An integration test framework for service-oriented architecture

Abstract

Increasingly organizations are leveraging service oriented architectures (SOA) as the core infrastructure on which their business applications and processes are organized. The testing and debugging of applications within a SOA presents special challenges. A defect observed at the level of user interaction with the application could be: (1) a fault (performance, security, scalability, etc.) in the application or process logic; (2) a fault in any of the services used by the application; (3) an unintended interaction in combining services. The key challenge to be faced is how to ensure that organizations can manage the complexity of their composite applications and service-oriented architecture in a manner that addresses the engineering requirements of testing while providing tools that are efficient, productive, and reasonable for testers to learn. In our thesis we address these issues by introducing a 'grey box' test agent architecture and a model-driven approach to express 'grey box' test campaigns.