Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

Companies on the hunt for a script-less automated testing tool may want to consider Worksoft, a recent entrant to the OS/400 software marketplace. After being contacted to write a proof-of-concept for an automated testing environment at a Florida OS/400 shop, Worksoft decided to exhibit at the recent COMMON conference. The feedback it received from COMMON attendees encouraged the company to further streamline the tool's interaction with the 5250 protocol, and seek new customers.

Worksoft says its Certify test suite isn't your standard automated testing environment. The company eschews traditional testing techniques, such as record and playback and scripting languages, in favor of a data-driven approach that uses no programming. The Windows-based application features an Excel-like grid that lists inputs, actions, and excepted results, then runs through them in order. This way, Worksoft says, Certify provides regression-testing capabilities from the user interface of practically any application, on any platform.

Worksoft calls Certify a "third generation" testing tool. Its major advantage over script-based testing methods, according to the company, is that a Certify tester doesn't need programming skills. So-called "second generation" testing tools may try to hide the programming from testers, with recorders, wizards, recovery managers, function generators, and application spies, the company says, but because these tests are based on the script programming language, programming skills are still required to maintain the scripts.

"Scripting languages are fine, and they work, but the problem is, the best tester is typically not a programmer," says Linda Hayes, an acknowledged expert in automated testing and the founder and chief technology officer of Worksoft. "If you try to get them to write code, you get a skills disconnect. If you can't maintain those tests, you can't reuse them. That's been the trend for some time.

"What we've done with Worksoft is sort of the difference between buying a language and buying an application," Hayes continues. "Certify comes with recovery, logging, error-handling. . . . It's all wired into the system. When it runs, it has this infrastructure built behind it. It makes the whole process less technical and more reliable."

Hayes founded Worksoft in 1998, and today the company has more than 30 customers, primarily large companies in the financial services industry, such as Sabre, MetLife, and Charles Schwab & Co., which are predominantly mainframe shops. It was after Worksoft was contacted by the Florida OS/400 shop to do a proof-of-concept that the company found the potentially fertile OS/400 market. "We support the AS/400 platform, but we haven't actively marketed it," Hayes says. "They convinced us that it's a big market. It seems to be underserved, but it's too early to tell."

Based on these early indications, the company decided to buy a booth on the COMMON expo floor two weeks ago in Orlando, to test the OS/400 waters. Hayes was happily caught off guard by the reception Worksoft received. "The feedback was outstanding," she says. "I'm intrigued by it."

The way that Worksoft connects to OS/400 applications is pretty much the same way it connects to every other platform. The company offers a number of "engines" that connect Certify to specific environments. It has engines for the 3270 data stream, the Web, Java, Visual Basic, C++, .NET, and Delphi environments--and now for the 5250 data stream.

Certify requires a 5250 emulator to connect to OS/400 applications, via the WINHLLAPI (Windows High Level Language) API. As long as the 5250 is present, Certify can test it, "from green screen to the Web and back," Hayes says. Currently, it takes one to two minutes per screen for Certify to map the application, through the emulator. The company is working to streamline that process by developing a way to read the 5250 screen layout directly from the source files, which is how Certify interacts with 3270 mainframe applications.

Worksoft is currently working with several OS/400 shops, and is looking for additional customers. License fees for the software vary depending on which engines are selected. For an OS/400 shop, Certify would start at about $5,000.