SOA Testing -

Found useful stuff at a Software Testing Google Group:

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When you say SOA testing there are many complexities are involved.

SOA testing is performed at different levels
1) Application Level
2) Web services Level
3) Integration Testing
4) Database Level

As the term SOA is explained as - Service Oriented Architecture, there
are different services which are consumed within the application on
shared platform.

Service Consumer and Service Provider are the main actors along with
the Service Registry.
Testers scope are varied as per the testing requirements.

Tester is responsible to validate the SOA rules(Service Registry
rules) as well as to ensure all different applications interacting
with each other are in sync.

Web services communication within different entities is critical part.
It is like Continuous Improvements/Enhancements of the application.

Here are some of the validations from QA's perspective:-
1) Business rules are being followed within the application
2) Request & Response communication is as per SOA policies
3) Appropriate fields are being updated in DB
4) If there are any 3rd party processes like Batch process is to be
executed then the result set shows its influence in respective
applications only
5) Same Business process is executed at different levels thru
different applications
6) All applications speaks same language in terms of communication and
core business processes
7) Data security testing is high priority
8) Factors influencing the configuration of web services
9) Integration Testing is also one of high priority issue
10)Continuous Regression is needed in order to keep SOA policies up to
date

At times the application may looks preety simple however, the factors
which drive the business rules are really complex.

There are possibilities that some of the applications using SOA
platform follow different development methodology like Agile,
Iterative or any other; which makes SOA testing an interesting case.

Most frequent defects are from all quarters where the application has
touched the common platform.
One can observe defects as listed in above 10 points and to add the
list are Environment Issues as well.

Any small defect in one application could be a potential showstopper
for another, which makes QA team very vital team player in continuous
improvement activities.

If there are any queries, please let me know, I would be more than
happy to address.

All the Best!

Regards,