|
By Tony Baer
June 13, 2007
In the next 6.0 version of its web services testing tool, SOAPscope, Mindreef is also breaking out some of the functionality to offer it a la carte. SOASPscope 6.0 adds a plug-in architecture that for now will break out existing architectural and XML schema checks, while adding a new load testing feature.
According to Jim Murphy, vice president of product management, the company realized that a one-size fits all approach to web services testing didn't fully meet the needs of its customers. Some are more interested in high end architectural and governance matters, while others simply want to focus on the core regression tests.
So, one of the plug-ins being introduced is a repackaging of some policy rules testing capabilities that were previously available as part of the core tool. SOAPscope's Policy Rules Manager tests compliance with rules such as do the SOAP and WSDL headers comply with the WS-I Basic Profile for interoperability, is the XML Schema formed properly, and are contracts valid so you can ensure they won't break at run time because of some faulty logic?
"Part of this was that we wanted to make our policy management capabilities more visible," said Murphy, who added that given the general tool's primary appeal to software developers, those capabilities often got hidden or went unnoticed. Murphy added that by separating it out, Mindreef would be freer in developing a more robust product roadmap and could target the tool towards customers getting serious about SOA governance.
Another plug-in, called Load Check, is new functionality that provides a pretest of performance. The rationale is that, when developing service-based apps, that load or performance testing tends to be an afterthought that either comes too late, or is compensated for by brute forcing the purchase of extra hardware after the fact.
"This is getting the most attention from our prospects," said Murphy, who noted that in the development cycle, the SOA interfaces tend to get finished before the applications themselves. So that provides a window when you can do some simulate loads. He added that, of course, Mindreef is not trying to get in the way of the Mercury steamroller (Mercury, now part of HP, first built its franchise on LoadRunner), which tends to get used once the app is formed.
While not available at this point, developing the ability to generate LoadRunner scripts is on Mindreef's to-do list. SOAPscope 6, which also has a number of minor feature upgrades, is available now.
Our View
The interesting part is the development of the policy add-on. What's telling is that, although the functionality is not totally new, that Mindreef's core audience, which is QA specialists, tended to overlook this capability because they are more focused on defects and performance bottlenecks, rather than on the bigger picture. Of course, we believe that it's not a stretch to have them test for well-formed XML Schema or WS-I compliance, as that also falls under the category of code checks.
But conformance with higher level policies, and on the horizon, dealing with validating service policies that may reside in registries is something that might not naturally belong in the QA specialist's job description. Of course, that point is open to debate, because if you buy the argument that software developers need to become more business-focused, then QA specialists should as well. |
