Business Process Assurance and
Test Automation in a Service
Oriented Architecture
Alan Oatman
Introduction
Results of a team, not one person
All ideas, thoughts, and statements represent my own ideas,
thoughts, and statements and do not necessarily reflect the
position of Comcast Cable or the Comcast Media Center
Introduction
“Business Process Assurance and Test
Automation in a Service Oriented
Architecture”
…….…
How we Managed to Thrive in a Tough
Situation
Introduction
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Test Challenges
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Improve business savvy
Reduce test cycle time and investment
Be more responsive
Maintain quality
Introduction
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When you leave today
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New perspective
Relevant information
Time well-invested
Introduction
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Background
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Aerospace – MIL-STD
Aerospace – Research Lab
Aerospace – Commercial STD
Commercial
Start Up
Introduction
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Where did the greatest level of user
satisfaction occur?
Why?
Situation
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Our model for progress
Situation + Response = Outcome
Situation
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Comcast Media Center
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Cable industry service provider
Programming, HITS
Advanced Advertising
User Generated Content
Video On Demand (VOD)
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Systems Development?
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Situation
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Legacy Systems and Approach
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Former Aerospace personnel
High Availability and Reliability
Waterfall
Long periods between changes
Situation
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Challenges
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Time to Market
Development Cost
Responsiveness
Silo approach
Response
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Adoption of
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Collaborative development style
Shared hardware resources
Service Oriented Architecture
BPA Validation method
Test automation
Response
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Service Oriented Architecture
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Enterprise bus-centric
Modularize functionality
Re-use and re-factor
Response
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What - Service Oriented Architecture
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Loose Coupling
Consistent interface
Stateless
Discoverable
Shared
Response
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Why – Service Oriented Architecture
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Optimize re-use
Improve system agility
Simpler integration
Response
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How – Service Oriented Architecture
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SOA Mindset
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Business process
Disintegrate process
Check ‘inventory’
Identify elements for re-use
Define new, modified services & orchestration
Response
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SOA
Manage Orders - Services
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Create Order
Update Order
Check Inventory
Cancel Order
Ship Order
An Orchestration defines services, sequence
Response
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Integration Strategy
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Component
System
Multi-system
Validation Strategy
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Business Process Assurance
Response
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Business Process Assurance
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Business relevance in validation
Describe business risk and capabilities
Perspective on technical challenge
Business Enabling vs Business Inhibiting
Response
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Business Process Assurance
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Features
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Test like it is Used
Test what realizes revenue first; prioritize
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“Regression”
Domain Knowledge
Business Need vs Perfection
Response
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Business Process Assurance
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Advantages
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Reduced situations to consider
Plans and Results are business-centric
Improved communication with downstream
groups
Easily combined with classic SWT methods
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Boundary Value, Interface, etc.
Response
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Legacy System Replacement
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Unicorns?
Schedule
Technology
Business Environment
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Swapping engines mid-flight
Impact on SI&T
Response
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Legacy System Replacement
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Domain Knowledge
User perspective
Back to the Basics
Communication
Viola!
Response
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Survival
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Cost
Thrive ?
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Can we find the core of success and
replicate it?
Can we make it faster and improve quality?
Response
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Automation
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Data Generation
Services
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Orchestrations ?
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Outcome
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Time to Market
Quality
Morale
Productivity
Communication
Outcome
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Challenges
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Volatile processes
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Identifying critical
Support for discovery
Reliability
Load and Stress
Outcome
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Overcoming challenges
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Blended approaches
Recall classic SWT methods
Enhance domain knowledge
Automate orchestrations
Summary
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SOA, BPA, and Automation can be
combined to radically alter the success
in systems integration and validation to
improve
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Productivity
Time to Market
Communication
When applied in appropriate situations
Closing
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New perspective ?
Relevant information ?
Time well-invested ?
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Be a Business Enabler
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Questions?
Additional Information
BPA
http://www.stickyminds.com/BetterSoftware/magazine.asp
search for BPA
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SOA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service-oriented_architecture
http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2003/09/30/soa.html
http://www.service-architecture.com/
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Comcast Media Center
http://www.comcastmediacenter.com/
http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_7887013 - Article in
Jan 6th Business section
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Greenhat Software
http://www.greenhatsoftware.com/
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