Reducing Integration Test Effort Using SOA

Recently I have been involved in some projects that introduce SOA as a means to reduce testing efforts in large organizations. Taking two or three weeks out of the testing phase of a project and lowering the overall software development lifecycle (SDLC) can save millions of dollars for large organizations.

IONA's Professional Services organization has been researching and implementing methods and practices that can leverage the benefits of SOA for integration testing. Many of IONA's larger customers have a plethora of middleware and platforms. Having a consistent and automated approach to testing across these various technologies has been very difficult until now.

Leveraging best practices, testing tools and the unique capabilities of Artix, IONA PS has developed Certification Kits that allow for independent testing of integration end-points by disparate or remote groups. And this can be achieved no matter what the underlying middleware: CORBA, MQ Series, Tuxedo, Tibco, J2EE, Web services, CICS etc. This is achieved by harnessing the unique capabilities of Artix as an Extensible ESB. Artix employees WSDL as the common underlying interface definition or contract between the endpoints. WSDL is employed no matter what the underlying technology.

At one customer, IONA PS were able to take three weeks out of the testing phase. Consider how many lifecycles each application or team has per year and how many teams there are. You can then imagine how the savings add up. And then consider the time to market advantages.

I was a skeptic myself until recently. I saw an impressive demonstration of the capabilities performed by my old buddy Ashwin Karpe. Really great stuff!