Parasoft to Test BPEL-Based Web Services with SOAtest

Published: March 22, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Cutting-edge organizations deploying Web services based on the Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) standard may be interested in hearing about last month's release of SOAtest from Parasoft, a developer of automated testing software for a variety of languages and architectures.

With SOAtest version 4.5, the company unveiled support for the automated functional, QA, and regression testing of BPEL components and BPEL-based processes. This is an important step as more organizations seek to build new applications, and augment existing applications, to function as Web services in a service orientated architecture (SOA), of which BPEL is a core component. In addition to testing BPEL, the software can check the reliability, security, and maintainability of Web service code build on WS-I, W3C, OASIS, and WS-* standards.

SOAtest 4.5 also delivers better management of test assets and the capability to automate the scheduling of testing and retesting SOA components over time. Companies already using a testing framework will be able to share data from SOAtest with MercuryTest Director and IBM Rational TestManager.

"Establishing a reliable, repeatable test infrastructure and a development governance process across the enterprise is paramount to ensuring that uncontrolled and inconsistent Web services development do not compromise the planned benefits of SOA," said Wayne Ariola, vice president of corporate development at Parasoft, which is based in Monrovia, California.

SOAtest runs on Windows, Linux, and Solaris boxes, but supports the testing of Web services deployed using any platform, a company spokeswoman said.