System and method for testing applications at the business layer

A test control system for testing a multi-tier application having a presentation layer, a business layer, and a third layer for storing information associated with the multi-tier application, wherein the system comprises:

• means for sending known test inputs to a first instance of the multi-tier application;
• means for receiving output from the first instance of the multi-tier application responsive to the known test inputs, the output in a geographic-specific and linguistic specific format;
• means for converting the output into a geographic-neutral and linguistic-neutral format;
• means for establishing predicted output for the multi-tier application based on the converted output;
• means for generating a test script for the multi-tier application by associating the predicted output with the known test inputs;
• and
• means for storing the test script in a geographic-neutral and linguistic-neutral format based on a predefined Extensible Markup Language (“XML”) schema, wherein the test script is to send the known test inputs in the geographic-neutral and linguistic-neutral format to the business layer of a second instance of the multi-tier application, bypassing the presentation layer, and compare results from the second instance of the multi-tier application with the predicted output.

A computer readable storage medium having test control instructions stored thereon for testing a multi-tier application comprising a presentation layer, a business layer, and a third layer for storing information associated with the multi-tier application, wherein the test control instructions, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• sending known test inputs to a first instance of the multi-tier application;
• receiving output from the first instance of the multi-tier application responsive to the known test inputs, the output in a geographic-specific and linguistic specific format;
• converting the output into a geographic-neutral and linguistic-neutral format;
• establishing predicted output for the multi-tier application based on the converted output;
• generating a test script for the multi-tier application by associating the predicted output with the known test inputs;
• and
• storing the test script in a geographic-neutral and linguistic-neutral format based on a predefined Extensible Markup Language (“XML”) schema, wherein the test script is to send the known test inputs in the geographic-neutral and linguistic-neutral format to the business layer of a second instance of the multi-tier application, bypassing the presentation layer, and compare results from the second instance of the multi-tier application with the predicted output.