Software Testing Gets Its Due with TestBench400
With the latest edition of its AS/400 testing technology, OrigSoft Inc. plans to provide the development community with a product advanced enough to adequately recognize the importance of test planning in the development process.
TestBench400 Version 2 is a rearchitecture of the product's underlying code featuring the capability to automatically analyze the impact of new systems and enable the intuitive creation of appropriate test data and test cases.
Traditionally, software testing tools have focused on testing interactive programs, according to Colin Armitage, president and CEO of OrigSoft, the Rutherford, N.J.-based North American arm of The Original Software Group (U.K.). TestBench400 enables the testing of both batch and interactive programs, and features the following: intelligent data extraction, automatic database relationship modeling, date warping, data scrambling, automatic database resetting, future date environment facility, single test command, intelligent data rules, file comparison, program call interception, parameter definition, job log analysis, and documentation and notes.
Testing occupies between 20 and 40 percent of a software project's development time, according to Armitage. "This is a significant part of development efforts, even on the low end," he says, adding that one reason testing is so time consuming is the process has not changed much during the past 20 years, even though automation has reached many other areas of IT.
TestBench400 automates the testing process on both packaged applications and home-grown code, and is targeted specifically at the AS/400 market. According to Armitage, the company next plans to set its sites on the Windows NT platform.
Pricing for TestBench400 typically ranges between $10,000 and $25,000, depending upon which of the product's modules are installed. The core module, TestBench may be combined with TestDRIVE and TestDATA. In addition, an entry-level version of the product--TestBench Lite--is available.
--L. Greenemeier