How can we reduce costs associated with FDA imposed computer systems validation (CSV) guidelines and improve test coverage at the same time? Experienced in the use of automated testing tools in FDA regulated environments, Eric Toburen shares the challenges of complying with FDA validation guidelines. For many companies, manual CSV is a like a heavy boat anchor that slows projects and increases costs while adding no value other than the perception that the practice avoids an auditor's attention. Find out how automated testing and test management practices can be used to shorten the CSV lifecycle and improve test coverage. After deployment use the automated tests for regression testing to enable the deployment of bug fixes and upgrades minimizing the need for re-evaluation.

Many organizations are beginning to deploy Web services as the preferred way to interact electronically with employees, customers, and trading partners. To ensure that these Web services implementations are secure, vulnerability assessment and rigorous testing must be built into the Web services development process. Jack Quinnell describes the current "best practices" in developing and testing the security of an enterprise's Web services applications. He explains what makes Web services vulnerable to attacks and the characteristics of both design-centric and attack-centric vulnerabilities. Learn how to identify and test these vulnerabilities during development and in operational settings. Find out about the latest technology to support testing Web services security. Go away with a new appreciation for the security risks inherent in Web services and what you can do about them.

Many enterprise applications are tightly coupled to a database. Consequently testing application code that depends on a database is challenging because the act of testing changes the database, often making retesting a problem. When it comes to white box testing, databases present dependency scenarios that are sometimes difficult to set-up. Fortunately, the open source DBUnit framework, which employs XML datasets, provides an elegant solution for controlling database dependencies within applications. It allows both testers and developers to set the state of a database at the beginning of the test and to place the database back into its pre-test state upon completion. Andrew Glover demonstrates component and system testing scenarios using the DBUnit framework and discusses the issues and solutions for database dependent applications.

When the software architecture is emerging and many features are not yet ready, performance testing is a challenge. However, waiting until the software is almost finished is too risky. What to do? Neill McCarthy explores how performance testing can be made more Agile and run starting in the early iterations of development. Learn how to implement early performance automation using appropriate tools in build tests and the requirements for early performance testing of user stories. Neill presents lessons learned from his "coal face" of performance testing in Agile projects and shares ideas on how you can add more agility to your performance testing.