Introduction

• (control-)software testing with simulation models: Virtual Commissioning
• known for a long time - Auinger et al., 1999
• established on PLC-level e.g. using Emulate3D
• interesting for all types of software, especially for process-centric logistics applications with complex workflows

Software development standards

• agile software development (iterative, frequent adaption to requirements changes)


• test-driven development (test-first approach)


• continuous integration (build automation, automated testing)

How can an integration of simulation-based testing into modern software development workflows look like, built on open-source tools and technologies?

Scenario

small city-logistics company

customers, depots, vehicles, deliveries

order management, tour planning, tracking

Planning Web-App:

3 Core processes

Discrete-Event Simulation Model

Application structure

Demo

• run the DES model against the application backend:

              
                # from within the cloned repo:
                # (https://github.com/fladdimir/csa-vcom.git)
                docker-compose up
                # simulation: http://localhost:5001
                # web-app: http://localhost:4200
              
            

DES-Client + Visualization

CI-pipeline

Headless DES-Client for CI

Development Workflow

Conclusion I

• Python-based DES with SimPy + Casymda
• executable DES model generation from BPMN
• HTTP-REST-API-interactions via requests
• Drone continuous integration platform
• Docker for simple setup + local development
• > public github repository

Conclusion II

• DES allows extensive and automated integration testing of business-processes
• integration into modern software development workflows possible
• helps to ensure software quality
• accessible open-source technologies and tools
• minimal show-case, only with functional API tests
• quantitative assertions on KPIs possible