A Multi-Agent Framework for Testing Distributed Systems
This addresses the problem of expensive and time-consuming software testing for developers and engineers working on distributed systems, though it appears incremental as it builds on existing multi-agent approaches.
The paper tackles the high cost and complexity of testing distributed systems by proposing a novel multi-agent framework, validated through a web-based application case study to automate testing and enhance reliability within acceptable cost and time constraints.
Software testing is a very expensive and time consuming process. It can account for up to 50% of the total cost of the software development. Distributed systems make software testing a daunting task. The research described in this paper investigates a novel multi-agent framework for testing 3-tier distributed systems. This paper describes the framework architecture as well as the communication mechanism among agents in the architecture. Web-based application is examined as a case study to validate the proposed framework. The framework is considered as a step forward to automate testing for distributed systems in order to enhance their reliability within an acceptable range of cost and time.