Categorizing Components

Because Business Process Testing is a component-based testing framework, components are largely responsible for driving the system being tested. The framework encourages component design and reuse, so the method you use to categorize your components has a large impact on the ability of your framework to manage your testing abilities successfully.

A logical component represents the use of a part of the screen with one or more controls, or a set of API calls which combine to perform some application logic. This category is based on a specific context in the application under text.

Example:  

  • A Login component represents the login process, based on a login window that allows you to enter a user name and password, and then click a Login button.

  • A Search component represents search for an entity in the application under test. You can enter a string for which to search, indicate capitalization and/or whole word options, and click a Search button.

An application object component might represent an object on the screen or a call to a single API.

This category is usually independent of the context within the application under test, and can be used in many situations. You decide the level of granularity that most encourages reuse.

Example:  

  • A Button component represents the button object.

  • A Grid component represents a grid object in a pane or window.

  • A Pane component represents a pane in a window or screen.

  • An Interrogate component represents the interrogation of the application under test's backend database.

A generic component performs actions outside of the context of the application under test. It can be reused in tests of different applications.

Example:  

  • A Launch component represents the launching of a browser.

Note: Flows can be thought of as complex components or small business component tests. Flows comprise a set of components in a fixed sequence to perform a specific task. A flow can be part of a test just like any other component, but when the flow runs, Business Process Testing executes the components that the flow contains.