Service virtualization is not only of enormous importance in many IT projects, but also increasingly of existential importance. Because the advantages are enormous. Ultimately, they play a decisive role in the quality assurance of applications.
In most cases there is enormous time pressure and release cycles are getting shorter and shorter. The application must be tested as quickly as possible in order to detect defects and fix bugs and thus comply with the release.
An example: The application is connected to a component that is not yet finished (thus still in the development phase). Virtualization can be used to provide a test system (test environment) where none exists in the project, although the system to be virtualized has not yet been completed.
Advantages for developers
Service virtualization can be used to simulate applications that have already been developed but have not yet been completed. The prerequisite is that an interface description (e.g. WSDL/REST) is available. The developers do not have to make any changes to the user code for the test phase. This saves time and ensures fast support as well as feedback from the testers about the application to be tested. This allows changes and adjustments to be made at an early stage.
In addition, the risk of external influences, such as database or server failure, is minimized. This procedure also simplifies the generation of available test data sets.
For a variety of communication technologies (e.g. http/https, web service, TCP) the recording of test data can be supported. In projects with third-party integration dependencies, service virtualization also proves to be a useful method. Third-party interfaces (databases) can be virtualized. Thus dependencies can be avoided.
With a tight budget it can happen that no independent test environment is available for the system. Service virtualization can be used to provide a test system for the application. This enables full control, even over all data that can be used for the test. Test data/sets can be created and extended.
Advantages at a glance:
