System Test Automation/Code Coverage

One of the greatest challenges faced by software groups is reducing time to market for new functionality. Most groups have a backlog of new features that are waiting for release. The bottleneck is often the time that it takes to run a full suite of system tests on a candidate release; often days or weeks. Long test times mean that tests are run late in the release cycle after weeks of changes have been integrated, and often identify blocking defects which cause release delays and unhappy customers. VectorCAST/QA allows team members to collaborate on test activities, shorten test times, and provide up to date metrics on release readiness.

Download VectorCAST/QA Datasheet

Features

VectorCAST/QA enables teams to implement consistent and repeatable processes for managing test activities and reporting key quality metrics.

System Test Automation
Parallel Testing
Web-based Quality Dashboard
Quality Trend Analysis
Continuous Testing - VectorCAST/QA integrates easily with Continuous Integration (CI) Servers such as Jenkins to allow tests to be distributed across a farm of physical or virtual test machines.
Test Collaboration - VectorCAST/QA allows users to easily run all flavors of test without needing to learn new tools or processes. Connectors for each flavor of test are configured once and then leveraged by the entire team.
Integrated Code Coverage - VectorCAST/QA automates the capture and maintenance of code coverage data during testing, which allows users to quickly identify untested portions of the application and determine resources needed to improve testing thoroughness.
Change-Based Testing - Using the data gathered from the build system and from monitoring system test activities, VectorCAST/QA identifies correlations between tests and code. As the code changes, it automatically computes the minimum set of tests required to provide complete testing of the change.
Change Impact Analysis - Change Impact Analysis can be used to identify the impact of a set of source code changes on the quantity of testing required. This provides developers with the ability to make better decisions when implementing their changes.
Test Case Maintenance - Legacy test cases are often poorly documented and seldom evaluated for improvement as the application matures. VectorCAST/QA provides visibility into the parts of the application that each test stimulates, allowing you to gauge the value of each test and identify redundant tests.

How it Works

VectorCAST/QA integrates with your build system and existing test infrastructure to silently collect key metrics such as code complexity, frequency of code changes, test case status, and code coverage data. VectorCAST/QA provides development and QA engineers a single point of control for test activities as well as a wealth of data that can be used to make quality improvement decisions. No changes to your existing workflow or tools are required. As your normal system testing activities take place, a data repository is constructed that becomes an oracle to answer questions such as:

How much testing has been done?
What testing remains to be done?
Are we ready to release?
Where should I invest more testing effort?

Code Coverage Analysis

Automated Code Coverage Tools Are Necessary

Code Coverage measures the completeness of test activities by analyzing the portions of an application executed by each test case. This coverage data identifies undertested sections of a code base and can be used in combination with other metrics such as code complexity and bug counts to guide quality improvement initiatives.