Archive for the ‘Company announcements’ Category

Business Agility Hampered by AQM

84% of Application Development Managers say Application Quality Management solutions are not meeting their needs

23 April 2010 – A study into the views of Application Development Managers and IT Executives, announced today by Original Software, revealed that the need for business agility is driving the growth in spend for Application Quality Management (AQM) and Automated Software Quality (ASQ) solutions. However, the same study also uncovered an incredible discontent with current solutions available in the market place, with 84% of respondents claiming that they are not meeting their needs.

The independent study, undertaken during March 2010, throughout the UK and USA, revealed that the need for enhanced business agility was the highest rated market driver for improving software quality, with 65% of respondents citing this as their main reason for investing in AQM and ASQ solutions. Almost half of the respondents claimed that the increasing complexity in their IT environments was also a key driver.

While the market focus on pure Agile development, the survey exposed that the real growth area is in mix and match development techniques, with 72% of organisations using combined approaches. Either developing their own hybrid blend, by choosing best practices from various methodologies, or by taking a combined approach, using different methodologies across departments and on different projects.

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software stated: “The study has shown that systems supporting these developments need to be able to cope with complex scenarios and multiple, concurrent process models. When asked about the shortfalls of their current AQM solution, it’s not surprising that 38% are crying out for an option that would allow them to map different processes and methodologies into their system and not be straight-jacketed into one particular way of working.”

Software quality does seem to have increased in importance within organisations in the last few years, with 75% of companies recognising that ensuring application quality is vital to their business success. This is a substantial increase and a positive move from a year and a half ago when Original Software conducted a similar survey and found that many still viewed ensuring software quality as a nice-to-have or non-essential practice.

The study also revealed that IT budgets for AQM and Automated Software Quality (ASQ) are beginning to look healthier with 43% expecting their budgets to increase, (up from 21% in the 2008 survey). Only 10% expected spend on Quality Assurance to decrease (down from 31% last time).

The 84% discontent with current solutions is mainly attributable to the way development teams are now working. With more complexity in IT projects and a need to respond faster to changing markets, development teams have had to adapt the way they work. The solutions they are using are just not meeting these new requirements. 37% of respondents suffer from a lack of cross-project information and require solutions to provide a unified view of all projects currently underway. 36% would like to see a solution that allows more effective communication and collaboration between team members.

With the current recession driving the need for organisations having to do more with less, optimising resources and enhancing productivity is key for AQM and ASQ solutions. 34% of those surveyed think that their systems are not user-friendly enough. 32% would like to be able to better manage their resources and 28% want a solution to provide them with real-time visibility into project status. The ability to be able to personalise the information users view and to be able to better trace requirements throughout the lifecycle, are also widely desired, with 22% of respondents unable to achieve these goals with their current solutions.

“Flexibility is vital when it comes to AQM solutions of the future. Businesses are being driven towards being more agile, so it stands to reason that users are demanding dynamic solutions that can adapt to business changes quickly and easily. AQM that supports a mixture of development techniques is now absolutely essential and vendors that don’t respond to this are not reacting to customers quickly enough. The future of AQM has to be focused on providing better visibility, collaboration and control across multiple projects.” Armitage concluded.

About the survey

This independent study was conducted by emedia Ltd. It surveyed 101 Senior IT executives and Application Development Managers during the month of March 2010. A full report on the survey results is available from Original Software upon request.

About Original Software: www.origsoft.com

With a world class record of innovation, Original Software offers a solution focused completely on the goal of effective quality management. By embracing the full spectrum of Application Quality Management across a wide range of applications and environments, the company partners with customers and helps make quality a business imperative. Solutions include a quality management platform, manual testing, full test automation and test data management, all delivered with the control of business risk, cost, time and resources in mind.

More than 400 organisations operating in over 30 countries use Original Software solutions. Current users range from major multi-nationals to small software development shops, encompassing a wide range of industries, sectors and sizes. We are proud of our partnerships with the likes of Coca-Cola, Cargill, HSBC, FedEx, Pfizer, DHL and many others.

Press contact

Tulin Pledger
Head of Marketing
+44 1256 338 689
tpledger@origsoft.com

Agile quality assurance takes centre stage at TestExpo 2010

Original Software to present at this year’s event

15th March 2010 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced its attendance at this year’s TestExpo where George Wilson, the company’s Operations Director, will be presenting a conference session on the subject of automating software quality in an Agile environment.

