Software Planner experiencing strong early demand

Acutest, an independent testing company, has revealed a strong demand for Software Planner in the UK. Software Planner is an award winning application lifecycle management (ALM) tool that helps organisations manage all components of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This includes managing project deliverables, requirements, defects, test cases, test execution and help desk support.

“We had anticipated there would be a real demand for Software Planner in the UK, when we formed the partnership with Prgamatic Software, the US developer of the testing management tool, to bring it to the UK market.” said Barry Varley, Managing Director of Acutest. “But we have been surprised at the how fast interest has picked up. The recession in the UK has made many organisations cautious about spending on SDLC test tools. But the immediate value that Software Planner offers has led to a host of enquiries, particularly for the SaaS version of the product. Within a fortnight of announcing the Acutest and Pragmatic Software partnership, we’d signed up our first customer for Software Planner: HMD Clinical."

“HMD clinical is a software house developing databases and applications for the clinical trial industry. We operate in an extremely regulated industry that demands high quality, traceable requirements and needed a solution that enabled us to link activities from requirements gathering through design, build, testing and release,” a spokesman for HMD Clinical said. “On evaluating many different products, we found there was no shortage of excellent project, requirements, test and defect management solutions, but most were limited to only 1 or 2 of these functions. Software Planner was the only one that provided it all in a single package. Using Software Planner will ensure that we have clear visibility of the entire system validation process."

Software Planner provides features for managing all phases of the software development lifecycle within a single integrated tool. It supports all development methodology including Agile, Waterfall, Iterative, and Spiral. It is available in two versions: an enterprise version which a client installs in their own environment and a Software as a Service (SaaS) version which is hosted by Pragmatic Software.

IEEE 829 2008

IEEE 829 2008, also known as the IEEE 829 Standard for Software Test Documentation, is an IEEE standard that specifies the form of a set of documents for use in eight defined stages of software testing, each stage potentially producing its own separate type of document.

The IEEE state that:

"Test processes determine whether the development products of a given activity conform to the requirements of that activity and whether the system and/or software satisfies its intended use and user needs.

Testing process tasks are specified for different integrity levels. These process tasks determine the appropriate breadth and depth of test documentation. The documentation elements for each type of test documentation can then be selected. The scope of testing encompasses software-based systems, computer software, hardware, and their interfaces. This standard applies to software-based systems being developed, maintained, or reused (legacy, commercial off-the-shelf, Non-Developmental Items)."

Software Testing Tool for SDLC

Acutest, a leading provider of software testing services from London UK, and Pragmatic, a leading provider of application lifecycle management (ALM) solutions from Denver USA, have formed an exclusive partnership to bring Software Planner to the UK.

Software Planner is an award winning application lifecycle management (ALM) tool that helps companies manage all elements of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This includes the management of application requirements, project deliverables, testing plans, test cases, test execution, defects and help desk support. It also provides collaborative tools and interactive reporting dashboards to support change programmes spread across teams, locations and organisations. Software Planner is currently being used by over 70,000 users.

“Software Planner has helped software companies implement better software releases since 2000 and is being used in over 28 countries”, said Steve Miller, President/CEO of Pragmatic Software. “Having a local partner in the UK that are experts in software testing and automation will provide us the ability to expose Software Planner to a larger audience in the UK – backed by a local partner that can really service their testing needs. We are very excited about partnering with Acutest and our clients will be the beneficiaries of exemplary service and support”, added Miller.

“There’s real demand in the UK for an ALM tool like Software Planner”, said Barry Varley, Managing Director of Acutest. “In these difficult economic times, organisations are looking to unleash the value they have within themselves that isn’t currently hitting their bottom line. By joining up all the management, QA and testing activities throughout the whole Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Software Planner helps save time and cost whilst improving risk management and governance. What’s more, both the SaaS and Enterprise version are priced appropriately for these times of recession. “

SDLC testing tool

Pragmatic Software Company, a leading provider of application lifecycle management (ALM) solutions, has partnered with Acutest as an exclusive software testing tool provider of Software Planner in the UK.

Software Planner is an award winning application lifecycle management (ALM) tool that helps programme management with all components of software development lifecylce (SDLC)including managing customer requirements, project deliverables, test cases, defects, and help desk processes. Software Planner also provides collaborative tools like document sharing, team calendars, interactive dashboards, knowledge bases and threaded discussions and integrates with most of the major automated testing tools.

