1. A system for automated testing of a chat-based interaction environment, comprising: a test case management platform stored and operating on a network-attached computer; a text chat cruncher computer attached to a network and comprising programmable instructions stored and operable thereon to execute text chat test cases; an interaction router computer attached to the network and comprising programmable instructions stored and operable thereon to route incoming interactions; and a contact center manager computer attached to a network and comprising programmable instructions stored and operable thereon to manage contact center interactions; a chat classifier computer attached to a network and comprising programmable instructions stored and operable thereon to analyze live customer text chat requests and test text chat requests; wherein the test case management platform allows a user to configure operation of the system; wherein the text chat cruncher computer operates a plurality of virtual customers as independent software agents under control of the programmable instructions for executing text chat test cases; wherein the contact center manager computer operates a plurality of virtual agents to participate in chat session with virtual customers; wherein the interaction router simultaneously routes both live customer text chat interactions to real human agents and test text chat interactions to virtual simulated agents; wherein the text chat classifier computer classifies interactions according to their nature as either live customer text chat interactions or test text chat interactions to enforce boundaries between a running test and an operating contact center environment.