diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 205f439a..c487c53e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -103,6 +103,7 @@ ENV/
 
 # Generated bogus docs
 ChangeLog
+AUTHORS
 
 # build/lint artifacts
 /charts/shipyard/charts
diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
deleted file mode 100644
index fb4118d2..00000000
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,14 +0,0 @@
-Alan Meadows <alan.meadows@gmail.com>
-Anthony Lin <anthony.jclin@gmail.com>
-Bryan Strassner <bryan.strassner@gmail.com>
-Felipe Monteiro <felipe.monteiro@att.com>
-Hassan Kaous <hkyq8@mst.edu>
-Mark Burnett <mark.m.burnett@gmail.com>
-One-Fine-Day <vd789v@att.com>
-Pete Birley <pete@port.direct>
-Rodolfo <rp2723@att.com>
-Scott Hussey <sh8121@att.com>
-Stacey Fletcher <staceylynnfletcher@gmail.com>
-Tin Lam <tin@irrational.io>
-Vamsi Krishna Surapureddi <vamsi.skrishna@gmail.com>
-eanylin <anthony.jclin@gmail.com>
diff --git a/shipyard_airflow/control/action/action_helper.py b/shipyard_airflow/control/action/action_helper.py
index 2c2b573e..0dfca79c 100644
--- a/shipyard_airflow/control/action/action_helper.py
+++ b/shipyard_airflow/control/action/action_helper.py
@@ -11,9 +11,7 @@
 # WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
-"""
-Common methods for use by action api classes as necessary
-"""
+""" Common methods for use by action api classes as necessary """
 
 DAG_STATE_MAPPING = {
     'QUEUED': 'Pending',
@@ -32,18 +30,17 @@ DAG_STATE_MAPPING = {
 
 
 def determine_lifecycle(dag_status=None):
-    """
-    Convert a dag_status to an action_lifecycle value
-    """
+    """ Convert a dag_status to an action_lifecycle value """
     if dag_status is None:
         dag_status = 'NONE'
-    return DAG_STATE_MAPPING.get(dag_status.upper())
+    lifecycle = DAG_STATE_MAPPING.get(dag_status.upper())
+    if lifecycle is None:
+        lifecycle = 'Unknown ({})'.format(dag_status)
+    return lifecycle
 
 
 def format_action_steps(action_id, steps):
-    """
-    Converts a list of action step database records to desired format
-    """
+    """ Converts a list of action step db records to desired format """
     if not steps:
         return []
     steps_response = []
@@ -55,9 +52,7 @@ def format_action_steps(action_id, steps):
 
 
 def format_step(action_id, step, index):
-    """
-    reformat a step (dictionary) into a common response format
-    """
+    """ reformat a step (dictionary) into a common response format """
     return {
         'url': '/actions/{}/steps/{}'.format(action_id, step.get('task_id')),
         'state': step.get('state'),
diff --git a/tests/unit/control/test_action_helper.py b/tests/unit/control/test_action_helper.py
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b83334b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/unit/control/test_action_helper.py
@@ -0,0 +1,30 @@
+# Copyright 2017 AT&T Intellectual Property.  All other rights reserved.
+#
+# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
+# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
+# You may obtain a copy of the License at
+#
+#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
+#
+# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
+# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
+# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
+# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
+# limitations under the License.
+""" Tests for the action_helper.py module """
+
+from shipyard_airflow.control.action import action_helper
+
+
+def test_determine_lifecycle():
+    dag_statuses = [
+        {'input': 'queued', 'expected': 'Pending'},
+        {'input': 'ShUTdown', 'expected': 'Failed'},
+        {'input': 'RUNNING', 'expected': 'Processing'},
+        {'input': 'None', 'expected': 'Pending'},
+        {'input': None, 'expected': 'Pending'},
+        {'input': 'bogusBroken', 'expected': 'Unknown (bogusBroken)'},
+    ]
+    for status_pair in dag_statuses:
+        assert(status_pair['expected'] ==
+               action_helper.determine_lifecycle(status_pair['input']))