Testing Web Services

Key Findings:

  • Web Services promise to fundamentally change the distributed computing landscape. This new landscape will present new testing scenarios and problems that companies using Web Services don’t currently understand.
  • Today’s enterprises that are dabbling in Web Services aren’t inquiring about or requesting testing solutions.
  • The whole concept of a software development lifecycle will fall by the wayside as companies realize the advantages of orchestrating loosely coupled Services into coarse-grained business Services.
  • As enterprises follow the Web Services model and move from phase one (through 2003) to phase three (2005 and beyond) many testing issues will arise that the current simplistic approach to Web Services testing will not cover.
  • During phase one of Web Services adoption, Web Services are mainly just software components with SOAP interfaces.
  • The dynamic, “publish, find, and bind” capabilities of Web Services characterize phase two of the adoption of Service-oriented architectures.
  • In phase three, taking an agile approach to testing will make the most sense.
  • Vendors of Testing tools do not see Web Services as heralding an emerging market per se; rather, they generally see Web Services as a relatively small evolutionary step in the development of software components.
  • Test-first development will be a primary driver for Web Services testing. Test-first development, where developers assist in the creation of automated test plans before a line of code is written, has been proven repeatedly to lead to better code, written faster, that meets the needs of stakeholders better.

Table of Contents:

  • I. Report Scope
  • II. Context for Testing in the Web Services Model
    • 2.1 The ZapThink Web Services Roadmap
    • 2.2 Phase One
    • 2.3 Phase Two
    • 2.4 Phase Three
  • III. Web Services Testing Capabilities and Trends
    • 3.1 Web Services Testing in the Current IT Environment
    • 3.2 Software Testing Capabilities from Now into the Future
    • 3.3 The Software Testing Tools Market in the Web Services Model
    • 3.4 The Convergence of Service Orientation and Agile Methodologies
  • IV. Current State of the Market
    • 4.1 Web Services Testing Leaders and Followers
    • 4.2 Drivers for Web Services Testing Tools
    • 4.3 Barriers to adoption for Web Services Testing Tools
  • V. Conclusions
    • 5.1 Key Notes
    • 5.2 Decision Points
    • 5.3 Figures
    • 5.4 Tables
  • VI. Vendor Profiles
  • A. Related Research
  • B. Trademark Notice and Statement of Opinion
  • About ZapThink, LLC

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