If you aren’t familiar with Telerik Test Studio, now’s the time to get acquainted. The solution has just landed in the “Visionary” quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Integrated Software Quality Suites. Gartner says the companies placed in the Visionary quadrant are those most likely to deliver disruptive innovation or to support new technologies in a particular part of the software quality process.
We’re excited about the Gartner report, and it’s a recognition that is hard-earned. Behind the scenes our software engineers and product managers exert significant effort to keep Telerik on the forefront of a rapidly changing automated quality assurance test landscape. That includes staying abreast of the many emerging market trends Gartner cites – from increased adoption of service oriented architectures to the accelerated pace of technology change. Four trends in particular are driving many of Telerik’s near-term development priorities:
New agile development practices
Agile development processes are transforming how software is delivered. Companies focus on rapid, incremental updates to their web, desktop and mobile applications instead of holding new features and fixes for one large release. Unfortunately, though, many testing solutions have yet to evolve to support the agile process and its accelerated cycle times. This is an arena where Telerik excels and continues to invest. We offer flexible, easy-to-use solutions that allow both developers and test teams to collaborate on a common platform and quickly determine how changes will perform in the field.
Emergence of analytics-driven testing
To get the maximum return from your testing program, we believe you need to measure the performance of your application under real-world conditions. That means tracking, analyzing and benefiting from actual user experiences, as well as creating various usage scenarios and then measuring response. For example, you should be able to determine how your website will handle peak traffic loads and sustained levels of stress so you can take any appropriate remedial action. Test Studio helps you analyze those types of critical performance questions with tests that are easy to set up and run.
The rise of mobility
The use of mobile devices is soaring, and businesses are struggling to keep up. As Gartner notes in a recent report,[i] a stripped-down, mobile version of your website isn’t enough anymore. Instead you need to create a cohesive user experience that crosses channels, platforms and sessions. That greatly impacts how you test at the device level. Telerik offers a comprehensive testing solution for iOS (the only testing application available in Apple’s App Store), and a comparable Android version is on our near-term roadmap. Unlike many mobile application testing solutions, Test Studio doesn't ask you to “jailbreak,” unlock or modify the mobile device in any way. Instead you simply run the test app on the device or the simulator “as is,” right out-of-the-box.
Scalability in the cloud
If you test load performance or other parameters involving large levels of simulated traffic, you most likely have been limited by the capacity of your infrastructure. With cloud-based testing, though, scalability is no longer an issue.You can easily leapfrog any hardware barriers by “renting” time on virtual servers. You simply scale up for large testing scenarios and scale down once your testing is complete. As a result, you can construct more accurate test parameters without having to invest in costly hardware. Test Studio supports distributed testing, including cloud-based testing today, but we plan to push the envelope even further to stay ahead of this emerging trend.
If you would like to know more about these four market dynamics and how they impact your testing program, check back over the coming weeks. We’ll take a deeper dive into each of these areas and discuss their impact on your testing decisions.
See Telerik’s Press Release on the Gartner Magic Quadrant
[i] Mobile and the Nexus of Forces: Creating the New Experience. David A. Willis, Gartner. 25 June 2012.