TestPlant has announced the integration of its automated GUI- and screen-testing tool with IBM Rational Quality Manager, to round out platform coverage of IBM’s test solution.
eggPlant is designed for professional software application testers. “We are different because we use image recognition in a non-invasive fashion,” said George Mackintosh, CEO of TestPlant.
eggPlant automates testing through a “search and compare” approach of GUIs and screens. “eggPlant is a robotic tester,” Mackintosh said. “If you build software, you need to test software, so you can train eggPlant through the test process. eggPlant sees screens just like a human eye would see a screen and, therefore, it can be trained to spot start buttons as well as the numbers and icons that allow you to move through a software application. It’s a robotic test engineer.”
In addition to its image-recognition feature, another feature of eggPlant is that it can operate on multiple systems and platforms. “It operates on legacy systems, desktop systems, and now, hugely importantly, it operates on all the common mobile platforms and mobile systems such as smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices,” Mackintosh said. “It can operate from Windows, Linux, Mac, etc., in any browser, any operating system, and on any device.”
eggPlant has been globally adopted across multiple industries, including mobile, healthcare and gaming. “It’s very attractive that they can cover a broad range of platforms in different industries, and I think that will make TestPlant a great partner for us,” said Stephen Lauzon, senior manager of ISV Technical Enablement and Strategy at IBM Rational, in an interview with SD Times.
The qualities that IBM Rational particularly liked about TestPlant, Lauzon said, are its technology—both its use of image recognition so it’s not tied to a particular browser, and, more specifically, that it integrated the application using virtual network computing (VNC), which is becoming quite common. VNC is an emerging standard interface for providing support to enable external applications to integrate into a platform, he said.
Lauzon said that it was a good idea for IBM Rational to partner with TestPlant because it was in line with IBM’s strategy around quality management. This integration enables users to get strong test-automation support through eggPlant, as well as strong overall collaborative life-cycle management through Rational Quality Manager. “This covers everything, from initial planning of tests to ensure you’re covering all of your requirements, through creation of the test scripts, and then to execution of various test phases and analysis of the results,” he said.
TestPlant reached out to IBM Rational earlier this year, Lauzon said, as part of the “Ready for IBM Rational” program, which is IBM Rational’s validation program for ISV partners. “It’s not a sales program, it’s a certification program for integration,” he said. “As of last week, we have 190 current active solutions and approximately 110 partners.”
“Ready for IBM Rational” software validation enables companies to demonstrate and validate the integration between their tools and the IBM Rational software delivery platform. “TestPlant took eggPlant through our validation program, which enabled them to validate that their integration meets Rational’s requirements,” Lauzon said. “These requirements cover everything from ‘installability’ to safety of data as part of a common workflow experience.”
