Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) forms an important structure that supports communication between business services.  This structure and the associated services need to be tested using various techniques to ensure that their SOA is strong, able to grow, and capable of being used or operated reciprocally.

In this article, we will discuss the Open Source SOA testing tool which is used mainly for SOA and Web Services. The use of Open Source SOA testing has become a much needed resource for the many tools and platforms used in SOA implementation.  Open source SOA testing has been proven to be reliable and cost effective when used for databases such as MySQL operating systems such as Linux and browsers such as Internet Explorer.

SOA testing involves the ability to test the structure and communication between business services against an endpoint in order to assess the strength, accuracy and flexibility of the service.  A comprehensive test of SOA endpoints involves the following 4 focal points: Function, Performance, Reciprocal Operation and Security.

Functional testing provides the ability to identify the correct operation of services and builds programs to automate testing of SOA and monitors baseline workings of services to quickly identify and validate the function of SOA through constant revision of the operation of the services.

Performance testing of SOA provides real time data which can give the business details of weaknesses, bottlenecks or queues in the system as well as performance problems.  Performance testing is done through the implementation of an agent framework which runs in the back end of the business and monitors capacities, inputs and outputs.

Reciprocal Operation testing maximises the operation of SOA by comparing and recording the type of service as well as its function in relation to the standards and best practices principles.  This test can potentially identify operation issues early in the implementation of SOA and therefore minimise problems occurring in the future.

Security testing is important in determining how vulnerable a service is in regards to data leakage, privacy and integrity of the data.  Security tests can be built into the system to provide ongoing assessment of the services and the applied frame work.