"We are delighted to be partnering with Pragmatic Software to bring the Software Planner tool to the UK market: both the company and the product are very impressive," says Barry Varley, CEO of Acutest. "At Acutest we're proud of our ability to create new tailored testing service solutions, to meet the complex demands of our clients, and to deliver them quickly. Software Planner adds another very effective building block to the mix and we envisage a wide range of situations in which it will provide tremendous value."

"We are excited about having a local presence in the United Kingdom as this will provide Software Planner clients access to a knowledgeable partner that can help them maximize the use of Software Planner, says Steve Miller, President/CEO of Pragmatic Software. "When looking for a partner in the United Kingdom, we searched for a company with a solid track record of outstanding performance that is knowledgeable in testing applications under a variety of different methodologies -- including waterfall, agile, and RUP. Acutest's experience with SAP integration testing was a big plus. We are excited about offering clients in the UK an awarding winning application lifecycle management tool backed by experts in testing that service their locality.", adds Miller.

About Acutest software testing services

Acutest is a specialist software testing company based in London, UK. It provides a range of testing and quality assurance (QA) solutions to help organisations realise the benefits of technology-enabled change programmes quickly.

About Pragmatic Software

Founded in 1992, Pragmatic Software Company, Inc. based in Denver, Colorado is a software development company that provides web-based project management and team collaboration software to over 70,000 subscribers in over 24 countries. For more information on Pragmatic Software, click here

SAP performance testing

Top 5 sites on Goolge UK for SAP performance testing:

SAP performance testing guidelines
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Recording an SAP performance test
You can record a SAP test from the SAP GUI . When you record, the recording wizard automatically starts the SAP GUI and records all the interactions that ...publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/rpthelp/v7r0m0/topic/com.ibm.rational.test.lt.sap.doc/topics/tsaprecordsap.html

Performance Testing - common mistakes
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SAP performance testing
SAP performance testing, load and stress testing services and solutions for implementation projects and SAP performance tuning and monitoring. www.acutest.co.uk/acutest/sap-performance-testing

SAP - SAP Standard Application Benchmarks
Working in concert, SAP and our hardware partners developed the SAP Standard Application Benchmarks to test the hardware and database performance of SAP ...www.sap.com/solutions/benchmark/index.epx

SAP R/3 Performance Monitoring and Tuning
SAP ERP Scalability and Performance Monitoring Testing Analyzing on Microsoft Windows 2000 Reference Step-by-Step Instructions Tips Tricks.www.wilsonmar.com/sap_perf.htm

Load testing for web apps

Last year Oracle bought e-Test (a software testing suite) from Empirix. This was in order to add load and functional testing capabilities to Oracle Enterprise Manager. The e-TEST suite was aimed at testing websites and web-enabled software applications.

Since then Oracle have rebranded the suite as the ATS (Application Testing Suite) and included it as part of the SAM portfolio (Systema and Application Management).

The performance testing tool of the suite has been rebranded from e-load to Oracle Load Testing for Web Applications. What the name change loses in brevity it gains in clarity. As the product sheet from Oracle states:

"Oracle Load Testing for Web Applications is the easiest way to validate theperformance and scalability of your Web applications and Web services. It can simulate thousands of virtual users accessing the application simultaneously and measures the effect of the load on application performance without requiring a substantial hardware investment.

The realistic usage scenarios in Oracle Load Testing for Web Applications canhandle even the most complex Web applications. By utilizing a unique virtual users capability that encompasses many parameters (including configurable browser types, connection speeds, and think times), testers can interact with the Web application just like real users will to understand exactly how the application will scale under peak load conditions. The solution’s virtual users can generate multithreaded browser requests while performing rigorous functional validationunder load conditions—validation that protocol-based legacy client server testing tools cannot provide.

Oracle Load Testing for Web Applications can also be used to test the performance of Web service interfaces by simulating thousands of concurrent clients accessing SOA-based applications.

Software Testing Market forecast

It's always interesting to see how different news services treat the same piece of news. Take for example the report by Ovum on the future of software testing. ITWire chose to run an item on it under the headline Global growth slowdown in software & systems testing services

The heady rates of growth in outsourced and in-house software and systems testing services that characterised the market over the past four years are over, but there’s still growth, albeit at a much slower rate.

