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March 14, 2007
URL:http://www.drdobbs.com/joltawards/jolts-2007-testing/201001436
AgitarOne
Agitar Software
AgitarOne continues to advance the innovative testing solutions developed by Agitar Software. Their Agitator product was a Jolt winner for 2004 and 2005, and AgitarOne continues the tradition.
AgitarOne improves the team quality experience by offering new features to the developer tool kit, including JUnit test generation, continuous integration support, and code rules auditing. Managers can access new levels of quality reports on their development teams’ progress through the managers. AgitarOne integrates these features into a server-based solution that integrates with several IDEs and frameworks.
The earlier Agitator product’s "software agitation" techniques for testing Java programs is fully incorporated into AgitarOne. You can still supply your own JUnit tests. Now AgitarOne creates JUnit tests for you. This can be especially useful for legacy code that has no unit tests and for sections of code that are particularly resistant to creating good tests. AgitarOne knows about several types of mock objects and uses them in the unit tests. The JUnit test-generation capability works with developers by integrating custom helper methods developed by the individual programmer into the JUnit test set. All of these features provide unparalleled code-coverage capability for any Java development team.
Enforcing coding standards and detecting common programming errors has become common practice on most development teams. AgitarOne supports this through a code-rule enforcement feature. The development team can configure rules for their own set of standards and be sure that they are followed by the team. The results of code rules audits are available in the dashboard feature so anyone can check on the adherence to the group’s standards.
AgitarOne incorporates support for a continuous build process. This feature is based upon the popular CruiseControl software and integrates with any version-control system. This makes it easy for developers to get feedback quickly about code they develop. The continuous builds incorporate the latest code, run the tests, and make the results available immediately in the dashboard. The dashboard completes the tool set in AgitarOne. It gives the whole team visibility on the current state of the project.
Teams who are trying to improve their overall quality process should look at incorporating AgitarOne into their set of tools. The value it can add to any project team quickly pays for the investment.
--Gary Pollice
Mindreef SOAPscope
Mindreef
You'll find a lot to like in Mindreef SOAPscope, which this year earns another Productivity Award for testing web services (an earlier version was a winner in 2004).
SOAPscope provides a highly intuitive interface (or direct access to the underlying XML) to invoke services and examine the generated results. The tool's new automated testing feature extends this with the ability to record tests and play them back, automatically comparing returned data to expected results and reporting anomalies. Recorded scripts can even save specific results in variables that can be used in later scenarios allowing you to build up comprehensive test suites. Other standout features of this new version include auto-generated JAVADOC-style documentation for your services, and the ability to easily prototype and test services before they’re actually implemented.
With the continued growth in service-oriented solutions, we think Mindreef SOAPscope merits a well-deserved spot in your toolchest.
--Robert A. DelRossi
Parasoft SOAtest
Parasoft
Parasoft has been busy expanding their stable of testing tools. Recognizing the momentum behind Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) implementations, they have addressed the need to test for quality of service, performance, and cascading interaction issues associated with this new approach to standards-based distributed application architectures. Given the alphabet soup complexity and all the moving parts associated with SOA deployments, Parasoft's SOAtest can consume and interact with many SOA-related messaging protocols including SOAP and POX over HTTP, JMS, IBM MQ, Tibco Rendezvous, and RMI.
Test cases can then be automatically generated for most of the technologies called upon in SOA including REST, WS-Addressing, WS-I Interoperability, WS-Parlay and WS-Security, UDDI, and popular MIME, DIME, MTOM attachment types. Such cases can be applied toward functional, service unit and regression tests to help identify code-level service changes that could impact the delicate paths of distributed business processes. SOAtest can even be used for security penetration testing associated with web services such as SQL and XPath injections.
--Mike Riley
TestComplete
AutomatedQA
To call Automated QA’s TestComplete 5 "full-featured" would be an understatement. A Jolt Award winner in 2003 (that was Version 3), TestComplete 5 is a relatively value-priced suite of tools to handle a wide range of testing needs for .NET, Java, and web developers. The list of compiler versions it supports would take the rest of this column. Recorded (or hand-coded) test scripts can be saved in as many as five different languages. Test designers can even add pop-up windows so that the person running the tests can introduce changes to key test parameters. Beyond simply recording and playing back actions, the suite can even handle web apps stress testing by simulating just about any number of virtual users when distributed across multiple computers.
We like the way AutomatedQA has priced the different parts of TestComplete so that even smaller companies can license what they need. With the neverending rise in software complexity, tools like TestComplete can mean the difference between success and failure.
--Robert A. DelRossi
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