... In fact, unit testing for BPEL-based applications doesn’t have to be harder than testing any other kind of program. If you take a few reasonable steps you’ll have the information you need to confidently revise and deploy your standards-based composite application using a test-first methodology.

A clear first step is to take the process offline. For example, if your application calls for a credit check, it may be impractical to send 10, 100, or 1,000 requests to the credit agency while you’re testing. This can be done by collecting the actual responses created by live use of the service or generating sample data on your own to represent both the expected responses and all likely alternate responses, like responses that indicate a failure or responses that contain unexpected data. By using sample data in place of actually calling live services you can safely run process tests and be guaranteed of the expected outcome.

Read the complete article by Mike Pellegrini in SOAWorld Magazine.