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To test 100%, virtualize 20%


By Adam Kolawa


 Adam Kolawa
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September 12, 2011 —  (Page 1 of 2)
adam kolawaThe need to replace constrained resources in development/test environments has entered the spotlight recently, but it's been bubbling under the surface for some time now.

The embedded development market is the first place where resolving resource constraints emerged as a vital aspect of testing. Here, the ultimate goal for time- and cost-efficient product delivery is to develop the software in parallel with the hardware. In order to thoroughly test the software before the hardware is built and available for testing, something has to stand in for the hardware. Otherwise, it's impossible to validate application paths that involve that hardware (and since hardware and software are so closely interlinked in this market, this results in a significant number of use cases that cannot be exercised).

To get around this, engineers commonly mimic the behavior of the unavailable hardware—either by using a simulator or by using stubs to replace the parts of the hardware that interact with the software.

Staging systems for Web development were another precursor. As I wrote in "Bulletproofing Web Applications" back in 2001, Web developers needed to create a "sandbox" where they could deploy and test their latest application changes without impacting the live application.

Essentially, the latest version of the component being developed or modified could then be run alongside "staging" versions of other system components (databases, app servers, etc.) in order to verify if the new application functionality worked as expected. As I recommended back then, the staging environment did not have to exactly replicate the full production environment. It could simply replace the bare minimum of functionality needed to thoroughly exercise the operations that the development and QA team needed to exercise.

Today, working around resource constraints is more important than ever since most enterprise systems are distributed heterogeneous systems whose many components are developed, deployed and evolving beyond your immediate control. You've got to overcome such constraints as:
• Missing/unstable components
• Evolving development environments
• Inaccessible partner systems and services
• Systems that are too complex for test labs
• Internal and external resources with multiple "owners"

The 80/20 rule of thumb provides an interesting perspective on this situation. The part of the system that lies outside of your control is typically around 20%. However, this 20% usually comprises core functionality, so the inability to access this 20% can impact nearly 80% of the use cases that are essential for exercising the application under test. This significantly impedes your ability to validate the system and uncover functionality, reliability and performance problems before users do.



Related Search Term(s): testing, virtualization

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