METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR MONITORING QUALITY ASSURANCE

Methods and systems are provided for monitoring a loosely coupled system, su ch as a web-based system and a business-to-business (B2B) system. In the case of a web-based system, exchanges between a web client (130) and a web server (120) may be monitored to determine quality and performance of the web-based system (100). The exchanges may include objects, attributes and actions, communicated from the web server (120) to the web client (130). For example, when the user selects a hyperlink, the monitoring system (101) may recognize the hyperlink as an action. Accordingl y, the actions along with the objects and their associated attributes may be recorded. The objects and their associated attributes may then be retrieved from the web server (120) and the recorded actions may be played back against the retrieved objects based on t he recorded attributes and the retrieved attributes. The results of the play back may be compared with the expected results to monito r the quality and performance of the web server (120). Additional actions may also be generated based on user defined rules and played against the retrieved objects to monitor alternate aspects of the web server (120).