Embedding a Test Tool in Eclipse Java Development Environment

For delivering high quality software products, it is important to test them in environments very close to the typical customer ones, where unexpected events may perturb the normal running of the application. Running tests in a realistic environment starting from the early development phases helps in reducing costs in terms of fixing. Moreover, in a distributed application, the importance of testing each single component increases when Agile methodologies are adopted because it can happen that a component is developed when its pre-requisites are not available. Often the customer environments are very complex and replicating them in a laboratory is difficult if at all possible. The aim of this paper is to describe the integration in the Eclipse IDE of a test tool useful for simulating the operating conditions of typical customer environments. This allows to seamlessly run complex tests directly from the Eclipse IDE without switching to a different environment.