diff --git a/modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/test/java/org/flowable/cmmn/test/initialization/CmmnEngineInitializationTest.java b/modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/test/java/org/flowable/cmmn/test/initialization/CmmnEngineInitializationTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..f5f704ca056
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/test/java/org/flowable/cmmn/test/initialization/CmmnEngineInitializationTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,105 @@
+/* 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.
+ */
+package org.flowable.cmmn.test.initialization;
+
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;
+import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThatThrownBy;
+
+import java.util.HashMap;
+import java.util.Map;
+import java.util.function.Consumer;
+
+import org.apache.ibatis.session.SqlSession;
+import org.apache.ibatis.session.SqlSessionFactory;
+import org.flowable.cmmn.engine.CmmnEngine;
+import org.flowable.cmmn.engine.CmmnEngineConfiguration;
+import org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableException;
+import org.flowable.common.engine.api.FlowableWrongDbException;
+import org.flowable.common.engine.impl.AbstractEngineConfiguration;
+import org.flowable.common.engine.impl.db.DbSqlSession;
+import org.flowable.common.engine.impl.db.DbSqlSessionFactory;
+import org.flowable.common.engine.impl.db.SchemaOperationsEngineDropDbCmd;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+/**
+ * @author Filip Hrisafov
+ */
+class CmmnEngineInitializationTest {
+
+    @Test
+    void noTables() {
+        CmmnEngineConfiguration engineConfiguration = CmmnEngineConfiguration.createCmmnEngineConfigurationFromResource(
+                "org/flowable/cmmn/test/initialization/notables.flowable.cmmn.cfg.xml");
+
+        assertThatThrownBy(engineConfiguration::buildEngine)
+                .isInstanceOf(FlowableException.class)
+                .hasMessageContaining("No flowable tables in DB");
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    void versionMismatch() {
+        // first create the schema
+        CmmnEngineConfiguration engineConfiguration = CmmnEngineConfiguration.createCmmnEngineConfigurationFromResource(
+                "org/flowable/cmmn/test/initialization/notables.flowable.cmmn.cfg.xml");
+        engineConfiguration.setDatabaseSchemaUpdate(AbstractEngineConfiguration.DB_SCHEMA_UPDATE_CREATE);
+
+        try {
+            CmmnEngine cmmnEngine = engineConfiguration.buildEngine();
+
+            // then update the version to something that is different to the library version
+            DbSqlSessionFactory dbSqlSessionFactory = (DbSqlSessionFactory) cmmnEngine.getCmmnEngineConfiguration()
+                    .getSessionFactories()
+                    .get(DbSqlSession.class);
+            SqlSessionFactory sqlSessionFactory = dbSqlSessionFactory.getSqlSessionFactory();
+            SqlSession sqlSession = sqlSessionFactory.openSession();
+            boolean success = false;
+            try {
+                Map<String, Object> parameters = new HashMap<>();
+                parameters.put("name", "cmmn.schema.version");
+                parameters.put("value", "25.7");
+                parameters.put("revision", 1);
+                parameters.put("newRevision", 2);
+                sqlSession.update("updateProperty", parameters);
+                success = true;
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                throw new FlowableException("couldn't update db schema version", e);
+            } finally {
+                if (success) {
+                    sqlSession.commit();
+                } else {
+                    sqlSession.rollback();
+                }
+                sqlSession.close();
+            }
+
+            // now we can see what happens if when a cmmn engine is being
+            // build with a version mismatch between library and db tables
+            Consumer<FlowableWrongDbException> flowableWrongDbExceptionRequirements = flowableWrongDbException -> {
+                assertThat(flowableWrongDbException.getDbVersion()).isEqualTo("25.7");
+                assertThat(flowableWrongDbException.getLibraryVersion()).isEqualTo(CmmnEngine.VERSION);
+            };
+            assertThatThrownBy(() -> CmmnEngineConfiguration
+                    .createCmmnEngineConfigurationFromResource("org/flowable/cmmn/test/initialization/notables.flowable.cmmn.cfg.xml")
+                    .buildCmmnEngine())
+                    .isInstanceOfSatisfying(FlowableWrongDbException.class, flowableWrongDbExceptionRequirements)
+                    .hasMessageContaining("version mismatch");
+
+            // closing the original process engine to drop the db tables
+            cmmnEngine.close();
+        } finally {
+            engineConfiguration.getCommandExecutor().execute(new SchemaOperationsEngineDropDbCmd(engineConfiguration.getEngineScopeType()));
+        }
+
+    }
+
+}
diff --git a/modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/test/resources/org/flowable/cmmn/test/initialization/notables.flowable.cmmn.cfg.xml b/modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/test/resources/org/flowable/cmmn/test/initialization/notables.flowable.cmmn.cfg.xml
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..7ebea60175d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/modules/flowable-cmmn-engine/src/test/resources/org/flowable/cmmn/test/initialization/notables.flowable.cmmn.cfg.xml
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+
+<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
+	xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
+	xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans   http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd">
+
+    <bean id="cmmnEngineConfiguration" class="org.flowable.cmmn.engine.impl.cfg.StandaloneInMemCmmnEngineConfiguration">
+
+        <property name="databaseSchemaUpdate" value="false" />
+        <property name="jdbcUrl" value="jdbc:h2:mem:ProcessEngineInitializationTest;DB_CLOSE_DELAY=1000" />
+        
+        <property name="asyncExecutorActivate" value="false" />
+    </bean>
+    
+</beans>