TestPartner 6.0

asp:review

TestPartner 6.0

Suite Solutions for Bug-free Applications

By Anand Narayanaswamy

Testing is one of the crucial phases in softwaredevelopment. Several vendors have rolled out products for the purpose oftesting various kinds of applications. Many of them are standard products thatonly provide the final result (and other related debugging options). But testersare always looking for products that are simple to use and provide interestingfeatures not typically found in other competing products. One such product isTestPartner 6.0, which not only performs testing but also captures eachapplication screen encountered during the testing phase.

Developed by US-based Compuware Corp. (http://www.compuware.com/), TestPartneris available in both downloadable and boxed versions, and in the form ofseveral suite solutions such as Standalone, Test Management, Quality Management,and Compuware Application Reliability Solution (CARS). While the Standalonesuite includes only TestPartner 6.0 with maintenance subscription, the othersuites ship with advanced software meant for Quality Assurance teams. Compuwaredoesn t provide a facility to download the product directly from their Web site,although they did create separate FTP-based download locations for each customer.

The whole setup package is roughly 250 MB; the timerequired for downloading depends on the speed of your Internet connection. Iinstalled the product within 10 minutes on a machine loaded with Windows XPProfessional and 512 MB RAM. During the installation, you ll be required tosupply the location of your license key file, which will be e-mailed to you bythe License Management Team. The vendor also provides time-limited triallicense keys to allow customers to test drive the product before investing inthe full version.

I d like to emphasize that TestPartner is an advancedautomated tool used for testing Windows and Web-based applications developedwith Microsoft and other technologies, such as Java. In fact, it can be used totest any application that stimulates user action and enables you to record usersessions, add validation and logging functions, and play back tests to ensurethat the applications work as expected.

You ll see a Start Screen when you launch TestPartner fromthe Start menu. This screen provides options to create a new project, links torelevant help files, and much more. By clicking the Record New option, I foundthat TestPartner records each and every user action to produce powerfulfunctional visual tests. After completing the test, it displays the completeresult in a series of concise steps, along with relevant screen captures.

Test results are shown in an extended result interface,which is one of the new features of this latest version. A key feature of TestPartneris that testers can play back the entire recorded session at any time, as wellas be able to observe what they ve done during the testing process by selectingthe appropriate test step. Moreover, tests can be edited at any time during orafter recording to fulfill the most difficult demands of any project. Thisallows developers to work together to more rapidly create automated test cases.

The product mainly simulates the typical actions of a user,such as selecting links, typing data into fields, and, through a variety ofmechanisms, verifying that the application is performing as expected. It allowsyou to test scenarios where state is important, which is somewhat difficult todo with Unit Testing. For instance, TestPartner inspects the entered text toconfirm that it matches the expected value. It also tests for the presence of aparticular control. However, I found that the product doesn t test thenon-graphical-user-interface-based aspects, such as Web services but it willcheck them while interacting with the Web browser and performing activities thatultimately call on those services. I hope these features will be useful foradvanced users. TestPartner helps you test various scenarios at the unit level becauseit behaves as a user, and the state of the transaction(s) progresses as itwould when a user interacts through the Web browser.

TestPartner ships with built-in logic designers andwizards, which I feel will simplify the tasks involved behind a testingprocess. The product includes more than 20 test assets, which are stored in ashared repository and can be easily accessed by all team members (those withappropriate user permissions). The ActiveData functionality enables you tocreate a single script to input valid or non-valid data into the system andverify the results. A complete list of all the TestPartner features isavailable at http://www.compuware.com/solutions/6667_ENG_HTML.htm.

TestPartner enables a developer to test applications byrunning the same test any number of times with different data. This will helpthe product team test multiple scenarios and reduce the risk of possible run-timeerrors. An important feature of TestPartner is that it has the capabilities totest for the presence and absence of Windows, controls, images, and otherparameters. This helps users verify the accuracy of the application more deeplythrough more than simply making sure that the test ran to completion. Theproduct includes support for VBA scripting, which enables a range of customcapabilities to be added to any test.

TestPartner ships with a new set of features, such asVisual Navigator, Improved Test and Result Documentation, Task-based StartScreen, Extended Results Interface, and TPOSI Objects, which I hope willenhance the productivity of the tester. TestPartner extends technology platformsupport to include Internet Explorer 7.0, VMWare, and Uniface 9.1. Moreover, TestPartnerintegrates tightly with Visual Studio Team Suite, so developers can conducttests directly from within Visual Studio 2005. I hope Compuware will providesupport for Visual Studio 2008, as well.

TestPartner ships with a detailed installation manual and comprehensivedocumentation (in PDF format). The lucid language will surely help users betterunderstand all the functionality of the product. The documentation can also beaccessed directly from the Start Screen, but I d prefer a printed version ofthe manual be provided with the boxed shipment. Compuware conducts special Webcastsfor those who wish to explore the features in a live environment, and providesrapid support via e-mail. It would be helpful if the vendor would provide videotutorials to enable customers to quickly learn the functionality of theproduct.

I feel that TestPartner will be more useful for QualityAssurance Engineers as they aim to build complete, reusable smoke andregression testing suites than individual developers who mainly build standalonetests and stateful unit tests. The product s significant price tag may also beprohibitively expensive for independent developers. However, companies andcorporations can surely benefit by investing in the product, as they coulddevelop bug-free applications if the product is put to use by all the teammembers. The full potential of TestPartner can be effectively leveraged in aminimum span of time, which ultimately will result in the timely delivery ofthe product being developed.

Anand Narayanaswamy, a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional(MVP), works as an independent consultant and runs NetAns Technologies (http://www.netans.com),which provides Web hosting services based in Trivandrum, India. Anand also worksas a technical editor lead for http://ASPAlliance.com.He runs http://www.Learnxpress.com,http://Dotnetalbum.com,and http://Csharpfaq.com.Anand is the author of Community Server Quickly (Packt Publishing). You canexplore more information about the book at http://www.communityserverbook.com.Find out more about him at http://www.visualanand.netor e-mail him at mailto:[email protected].

Rating:

Web Site: http://www.compuware.com

Price: Starts atUS$6,100 per concurrent user