Automated application quality assurance and testing are fundamental to the delivery of the service levels and managed risks that are essential to delivering business outcomes you can depend on. In this context, CA’s mainframe Application Quality Management and Testing Tools send very strong messages: the tools are being actively developed and, where appropriate, integrated with equivalent tools on the distributed platforms, to help companies deliver holistic, automated, business services.
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CA Application Quality Management & Testing Tools
A White Paper by Bloor ResearchAuthor : David NorfolkPublish date : March 2008Automated application quality assurance and testing are fundamental to the delivery of the service levels and managed risks that are essential to delivering business outcomes you can depend on. CA appears to have recognised this situation and is acting on it.David NorfolkCA Application Quality Management and Testing Tools page 1
Executive summary
The focus of development today is on business outcomes. However, although the mainframe has always been noted for The ability to assure the achievement of these (often, while its robustness and resilience, in the past its tools have been satisfying regulators or corporate legislation) comes from purely technician and programmer focussed and there is a providing transparency through to the underlying technology real need for innovation in the mainframe toolsets, to build across a whole business system. In the midst of all the on their existing strengths. This involves rather more than excitement over web applications and new agile scripting just providing a business-like overlay on an existing tool. languages, it is often overlooked that this underlying technology, in many large organisations, is the mainframe. This innovation is particularly important today because Even the most agile new web application developments often application performance and quality management are rely on robust, resilient, trusted mainframe applications, fundamental contributors to delivering energy efficient now made even more valuable because a Service Oriented automated systems. The "green revolution" in IT is not Architecture (SOA) allows them to extend their delivery over simply an altruistic contribution to the welfare of the world; the web. it is a vital factor in removing barriers to enterprise growth. Already the very largest enterprises such as eBay and As companies implement SOA and extend their mainframe Amazon are finding that the electricity demands their data applications as web services, their IT environment becomes centres make on the local power grid are the limiting factor more complicated because of the extra technology layers in data centre growth.involved. At the same time, in order to remain competitive and responsive to its customers' needs, the business This white paper examines CA's family of application quality demands new applications and changes to existing ones. Of assurance and testing tools (its AQM&TT product set) in the course, the legacy mainframe application underlying these above context.new web services still have to do the jobs they've always done, maintaining the "books of record" of the organisation. It looks at CA's ground-level developer-oriented toolset-They must be maintained and enhanced appropriately, to CA InterTest, CA SymDump, and CA File Master Plus-and satisfy all the necessary service levels. how these tools, together with its application performance management products, provide a complete solution for It's easy to see how the cost of maintaining application ensuring application quality. It looks at how new technology quality and performance, in terms of resource utilisation, delivered in IBM CICS Transaction Server 3.1 and the consumption and additional quality assurance processes, recently released IBM CICS Transaction Server 3.2 can be could escalate rapidly. The business must take control of the leveraged to improve application quality generally and to application quality and testing process with the help of extend mainframe applications within a SOA environment.effective process automation. This includes providing tools that minimise the time and effort needed by programmers It examines the automation of mainframe application 1and testers to build quality into applications, thus performance management with TRILOGexpert TriTune and encouraging them to build quality in from the start and TRILOGexpert APC for TriTune with Performance Desktop reducing the chance of expensive production failures. Then, and the opportunities for proactively identifying problems if something does go wrong in production, these tools must before they affect production. It emphasises the importance allow problems to be fixed quickly and reliably, minimising of root cause analysis to identify t... [download for more]