnose. Focus on the log, the intermediate outputs, and feature counts to isolate and fix the root cause within the existing workspace.