Summary

Formal testing of an enterprise-level system is often a time-consuming process. Using an automated approach improves the effectiveness of the testing process, resulting in shorter development timeframes and greater test accuracy.

Getting the most from test automation requires the definition of a carefully planned test strategy. Following are some important points to consider when formulating a suitable strategy.

• Don't leave testing to the end of the project. Early testing prevents nasty surprises that are expensive and time consuming to correct in the final iterations of a project. Test early and test often.

• Design the system to be tested, and devise the test strategy in tandem with the software architecture.

• Use an array of testing types. No single type of testing will adequately validate an enterprise-level system. Apply a barrage of different testing schemes, including unit, integration, functional, load, and stress testing.

• Automate the testing process. The time taken to build automated test scripts will more than pay off in terms of testing accuracy and test speed.

Thoroughly testing a J2EE application is as hard a process as the development itself: do not underestimate the task. Give quality assurance the attention and respect it deserves.

Additional Information

The testing of object-oriented systems is a huge topic and appropriately, Robert Binder has written a huge book on the subject. For an in-depth discussion on all matters relating to the testing process, Testing Object-Oriented Systems: Models, Patterns, and Tools [Binder, 2000] is an extremely inclusive read and has the honor of being the thickest publication on my bookshelf.

To find out about other open source testing tools, visit http://www.opensourcetesting.org.