Dependencies can be the bane of software development. One team has the code ready to go but is held back from releasing it because another team has yet to deliver a dependency. This is a mistake. Code that’s ready to go should go.
The way to address this type of delay is to use service virtualization. You can think of service virtualization as mocking out a service. You create a microservice that has the URLs you require. These URLs accept data according to the microservice specification and respond according to specification. However, the response is very limited in scope. For example, when you mock the endpoint, /customers/{id}, the response will always be:
{
“id”: 123,
“first_name”: “John”,
“last_name”: “Doe”
}
WHERE 123 is the id of the customer
Although the behavior is limited, it does serve the purpose required: to provide the consumable functionality of a dependency that is still under development.
There are some microservices load testing tools out there that make microservice virtualization an easy undertaking. Swagger Editor and Restito are two of many. You use these tools to specify the URLs that make up the microservice. Then behind the scenes, the tool implements the limited REST functionality required, according to the specification.