TestExpo is a free event aimed at everyone with an interest in software quality. It takes place Thursday 25th March at the Congress Centre in London. George Wilson’s presentation ‘Agile Test Automation – Can it be done?’ starts at 10am and will explore how to define a test process to ensure application quality within an Agile environment.

“Agile is a methodology that is seeing increasingly widespread adoption. Yet for the QA professional an Agile approach can cause discomfort. In the ideal world they would have a ‘finished’ product to verify against a finished specification. To be asked to validate a moving target against a changing backdrop is counter intuitive. It means that the use of technology and automation are much more difficult, and it requires a new approach to testing, in the same way that it does for the users and the developers” expanded George Wilson.

Original Software’s solution suite has received high praise for its capabilities in enabling Agile development in a recent report by industry analyst group, Ovum. In the report the company’s solutions were applauded for being a better fit for agile processes than any competitive functional test automation suite. “[Original Software] supports a range of development methodologies including Agile, waterfall, and hybrid processes as well. The solution offers pre-built templates for Agile methodologies such as Scrum, DSDM, XP etc. Users can also create their own templates, or modify an existing template to suit their needs” it states.

“In its totality, Original’s suite is appropriate for automation specialists, non-technical testers and even business users for acceptance testing. It fits in with classic waterfall processes, and it can also be used in agile processes more easily than other functional test automation suites.” This report was published by Ovum in February 2010 and copies will be available for all delegates visiting Original Software’s stand.

Since its launch in 1996, TestExpo has grown to become a respected source of testing news and innovation and a valuable forum for debate, discussion and networking amongst testing professionals. It is free to attend, and interested parties should register for TestExpo at: http://www.testexpo.co.uk.

Ends

About Original Software (www.origsoft.com)

Press contact

Kate Mackinder
Media Relations Officer
+44 1256 338 689
Kmackinder@origsoft.com

Test Management Summit 2010 gets Original

Original Software to host sessions on Agile Testing, Test Automation and Test Data Management

25 January 2010 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced its attendance at the 2010 Test Management Summit where George Wilson, the company’s Operations Director, will be hosting a workshop on Test Data Management as well as speaking in a session on the subject of Agile Testing. Peter Hopley, the company’s EMEA Sales Director, will also be presenting a summit session about Test Automation.

The annual summit, which takes place in London on Tuesday the 26th and Wednesday the 27th January, is the fourth of its kind. Run in conjunction with the Test Management Forum (TMF) – the forum for testing professionals in the UK, it is hosted and organised by Gerrard Consulting.

The summit is aimed at senior testing practitioners and managers, focussing on trends, futures and the big issues in test management. It aims to encourage networking and bring like minded test managers together to discuss techniques, approaches and tools, disseminating good ideas within the industry.

The Workshop day, takes place on Tuesday the 26th at the conference centre at Balls Brothers, Minster Pavement and the short, intensive sessions are aimed to give testers a head start in each topic, covering such things as exploratory and innovative testing, SCRUM, open source tools, and Agile test management. George Wilson will be hosting a workshop at 12.45pm, focussed on Test Data Management. Entitled ‘Taking Control of Your Test Data’, the workshop will explore strategies and techniques that can be used to support QA teams with the creation, management and verification of test data.

The Summit day takes place at the IoD building, Pall Mall, and the session topics, voted on by TMF members, include Agile testing, regression testing, measuring team performance, Test-Driven Development, requirements and performance testing. George Wilson will be leading a session at 10am, entitled ‘Agile Test Automation – Can it be Done?’ He will explore how to define a test process to ensure application quality within an Agile environment.

Peter Hopley’s session is at 3.45pm. Entitled ‘Maximising your Test Automation Success’, the session will investigate what determines the short and long term success of test automation, what to automate and what to test manually and how you can manage the jump to automation in a seamless and painless manner.

For more information on the sessions or to book at place at the Summit, visit http://www.uktmf.com/index.php?q=node/226

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About Original Software (www.origsoft.com)

Press contact

Kate Mackinder
Media Relations Officer
+44 1256 338 689
Kmackinder@origsoft.com

Original Software Positioned as a Visionary in Magic Quadrant for Integrated Software Quality Suites

August, 6, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced that it has been placed in the ‘visionaries’ quadrant by leading analyst firm Gartner, Inc. in its recently published Magic Quadrant for Integrated Software Quality Suites, 31 July 2009.

“The total market for test management and functional and load/stress automation is currently valued at just under $1.2 billion, and is growing at more than 8% per year.” said Thomas Murphy in the report1. “Testing software can be an expensive process, but poor software quality leads to user dissatisfaction, as well as increased development and maintenance. Therefore, having a well-defined set of tools and practices to drive software quality will positively affect the overall business bottom line.”

