While HP Plays Catch Up, Original Software Continues to Innovate

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While HP Plays Catch Up, Original Software Continues to Innovate
Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) and Automated Software Quality (ASQ) vendor, today announced the release of its latest version of TestDrive, the only agile test automation solution in the market place, and TestDrive-Assist, the leading dynamic manual testing solution.

New version of its manual and automated software quality suite set to be the only force in agile test automation

21 December 2010 Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) and Automated Software Quality (ASQ) vendor, today announced the release of its latest version of TestDrive, the only agile test automation solution in the market place, and TestDrive-Assist, the leading dynamic manual testing solution.
Version 7 is in direct response to an independent study undertaken earlier this year which revealed that the need for enhanced business agility was the highest rated market driver for improving software quality. With more complexity in IT projects and a need to respond faster to changing markets, development and QA teams have had to adapt the way they work. Original Software addresses the need for a more dynamic way of working and for agile test automation.

“Users have had a limited choice of agile test automation tools, which often seem rigid and inflexible to use in such a fast moving development environment,” said Colin Armitage, CEO at Original Software. “The truth of the matter is that traditional test tools such as HP’s QTP struggle to work in an agile environment. These kinds of tools only really suit application testing that involves long development cycles and strict change management regulations. Otherwise they simply won’t work.”

TestDrive-Assist and TestDrive are fully integrated solutions that allow companies to manage the journey to automation in a seamless and painless manner. TestDrive-Assist, discreetly captures tests while they are performed, including what is happening within the application. It also provides an audit trail and clear information for reproducing bugs. Its ability to automatically migrate these tests to an automated test script in TestDrive is a unique and powerful enabler for customers practicing agile or iterative development techniques. The functionality allows customers to test earlier, in bite-sized pieces and, by the end of the scrum or iteration, these scripts form the foundation of a future automated test.

The announcement comes shortly after HP’s launch of HP Sprinter. “3 years after the launch of TestDrive-Assist, we were amused by HP’s entry into manual testing and their claims to be establishing a new paradigm,” continued Colin Armitage. “It’s reassuring for us to see HP taking its first baby steps in following Original Software and sharing our vision of making manual testing more efficient and productive. However, HP Sprinter is definitely not “a new approach to manual testing”¹, especially when you consider that you need Quality Center installed to make any headway with your manual testing. Not exactly a cost-effective or stand alone solution.”

Version 7 continues with Original Software vision of continued innovation for the testing community, and incorporates a number of new benefits and features:

* Full support for the Adobe Flex framework, enabling the productive testing of web applications built using Flex.
* Intelligent test annotation whereby the automated test uses the same input descriptions that a user would see on the screen, enabling greater tolerance of application changes.
* One click conversion of manual tests to automated test scripts.
* Use of a single script over multiple technologies, meaning that a Firefox script could be run over Internet Explorer

A recent Ovum report stated: “TestDrive-Assist provides you with a rich environment for manual testing, but the bigger payback is how it facilitates adoption of full automation. Uniquely for any of the guided manual test execution products that we know of, Original can automatically convert a manual TestDrive-Assist test into a fully automated TestDrive test that can be repeated. Overall this is a low risk, low cost way of progressively adopting test automation. It fits in with classic waterfall processes, and it can also be used in agile processes more easily than other functional test automation suites.”

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¹ eWeek