service-virtualization

Discovery Questions

1. How many external dependencies does your system call? List them: payment APIs, email services, auth providers, third-party data sources. Each needs a strategy.
2. Which dependencies are unreliable in tests? Rate-limited, slow, flaky, or expensive? These are the highest-priority candidates for virtualization.
3. What testing levels need isolation? Unit tests need fast in-process mocks. Integration tests may need HTTP-level stubs. E2E tests might use real or containerized services.
4. Do you have contracts with your dependencies? If yes, contract tests can validate that your stubs stay in sync with reality. See contract-testing.
5. What is the team's experience level? Simple MSW handlers are easier to maintain than a full WireMock deployment.
6. Check .agents/qa-project-context.md first. Respect existing mocking conventions and infrastructure.

Core Principles