Global advisory and consulting firm, Ovum, in its latest report, says that growth in outsourced testing services is outpacing that of in-house testing due to the greater cost savings, time-to-market and quality offered by outsourcers. According to the report, outsourcing currently accounts for 53% of the total worldwide testing services market and this will reach 58% in 2013.

Whereas Redorbit run the item under the headline Software Testing Market Continues To Rise

The global market for computer software testing services appears to be the IT sector with the strongest outlook, according to an industry report.

The market for testing services is expected to become a $56 billion industry by 2013, according to software consulting firm Ovum on Wednesday. Market testing services take place in order to discover any errors or bugs that may exist on computer software after production.

"Both the outsourced and in-house testing services markets will grow over the next four years but not at the heady rates seen over the last four years," it said.

So exactly the same story but one with a headline we have come to expect in a time of recession and one with a more positive one. I know which one I prefer.

Challenges in Telecoms Testing

The specific challenges that the Telecoms testing market have their basis in the complexity and diversity within the Operational Support Systems (OSS) Architecture and the associated commercial and financial pressures that exist to ensure first to market products.

The Telcos (large telecommunications service providers) are moving towards a standardised Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) that has an emphasis on reusability and common capabilities in order to deliver consistent customer experience. These architectures will support the full range of business activities including:

• Customer Care, Billing and Order Processing;
• Service Execution Management;
• Resource Management;
• Portfolio Management;
• Enterprise Information Management;
• Collaborations (with Customers, Users, Employees, Partners and Suppliers).

A Telecoms tester must also possess skills and experience beyond the generic ability to write and execute tests. This is because of the varied range of functional areas that telecoms software testing encompasses:

• Technical Domain and Network Access areas
• Billing and payment processing
• Collaborations between telecoms service providers
• Customer Relation Management (CRM

There is also a need to have the relevant expertise to facilitate testing across the products and services offerings, for example:

• Mobile applications
• Broadband and internet applications
• IPTV (Internet TV)
• VOIP applications.

However, a single software tester can't be expected to possess the experience to cover all of these areas and functions. The tester must communicate effectively as it is imperative that they can converse throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) throughout the different test phases such as user acceptance testing and system integration testing.

There is also the issue of data to consider. This may result in the tester selecting or creating data for tests. Or in the case of the introduction of new platforms and data structures, there a need for data migration activities to take place, this means that the tester needs to have the capacity to understand and verify the transformed or migrated data.

And there are other trends which are also having a bearing on the future of testing software in Telecoms:

Agile Testing: Until recently the principal approach to software testing was the Waterfall or V model, Due to the scale of many projects it was not uncommon for the need for a specific product or the technology to be rendered obsolete before it was delivered. This lead to increased interest in Agile methodologies, including agile software testing, in an attempt to meet the demand for faster time to market. This change in itself has brought its own challenges in terms of managing the array of smaller agile projects and ensuring change control across the varied components, computer systems and telecom platforms.

Outsourcing quality assurance software testing: In recent years it has become popular for testing to be outsourced to offshore test factories with the aim of reduced cost and delivery timescales. The test factories provide automated regression test services which constantly run on the test environments to identify if any errors have been introduced as a result of recently delivered code.

Testing Environments: These can be complex and expensive to establish and maintain, it is common for environments to be shared by many systems and integration test teams, however this can produce a configuration management headache.

Performance testing with HP Version 9.5

HP has released Version 9.5 of Performance Center, its integrated testing tool set for IT applications. This release of Hewlitt Packard's load and stress testing tool adds a number of new features including:

• granular trend analysis across application development and implementation iterations
• testing functionality for Web 2.0 applications based on Adobe's AMF
• protocol detection for testing operation automation
  

HP have said these are to align the testing product with the changing software development market place. These include Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Rich Internet Applications (RIA). They also emphasised the growing trend to move from traditional application development approaches, such as waterfall, to agile development and testing methods.

