20th January 2010 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced that it has signed a global agreement with one of the ‘big five’ UK banks to be its preferred testing solution provider for Agile development projects worldwide.
Agile development has increased in popularity with IT departments because of the way it can adapt to changing needs and help solve the complexities of development projects. The bank is increasingly deploying an agile approach to its software development and, after a comprehensive market evaluation, decided that the combination of TestDrive and TestDrive-Assist from Original Software was the most flexible and appropriate test automation solution on the market for use in its Agile developments. The preferred supplier status means that any test team from the bank can select Original Software’s solutions from their global vendor list and make an instant purchase, without having to go through a lengthy procurement or tendering processes.
Original Software’s manual testing solution, TestDrive-Assist, discreetly records tests while they are performed and provides an audit trail and clear information for reproducing bugs. Its ability to automatically migrate these tests to an automated test script in TestDrive, the company’s test automation solution, 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.
Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software said: “The strength of our offering in the agile space is testimony to the fact that we are on the bank’s global price list. Our solutions will enable them to reduce the time-to-market for new developments, which is critical for competitive advantage within the banking sector. At the same time, we are able to provide a full audit trail for regulatory compliance.”
He continued: “Customers practicing agile methodologies across the globe are finding our solutions easy to implement, and the reuse and repeatability of our manual tests really pay off. Automation can be a powerful enabler in Agile development, but traditional testing tools are not flexible enough and script maintenance becomes too much of a burden. TestDrive’s ability to re-run test scripts, even when the application under test has been modified, adds value with each iteration.”
“SCRUMS are wider than just testing, but all members of the team can get real benefit from our solutions. Business Analysts can use the mark-up functionality to recommend changes to the design specifications, feeding product enhancements back into the development loop.” expanded Armitage.
Original Software received praise for its capabilities in enabling agile development in a 2009 report by independent industry analyst group, Ovum. In the report, written by Paul Herzlich, the company’s solutions were applauded for being a better fit for agile processes than any competitive functional test automation suite. The report can be downloaded free of charge from Original Software’s website – http://www.origsoft.com/news-desk/analyst-commentary/
