End-to-End Testing: The PLACE to Be

The latest development technologies–web services, SOA, SaaS, cloud computing, agile practices, and more–have increased our ability to rapidly implement new systems to support ever-changing business needs. At the same time, testers are expected to create suites of tests that exercise systems from end-to-end, testing all parts of the system together. Ruud Teunissen explores ways to create and maintain end-to-end tests that are representative of the full application landscape. This testing has to be in PLACE: Production-Like, Automated, Continuous running, and End-to-end. As with any set of tests, you must look at the environment, tooling, data, and both manual and automated scripting. In addition, with PLACE testing you must drill down in the end-to-end chain to determine the root cause of problems and point toward the required resolutions. In fact, it's not just testing; it's a much broader evaluation approach. This approach to testing is the next step in the evolution of testing. In fact, it's the PLACE to be.