Episode 6: The Impact of Virtualisation in Testing with John Power

Inside The Outer Loop

Is virtualisation given its rightful place in test design? Deployed in a loosely coupled system, speed and flow increase, whilst reducing technical debt. Team alignment and version handling is improved, setting the terrain for better software delivery. Welcome to this episode of Inside The Outer Loop. Moving from expertise in original service virtualisation to sandboxing, guest John Power, CEO of Ostia Solutions, with Curiosity Software's Huw Price and Rich Jordan shares insight that a proper sandbox is fully simulated, gives a good customer experience to developers and testers, that a sandbox being standalone and generating synthetic data, it isn’t compromised. Initially offering a proxy, using request-response algorithms for recording and replaying without Mainframes in play, Ostia went to providing full simulation by example of the UK's Open Banking Model. This involved moving the technology from simply record and replay of data to actual data generation. The hosts share experiences on leading a virtualisation team but also how best to implement Master Data Management using sandboxes in model-based testing to avoid accidental complexity in the system under test. In adopting such an approach, the starting point really is to understand the current confidence level in the interface you’re asking service virtualisation to replace. In practice, simulating what currently exists a system, through the framework bringing in functional endpoints and business rules, it informs the required APIs to the benefit of time, security and quality. But the challenge is for organisations to value sandboxes in adjusting the system design rather than as a regulatory or end-of-year afterthought. Beyond creating reusable assets, you’ll ensure continuous updates to sandbox data and testing models. The approach also gives oversight to which contracts and test environments are affected, alongside sandboxes. Though this requires moving away from a centralised management of APIs. In working towards a better architectural design of a system, where dependencies are isolated, we can learn from Conway’s Law. It suggests a system mimics the organisation's communication, so it's best to improve communication across teams first. Sandboxing will then thrive at an organisational level. You’ll be reducing technical debt, risk, extra effort and in parallel developing mature teams to enable flow, feedback and experimentation in the system under test. Inside the outer loop – brought to you by the Curiosity Software team! Together with industry leaders and experts, we uncover actionable strategies to navigate the outer loop of software delivery, streamline test data management, and elevate software quality. Tune in to transform the way you think about software delivery, quality, and productivity!