The PLASTIC Framework and Tools for Testing Service-Oriented Applications

The emergence of the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is changing the way in which software applications are developed. A service- oriented application consists of the dynamic composition of autonomous services independently developed by different organizations and deployed on heterogenous networks. Therefore, validation of SOA poses several new challenges, without offering any discount for the more traditional testing problems. In this chapter we overview the PLASTIC validation framework in which different techniques can be combined for the verification of both functional and extra-functional properties, spanning over both off-line and on-line testing stages. The former stage concerns development time testing, at which services are exercised in a simulated environment. The latter foresees the monitoring of a service live usage, to dynamically reveal possible deviations from the expected behaviour. Some techniques and tools which fit within the outlined framework are presented.