Assuring Web Service Quality

David Fern demystifies Web services technology, explaining that Web services are loosely coupled, language independent processes that communicate following SOAP standards using XML messages. He describes how to ensure the quality and compatibility of these unique applications by addressing their specific challenges and risk mitigation test strategies. David shares some of the tools that help him perform functional testing as you would with a GUI application-compare and validate the request and response XML files, ensure language independence and cross platform compatibility with .NET and Java services, and ensure that the Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) specifications meet the Web Service Interoperability Organization (WS-I) standards. Finally, David describes how to integrate these tools and strategies to support and automate your Web service testing process.

• Web services and how they work
• Testing Web services
• A Web services testing strategy for your organization