Infrastructure Independence

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Infrastructure Independence is a property of a subject whose governing intent, semantics, criteria, and required outcomes do not depend on the design, implementation, provider, or selection of particular Infrastructure.

The subject may include:

• A specification
• A model
• A test
• A Test Definition
• An evaluation method
• A deployment description
• An interface
• A policy
• A procedure
• A requirement

Infrastructure Independence separates the governing characteristics of the subject from Infrastructure-specific resources, services, providers, platforms, and deployment choices.

Infrastructure-specific mechanisms remain consistent with Infrastructure Independence when they preserve the governing:

• Intent
• Semantics
• Evaluated characteristics
• Evaluation method
• Acceptance Criteria
• Required outcomes
• Evidence obligations
• Traceability

Such mechanisms include:

• Provider-specific resource mappings
• Platform bindings
• Deployment descriptors
• Provisioning procedures
• Container definitions
• Network mappings
• Storage mappings
• Monitoring integrations
• Configurations

A change to a governing characteristic constitutes a change to the subject rather than an Infrastructure-specific adaptation.

property of a subject whose governing intent, semantics, criteria, and required outcomes do not depend on the design, implementation, provider, or selection of particular Infrastructure

DIDO-TE Mission Objective MO-006: Application-Independent and Infrastructure-Independent Testing

DIDO-TE Mission Objective MO-006b: Infrastructure-Independent Testing

DIDO Reference Implementation Conceptual Model

Infrastructure Independence does not mean the absence of Infrastructure.

Infrastructure Independence does not require identical execution across Infrastructure. Different environments may require different resource mappings, deployment descriptors, Configurations, provisioning procedures, or monitoring integrations.

An adaptation preserves Infrastructure Independence when the adaptation does not change the governing intent, semantics, criteria, required outcomes, Evidence obligations, or Traceability.

Infrastructure Independence does not mean Infrastructure has no effect on observed results. Infrastructure characteristics may affect performance, reliability, resource consumption, storage consumption, energy consumption, cost, scalability, or operational stability. Infrastructure-independent testing controls, identifies, and records those characteristics so the evaluation distinguishes Infrastructure effects from changes to the governing test.

Infrastructure Independence differs from Application Independence:

• Infrastructure Independence concerns separation from particular Infrastructure
• Application Independence concerns separation from a particular Application

A subject may possess Infrastructure Independence without possessing Application Independence, or Application Independence without possessing Infrastructure Independence.

DIDO-TE executes the same governed test in an on-premises environment and a cloud environment.

Each environment uses different provisioning procedures, storage mappings, network Configurations, and monitoring integrations. Both executions preserve the same testing intent, semantics, evaluated characteristics, Acceptance Criteria, required outcomes, and Evidence obligations.

The test records the Infrastructure characteristics and the environment-specific adaptations. The test therefore possesses Infrastructure Independence while retaining the information needed to evaluate Infrastructure-related effects.