The report evaluates fourteen vendors of software quality solutions based on a rigorous set of criteria that comprise ‘completeness of vision’ and ‘ability to execute’. Original Software has been positioned as a visionary.

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software, said: “We consider our positioning in the visionaries quadrant to be confirmation of the real value that our approach to solving challenges in the quality process has brought to our users, extending the reach of these solutions within an organization and providing an early return on investment. We are now expanding on the unique work we have done, in reducing script maintenance, supporting manual testing, code-free automation and test data management, with the launch of a radical new ALM solution later this year.”

This report has recently been published by Gartner. More information can be found on the analyst page of Original Software’s website.

[1] Gartner “Magic Quadrant for Integrated Software Quality Suites” by Thomas Murphy, 31 July 2009.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2009 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner’s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the “Leaders” quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Original Software offers ‘Escape’ for apprehensive Borland and Compuware customers

August, 3, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, today announced a swap-out promotion, called the Escape program for customers of the soon to be engulfed companies, who face uncertainty in the future of their legacy product roadmaps.

Original Software offers market-leading AQM solutions that span the application development life-cycle from requirements, planning and management to complete automated regression testing, including unique solutions for manual testing and test data management.

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software, said “Any customer on a current maintenance contract with Borland or Compuware can qualify for the Escape program and swap to one of our comparable solutions, provided they switch the maintenance agreement.” The promotion, which runs until the end of the year, includes preferential pricing on all the company’s other complimentary solutions.

“While MicroFocus has now completed the acquisitions of Borland and Compuware, the future for their customers is far from clear. It is inevitable that one of the solutions will take precedence, leaving the other customer base facing an unpleasant choice. You have to feel special sympathy for the users of the Borland testing products for who this is the second change of ownership in less than three years.”

“The great thing about the Escape program is that companies can remove the uncertainty about products futures and join a company whose vision has been widely recognized by industry analysts like Gartner and Ovum. At the same time they can benefit from great customer service and a modern AQM solution suite that addresses traditional automation and the now widely recognized needs for collaboration, manual test support and test data management”.

Ovum applauds Original Software’s agile compatibility

New analyst report is free to download from the vendor’s website

June, 22, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, has received praise for its capabilities in enabling agile development in a recent report by independent industry analyst group, Ovum. In the report, written by Ovum analyst Paul Herzlich, the company’s solutions were applauded for being a better fit for agile processes than any competitive functional test automation suite.

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software, said: The feedback from our customers has been resounding and we are pleased to see that the major analyst groups are acknowledging our leadership in this space. Customers practicing agile methodologies are finding our tools easy to implement, and the reuse and repeatability of our manual tests really pay off. Automation can be a powerful enabler in agile development and TestDrive’s self-healing technology adds value in each iteration, enabling scripts to be re-run even when the application under test has undergone tweaks and changes.

The Ovum report notes: “One area in which TestDrive-Assist can be surprisingly appropriate is in unstable, changing circumstances. The two most notable situations are the first release of an application and in agile processes.”

Herzlich continues: “By recording your manual test, you may not have the benefit of full automation, such as automatic data entry and validation. However, you do get an audit trail and clear information for reproducing bugs. The ability to automatically migrate your test to an automated one may pay off immediately, if you are lucky, but in any case, by the end of your scrum or iteration, it will form the foundation of a future automated test. “

This report has recently been published by Ovum and can be downloaded free of charge from Original Software’s website.

Local company raises money for Orphanage

With a Winchester-based Golf Marathon

June, 3, 2009 – Two Basingstoke-based IT professionals at Original Software, yesterday raised more than £3000 sponsorship for a Nepalese Orphanage by running a marathon combined with three full rounds of golf in one day.

George Wilson, one of the company’s founders, and Stuart Bishop, Head of Development, managed to complete the rather insane ‘Golf Marathon’ during daylight hours yesterday, setting off at about 6am from Horton Heath and running between South Winchester, Royal Winchester and Hockley Golf Courses, playing 18 holes at each.

Mr Wilson’s daughter who is doing voluntary work with the children out in Nepal, found out that the Orphanage was likely to have to close when their landlord decided to sell the premises. They are now desperately trying to raise money in order to fund a new home for their children.

The aim is to raise £5000 sponsorship to help with some of the costs of securing a new home for the children. By continuing to campaign for this cause, and through events such as this they are aiming to open people’s eyes to the children’s plight and gain as much sponsorship and support for this cause as possible.

