SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR BUSINESS PROCESS VERIFICATION AND SYSTEMS INTEGRATED TESTING

• US 20090313639A1
• Filed: 06/17/2008
• Published: 12/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Davis, Stephen M., Ho, Philip T., Parimi, Rakesh K.
• Application Number:
  US12/140,602
• Publication Number:
  US 20090313639A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 719/317
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/2294 by remote test
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3006 where the computing system is distributed, e.g. networked systems, clusters, multiprocessor systems multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46; allocation of resources G06F9/50
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3089 Monitoring arrangements determined by the means or processing involved in sensing the monitored data, e.g. interfaces, connectors, sensors, probes, agents software debugging using additional hardware using a specific debug interface G06F11/3656; performance evaluation by tracing or monitoring G06F11/3466
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3664 Environments for testing or debugging software
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3688 for test execution, e.g. scheduling of test suites
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3674 involving authentication

Abstract

A service oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure is provided for business process verification and systems integrated testing. The system includes one or more primary agents each dedicated to detecting a particular business process. The system further includes one or more action agents each configured to provide a verification function for the particular business process. Additionally, the system includes a service manager configured to provide context look-up services for the one or more primary agents to determine which action agent of the one or more action agents is responsible for a particular verification function of the particular business process.

Claims

1. A system comprising:

one or more primary agents each dedicated to detecting a particular business process;

one or more action agents each configured to provide a verification function for the particular business process; and

a service manager configured to provide context look-up services for the one or more primary agents to determine which action agent of the one or more action agents is responsible for a particular verification function of the particular business process

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the service manager is a platform independent framework which provides a reference of the action agent to the primary agent.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the one or more primary agents each monitor and detect the particular business process asynchronously; and

the one or more action agents each verify the particular business process asynchronously.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the service manager is configured to aggregate reports in a central repository generated asynchronously by at least one of the service manager, the one or more primary agents and the one or more action agents.

5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a storage system that includes a look-up table accessible by the service manager for matching the particular primary agent with a respective action agent, wherein the look up table includes at least a description of functionality of the one or more action agents.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more primary agents is configured to detect asynchronous execution of a respective business process in order to initialize the verification function.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more primary agents is implemented using a common interface and attached to a trigger that initiates a business process.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the service manager is configured to de-couple the one or more primary agents from the one or more action agents.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the service manager is configured to provide an ability to add at least one of a new primary agent, new action agent and new business processes without disrupting an existing test run.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the service manager is implemented as a web service, a legacy service or a service virtualization.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more primary agents invoke the one or more action agent outside of the service manager.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the service manager is configured to provide services for inter action agent communication in order to request execution of a subset of the scenario verification.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the one or more action agents are standalone agents configured to execute business process verification on-demand as requested by the one or more primary agents.

14. A method for verifying business processes comprising providing a platform independent central context look-up service for one or more primary agents to match an action agent which is responsible for a particular verification function of a particular business process detected by the one or more primary agents.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising providing querying services to the one or more primary agents to determine which action agent can be invoked for a detected business process.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising:

determining the action agent via a look up table such that the action agent can be invoke for verification of the detected business process,

forwarding a reference of the action agent to a requesting primary agent; and

invoking a second action agent when it is determined that the business process is a complex business process which cannot be completely verified by the action agent which is responsible for the particular verification function.

17. The method of claim 14, further comprising storing and consolidating reports generated by at least one of one or more action agents, one or more primary agents and a service manager.

18. A system for deploying an application for verifying business processes, comprising a computer infrastructure having program code embedded on a readable medium and being operable to match a primary agent with an action agent via a central context look-up service such that the primary agent which detected a start of a business process can invoke the action agent which is responsible for a particular verification function of the business process.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer infrastructure is platform independent and is operable to provide services for inter action agent communication in order to request execution of a subset of scenario verification.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein the computer infrastructure is operable to at least one of:

determine a second action agent via a look up table for verification of the business process;

invoking the second action agent when it is determined that the business process is a complex business process which cannot be completely verified by the action agent which is responsible for the particular verification function; and

provide an ability to add at least one of a new primary agent, new action agent and new business processes without disrupting an existing test run.