Stress testing

Top 5 results from searching Goolge UK pages for Stress testing software:

Software testing services - Acutest
UK software testing consultancy, providing outsourced technical and business assurance services. These include performance and load testing, user acceptance ...
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Stress testing services
Stress testing service for software applications, IT systems and network infrastructure (including load and performance testing, scalability and volume ...
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Open source performance testing tools
An open-source web site stress test tool. Simulates multiple user types and counts. .... A distributed software testing architecture based on CORBA. ...
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DDN/ICI Stress Test Software - What does DISTRESS stand for ...
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[PDF] Cost-effective stress testing of mission-critical web applications
stress-testing software to identify. specific areas of concern within ... Cost-effective – Most stress testing. software is prohibitively expensive and ...
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stress testing software, web site stress testing,web server stress ... For stress testing software, web site stress testing & web server stress testing tools and applications, Elemental Creative Ltd provides a wide variety of ...
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Performance Testing Center Of Excellence

I read about an interesting survey here. It covers performance testing centres of excellence (CoE). Well actually it covers a performance testing center of excellence but only the really pedantic would mind this slight difference. The article stated that:

having a CoE helped to prioritise, centralise, and standardise performance testing across the enterprise. They typically returned their investment in 12 months and required a modest headcount: mostly under 19, and on average 11. A CoE not only improves performance, it improves quality awareness in the organisation.

That's a great Return on Investment (ROI) particularly palatable in these recessionary times. So why aren't there more companies with these performance testing centers of excellence?

Speeding up testing

There is an interesting article in GCN which looks at speeding up software testing in the US Department of Defence.:

One way to eliminate these barriers is to simplify the testing and certification process, and the governance that drives it, by bringing together developers, testers and users in an integrated development and testing environment. The Defense Information Systems Agency provides a good model for this with its Federated Development and Certification Environment.

Another approach is to build governance structures that increase trust, cooperation and standardization between different organisations that conduct testing and certification. Over the years, different organisations in DOD have developed their own sets of testing standards and processes, and many still don’t accept each other’s testing and certification results.

By standardising test-acceptance criteria, DOD can realise one of the biggest potential payoffs of SOA and related strategies: re-use.

Interesting that it has taken the emergence of Service Oriented Architectures to drive large government organisations away from their antiquated approach to testing and into the modern world. Hurrah for SOA.

Static testing and doing the right thing

Read an interesting paper about static analysis and defect detention at Embedded.com.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about static analysis is not that it can detect memory leaks, buffer overflows, or incorrect pointer assignments at compile time, but rather that users of static analysis will often fail to fix such detected defects.

One of the most frequently misunderstood aspects of static analysis is that it is distinctly different from other bug finding techniques. Static analysis users are often aware of the advantages it provides in defect detection, while simultaneously failing to realise that a different approach must be taken for defect resolution.

Static analysis testing reports defects in a different way than dynamic testing and user reported defects; these differences must be understood and appreciated to effectively improve software quality with any static analysis tool.

If you're interested in learning how to take an effective approach with static analysis testing then take a look at the paper.

Software testing market

Testing SOA

I came across an interesting article on testing SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) developments at Havemacwillblog. As well as looking at unit testing it looks at the peculiar issues of integration testing SOA applications:

In the pleasant but inefficient world of application silos, testing was relatively easy. You tested the silo. You unit tested the components of the application. Next you integration tested the whole. Then, if you had any qualms about performance, you stress tested the whole thing. Ultimately you gave it over for acceptance testing. Creating the test bed was not a problem.

The problem with SOA is that it’s end-to-end. The silos have gone and with them went the ability to easily set up a test bed. As you make your way down the SOA road, you will need to have much more versatile test-bed creation capabilities.

Stress testing/performance testing is also going to be a bit of a challenge as regards the test bed. Depending on how a new composite application is going to run, you will probably want the stress testing to be modeled around the whole set of end-to-end software that will quite probably span many different servers.

When is independent testing completely independent?

Read an interesting headline earlier today - "Symantec Touts Independent Testing". At first glance it looks like Symantic are recommending that you use independent testing services rather than rely on the supplier to test their software - a great endorsement for the independent software testing market sector.

But when you read the story it's not really that at all.

"Symantec announced that Norton Internet Security 2009 has received a perfect score and was named the top-rated product in a comprehensive analysis of protection in security suites conducted by third-party testing organization Cascadia Labs. Recently engineered with performance as a key focus, Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton AntiVirus 2009 also received top marks in overall performance in a comprehensive test conducted by PassMark Software, beating out competitors like Avira, ESET, Kaspersky, McAfee and Trend Micro. "

So its more about comparative benchmarking carried out by an independent company. Still it is testing and it is independent, isn't it? Well, yes, of course. The fact that the exercise was commissioned by Symantic doesn't change that, does it?