Mr Wilson reported on yesterday’s event “Well, we did it! 27 miles including the three rounds of golf at three courses. It was a tough challenge but we achieved it and even managed to play some good golf! The last leg of the run was really hard and we are both pretty exhausted today. My thanks to everyone who sponsored us and continues to support the charity and for the help and support we received from each of the Golf Clubs – they have been really accommodating”.

If you are interested in finding out more or donating money to this great cause, please visit: http://www.justgiving.com/georgeandstuart

MOVING ON UP

Original Software Outgrows US Head Office

Chicago, April, 14, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, has announced that, due to expansion, it is relocating its American headquarters to larger premises in Westmont IL.

Despite a down-turn in the global economy and gloomy market predictions for the IT industry, Original Software is bucking the trend and continues to grow at a strong pace. While its competitors are making mass redundancies and enforcing pay-cuts, Original software is still continuing to hire and the recent expansion has forced the re-location of its US Headquarters.

Greg Sengpiel, General Manager, Americas says: “The experts say that even in bad times, smart companies plan for good ones – that’s what we are doing. Our profits remain healthy and the company’s strategy is to invest in its business so that we are in a strong position to exploit the opportunities when the global economy and the IT market begin to pick up again.”

“Now is the best time to be expanding and investing in troubled assets” he says. “There is lots of good real-estate and many highly trained staff currently on the market. We firmly intend to capitalize during our period of growth and invest for future success.”

Consistently growing year-on-year, the company is carving out market share from its bigger rivals by producing a new breed of software quality solutions that solve the challenges posed by traditional functional test automation. Constantly exceeding expectations, the company is receiving great feedback from the top industry analyst groups. A new report has just been published by Ovum and can be downloaded free of charge from Original Software’s website.

Original Software is currently recruiting for three job vacancies at the new Westmont office. Interested parties can find full details here.

Original Software – Stirring Up a 5 Minute Revolution at TestExpo

What Can You Do in 5 Minutes?

March, 23, 2009 – Original Software, the Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor, is hoping to cause a stir at this year’s TestExpo show, held at the Congress Centre in London WC1 this Thursday (the 26th March).

Exhibiting on stand number three, Original Software will be proving it is possible to build and run a fully automated regression test in less than five minutes. Delegates will also have the chance to chat to experts and win a Nintendo Wii by taking part in an interactive game on the stand.

George Wilson, the company’s Operations Director will be speaking in the midday slot of the conference tack, and his presentation ‘The 5 Minute Quality Revolution’ is aimed at making QA professionals re-think their perceptions of automation and show them how they can heighten productivity. “In this live presentation I will not only build a regression test from scratch, but run the test, change the application under test and re-run the regression test again – All in five minutes and without touching a single piece of code! We are calling it the 5 minute quality revolution and in those 5 minutes I’ll make you re-think your views about automation. There is a perception in the industry that automation is complicated and time consuming to achieve – many users have been scarred by solutions that take years to set up with lengthy builds and high maintenance scripts – we want to prove them wrong!”

TestExpo is one of the best UK software testing events and is free to attend for all pre-registered delegates. It includes a full programme of free presentations and lectures given by experts from the top companies in testing. Join us there by registering online at http://www.testexpo.co.uk.

Original Software Delivers Record Breaking 3rd Quarter

3rd Quarter Results More Than Double That Of 2006

January, 3, 2009 – Original Software, a leading provider of automated software testing solutions today announced a record 144% year-on-year growth for its third quarter ending 30th December 2007.

“Although we are used to continued strong growth, this quarter has been our best in our ten year history” said Original Software CEO, Colin Armitage. “And we are on course to outstrip the market growth rate by a factor of 3. This has really set us up for a great 2008, and is testament to how positively the market place is embracing our next generation software testing solutions.”

With recent success, Original is delighted to welcome aboard several new business relationships including; Germania Insurance, Newcastle Building Society, Hilton Grand Vacations, Elsevier and Euronet USA.

Over the last 10 years, more than 400 organizations operating in 25 countries have come to depend on Original Software for their software testing solutions Current users range from small software development shops to major multinationals, including: Cargill Global Financial Solutions, Circuit City Stores, Pfizer Pharmaceutical (Ireland), DHL, Coca-Cola, and Skandia.

“These accomplishments put Original Software on strong footing for attaining its goals in 2008,” continued Armitage. “I want to thank the entire Original Software team who have worked so hard to produce these results and encourage them to continue working diligently to attain our goals for the year ahead.”

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