Beat the Clock
Test and verify. Maybe it's not too late to automate regression testing of code fixes. Officials of Mercury Interactive Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif., say mainframe regression testing can proceed an order of magnitude faster with QuickTest 2000, which is sold on the General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule. Running under Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT, QuickTest 2000 simplifies and accelerates the creation of test scripts to verify the proper functioning of online transaction processing (OLTP) systems
Test and verify. Maybe its not
too late to automate regression testing of code fixes.
Officials of Mercury Interactive Corp. of Sunnyvale, Calif., say mainframe regression
testing can proceed an order of magnitude faster with QuickTest 2000, which is sold on the
General Services Administration Information Technology Schedule.
Running under Microsoft Windows 95 and Windows NT, QuickTest 2000 simplifies and
accelerates the creation of test scripts to verify the proper functioning of online
transaction processing (OLTP) systems on IBM Corp. mainframe and AS/400 midrange
platforms.
The tests are called regression tests because they show whether an application has
regressed after year 2000 date code fixes were applied, Mercury Interactives
Jonathan Rende said.
Rende believes that data entry users know the OLTP applications best. Even if they
cannot write the scripts for year 2000 regression tests, they can contribute immeasurably
to the effort in their day-to-day work, he said.
Streamline user interviews. QuickTest 2000 bridges the
gap between the data entry users and the year 2000 test team by putting a click-button
recorder on the data entry screens. The recorder captures the users interactions
with the application screen, underlying database and application logic.
When the data entry users have recorded their critical screen sequences in a file, they
send it by e-mail or other means to the year 2000 testers, who import it into the
QuickTest 2000 Designer.
The QuickTest 2000 Designer maps and displays the application logic and associated
screens.
It highlights in white the fields that accept user input. It highlights in gray all
fields with data provided by the database. It also highlights protected values provided by
the application.
Test for 9/9/99. Then Designer makes up a spreadsheet
of special dates that will exercise the application logic in different ways so all
boundary conditions get tested, Rende said.
Finally, it outputs a series of automated test scripts that execute in Mercury
Interactives WinRunner 2000 regression testing tool.
WinRunner 2000 runs in terminal emulation mode via Wall Data Inc. Rumba 5.2, Attachmate
Corp. Extra Personal Client 6.3 and 6.4, WRQ Inc. Reflection 6.2, and IBM PCOM and Client
Access for 3270, 5250 and VT100 emulators.
Mercury Interactive licenses QuickTest 2000 for $3,900, which includes five recorder
licenses and one Designer license.
A WinRunner 2000 Enterprise license is $7,800, which includes the five-user QuickTest
2000 license and a license for WinRunner 2000. Additional recorders are $659 each.
Florence Olsen
Internet: folsen@gcn.com
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