If you are interested in the full story you can find it at Trading Markets

Scalable performance testing solution

Cloud testing services seem to be proliferating at a pace. The International Business Times reported that SOASTA, a provider of Cloud-based testing solutions, has created an on-demand testing service in the Cloud, enabling affordable, highly scalable load and performance testing of web applications and web services.

"Developing and bringing to market scalable, reliable applications in an increasingly services-based world has traditionally been a time consumingand expensive undertaking. As a result, most organizations do not have the expertise and resources to test their web applications cost effectively.With SOASTA CloudTest, any organiszation can easily leverage a leading testing service combined with the power of Cloud networks for a"pay-as-you-go" testing service. SOASTA's offerings provide a dynamically scalable testing solution to simulate real world traffic and loads,uniquely backed by integrated test results and analytics - ensuring faster testing and more reliable web applications and services."

RBT - Requirements-Based Testing

There is an interesting article in Embedded.com about requirements based testing and what it calls the "crisis in quality".

To do this, many organisations have recently embraced requirements-based testing (RBT).

Teams can be more effective using Requirements Based Testing because it enables them to target the root causes of quality issues by being tightly coupled with application requirements and integrated through various activities throughout the software lifecycle.

The challenge is to ensure these processes with existing QA and testing best practices. To that end, these suggestions to improve your RBT practices are offered.

Suggestion #1: test early and frequently, so testing becomes a parallel activity to the development process, a constant pursuit that spans all roles and makes all stakeholders aware of quality objectives.

Suggestion #2: test with your head, not your gut, to inject repeatability and method in to the test planning process, in order to make test coverage more predictable.

Suggestion #3 test with measurement and improvement in mind to quantify the status of deliverables and activities, so management can oversee quality initiatives across the IT application portfolio.

Risk-based testing

BT to start testing 2012 Olympics infrastructure in 2010

Interesting to note that testing for the 2012 Olympics communications infrastructure will begin in two years time, according to Computing

"BT is to implement a rigorous testing and training programme to ensure the communications infrastructure supporting the London 2012 Olympics avoids disruption.

The supplier will be responsible for providing all communications services for the Games on behalf of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. It will install 4,500km of fibre, capable of transmitting the entire content of Wikipedia every second.

BT aims to have the infrastructure ready for testing by October 2010, when the first live pilot will take place at the Olympic sailing centre in Weymouth.

One of the first areas that will be tested is the intrusion detection system, which BT will install in partnership with Atos Origin."

Telecom software testing

Business Process Testing

Top five results from Google on searching for Business Process Testing:

1. HP Business Process Testing software - HP - BTO Software
HP Business Process Testing is a web-based software test design solution that ... HP Business Process Testing software: test automation focused on your ...
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2. Mercury : Mercury launches Business Process Testing
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3. business process testing
Business process testing is the testing of the full business process, from the start of a transaction through to the completion. Glossary defintion.
www.acutest.co.uk/acutest/business-process-testing

4. Business Process Testing - What does BPT stand for? Acronyms and ...
What does BPT stand for? Definition of Business Process Testing in the list of acronyms and abbreviations provided by the Free Online Dictionary and ...
acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Business+Process+Testing

5. Process testing 7 Sep 2005 ...
Business process testing before implementation has become a key concern for me. Consultants can no longer design processes and then step ...
it.toolbox.com/blogs/enterprise-design/process-testing-5660

Software Testing development

This story, from CIOL.com, clearly shows that software testing certification is on the rise.

The QAI Global Institute, which administers Software Certifications' examinations, having certified in excess of 35,000 professionals worldwide in 43 countries on the international standard for software testing practitioner certifications, Certified Software Tester (CSTE), announced the launch of their entry level certification called Certified Associate of Software Testing (CAST).

The top ten IT firms in India have been quick in creating large independent software testing practices in-house. The figures indicate that hardly 9 to 10 percent of the output from 17000 + Engineering colleges and 300 + universities are employable. This iterates the need to have standards at entry level so that the employability quotient can be increased.


For example, the graph of a testing professional could be assessed on his skills and experience at various levels. The entry level certification examination is called CAST (Certified Associate in Software Testing) after which the individual can become a CSTE (Certified Software Tester). Post that, he can get recognized as a CMST (Certified Manager of Software Testing).