An on-line test platform for component-based systems

Abstract

One of the most provocative research areas in software engineering field is the testing of modern component based distributed applications in order to assure required quality parameters. Dynamic interactions and structural embedding, run-time loadable configurations, and services that can be deployed in arbitrary executions environments results in an increased complexity. Moreover, that the variety of possible states and behaviors becomes unpredictable. Thus, since testing during the development phase is always applied in simulated environments, it is almost impossible to detect faults, which appear under real condition, during production phase of a system. We therefore aim at concepts and methodologies that achieve on-line testing of distributed component based systems in their production phase. In comparison with off-line testing (i.e. testing that takes place during system development), on-line testing addresses particular aspects of the behavior of distributed systems, such as: functionality under limited time and resources available, complex transactions that are performed between components provided by different vendors, deployment, and composition of different services.