Research issues in testing business components

The advantages of migrating from traditional monolithic business applications to reusable object-based business components (self-contained software that carries out a certain business task) are well documented. A business system assembled from reusable components is argued to be highly reliable since these components have been tested and used in many other business applications. However, all possible uses of components are not known at design and construction stage. Additionally, integration testing is needed as components are assembled to make business application systems. Component-based software development requires that testing issues be addressed adequately. In this paper, we explore testing related issues in business components and in particular, business application systems that are made by integrating these components. An integration test strategy for business component application systems is proposed.