Unit Testing Non-functional Concerns of Component-based Distributed Systems

Unit testing component-based distributed systems traditionally involved testing functional concerns of the application logic throughout the development lifecycle. In contrast, testing non-functional distributed system concerns (e.g., end-to-end response time, security, and reliability) typically has not occurred until system integration because it requires both a complete system to perform such tests and sophisticated techniques to identify and analyze performance metrics that constitute non-functional concerns. Moreover, in a agile development environment, unit testing non-functional concerns is even harder due to the disconnect between high-level system specification and low-level performance metrics. This paper provides three contributions to research on testing techniques for component-based distributed systems, which is manifested in a technique called Understanding Non-functional Intentions via Testing and Experimentation (UNITE). First, we show how UNITE allows developers to e...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: ICST
• Authors: James H. Hill, Hamilton A. Turner, James R. Edmondson, Douglas C. Schmidt
• Keywords: Component-based Distributed Systems, Distributed System, ICST 2009, Non-functional Concerns, Software Engineering