Towards a BPEL unit testing framework

The Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) is emerging as the new standard in Web service composition. As more and more workflows are modelled using BPEL, unit-testing these compositions becomes increasingly important. However, little research has been done in this area and no frameworks comparable to the xUnit family are available. In this paper, we propose a layer-based approach to creating frameworks for repeatable, white-box BPEL unit testing, which we use for the development of a new testing framework. This framework uses a specialized BPEL-level testing language to describe interactions with a BPEL process to be carried out in a test case. The framework supports automated test execution and offers test management capabilities in a standardized and open way via well-defined interfaces -- even to third-party applications.