Original Adds Variable Data to Software Testing Suite

by Alex Woodie

During software testing, it can be a daunting task to generate a separate test script for each type of data that needs to be tested against the application. To satisfy the need for more productive and precise testing, Original Software recently introduced a new product called TestSmart that automatically populates a single test script with different real-world data on each test run. The English testing specialist has also added regulatory compliance to the testing fold with a new release of TestPlan.

Announced last month at its annual user conference in Chicago, Original's new TestSmart module is a plug-in for the company's TestBench for iSeries suite. By automatically generating variable test data that's optimized according to business rules defined by the user, TestSmart helps users to efficiently test their application against the greatest number of business scenarios, which results in faster and more thorough testing, Original says.

The product works by taking information about the test, such as field name and object content, and then applying the business rules about how the application is supposed to behave. TestSmart then calculates every possible data combination that fits the rules and generates a variable data set that's optimized to test the maximum number of business scenarios with the minimum amount of test data, the company says.

Stuart Bishop, Original's product development manager, says TestSmart standardizes procedures that humans would do differently for every test. "The great thing about TestSmart is that it guarantees that the data you use to test an application is consistent and objective, something that is very hard to achieve using a testing team," he says.

TestSmart is a Windows-based plug-in for Original's TestBench for iSeries suite, which can test practically every aspect of an OS/400 application. TestSmart is available now.

TestPlan

Original is also shipping a new release of its TestPlan module, which the company first launched a year ago to provide more structure to software testing processes and to enable a place for testers to gather and share information (see "Original's New TestPlan Offers Centralized Test Management" in the October 14, 2003, issue of this newsletter).

With this month's release, Original has added some new functionality to TestPlan to deal with an issue that is on the minds of many midsized and large companies: how to properly comply with Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Since Sarbanes-Oxley is requiring extensive documentation and auditing whenever changes are made to enterprise applications involved in the financial reporting process, it makes sense to address regulatory compliance business processes in the product you use to scope out those changes.

The latest release of TestPlan includes new reports that help the testing manager control the testing process. These new reports include statistics on project performance, task and defect status analysis, project comparison reports, and audit-ready project reporting for management and corporate compliance purposes, Original says. Reports are available in both tabular and graphical formats.

George Wilson, Original's operations director, says the new release of TestPlan ensures that a company can control and document its testing processes. "This includes how an application was tested, what the test results were, how many defects were found, and how they were dealt with," he says, "with the whole process being signed off by a dedicated 'owner' of the testing process."

TestPlan is available now. The product runs on Windows PCs and integrates with the TestBench for iSeries suite, although it can also be used with Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, and IBM UDB DB2. Licenses for TestPlan start at $4,500. For more information on Original Software's products, go to www.origsoft.com.