Traditional Suppliers

The test automation software industry, formally known as the ASQ market has consolidated through numerous acquisitions. It is now dominated by four big suppliers:

• HP Mercury Interactive (WinRunner/QuickTestPro)
• IBM Rational (Rational Robot)
• Compuware (TestPartner)
• Borland Segue Software (SilkTest)

Fully evaluating software provided by these vendors can be expensive. Some of their software certainly has merit and if you have very deep pockets and have made a massive commitment to automation, you probably already have evaluated the main suppliers latest offerings.

Most who reject propriety software do so on cost. However, their biggest problem is one of design.

Advanced automation frameworks need the flexibility and portability of open source software. Test software suites provided by these vendors are closed source with a fixed design. They do not interface with other third party test software that you may wish to use.

Instead they provide suites of software, usually containing components that may well have some value, but packaged up with a collection of others that clearly do not. Many of these components are from an era that lacked support for proper code design, development, test and maintenance.

Using the best tools available for source control, software development, defect tracking and test management is vital to achieve advanced productivity. This ability to choose and integrate the best tool is not an option with propriety test tools.

Consequently, the end product lacks the advanced design features available to OSS frameworks.

Test suites built through the main propriety platforms can end up mostly derived from their “record and playback” features. They end up bloated with massive amounts of code often written in obscure propriety languages, which adher to no recognised methodology or standard.

The big four have no incentive to offer open access to their automation software.

Instead they offer propriety test suites whose primary function is to tie customers to their suites of products. Customers usually end up over committed and very disappointed.

Secondly, the principle of Automation For All means, at the very least, that customers should have some control and flexibility over their financial commitment to test automation. The financial entry level of propriety software is considerable and never ending. Their licensing arrangements can be very restrictive and organisations find themselves limiting its use.