End-to-end integration testing design

Integration testing has always been a challenge especially if the system under test is large with many subsystems and interfaces. This paper proposes an approach to design End-to-End (E2E) integration testing, including test scenario specification, test case generation and tool support. Test scenarios are specified as thin threads, each of which represents a single function from an end user's point of view. Thin threads can be organized hierarchically into a tree with each branch consisting of a set of related thin threads representing a set of related functionality. A test engineer can use thin-thread trees to generate test cases systematically, as well as carry out other related tasks such as risk analysis and assignment, regression testing, ripple effect analysis. A prototype tool has been developed to support E2E testing in a distributed environment on the J2EE platform.