Unit Testing Non-functional Concerns of Component-based Distributed Systems

Unit testing component-based distributed systems traditionally involves testing functional concerns of the application logic throughout the software lifecycle. In contrast, testing non-functional distributed system concerns (e.g., end-to-end response time, security, and reliability) typically does not occur until system integration because it requires a complete system to perform such tests, as well as sophisticated techniques to identify and analyze performance metrics that constitute non-functional concerns. Unit testing non-functional concerns is even harder in an agile development environment, due to the disconnect between high-level system specification and low-level performance metrics. This paper describes a methodology and tool called Understanding Non-functional Intentions via Testing and Experimentation (UNITE). UNITE is designed to unit test non-functional concerns of three component-based distributed systems. The results from applying UNITE to a component-based distributed system show how it simplifies unit testing and evaluation of non-functional properties during the early stages of the software lifecycle.