TestPlant Users at the Forefront of Agile and DevOps

LONDON, September 10, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

Deloitte Fast 50 and two-time Queen's Award Winner TestPlant reveals the findings of its annual user survey to find that testing teams are making the transition to Agile and moving towards true continuous delivery and DevOps.  

TestPlant, maker of the eggPlant range of software quality tools, today releases the results of its annual user survey, now in its fifth year.

Its 2014 survey revealed user experience as a top theme for test teams, but this year the focus is firmly on a shift happening amongst many companies who are actively integrating their quality assurance teams into the Agile development cycle. Agile has been mainstream in development teams for a few years now, but until recently, most test teams sat outside the Agile cycle. This lack of integration has for some time prevented true rapid Agile product delivery, with testing teams only recently making the successful transition to deploy test automation in an Agile environment.

"We asked our users which methodologies they apply within their testing teams, and nearly 80 per cent came back saying they used Agile," says TestPlant Chief Technology Officer Antony Edwards. "A key principle of true Agile development is that quality assurance testing should be integrated into the development lifecycle, but for a long time that has not been the case. This year's user survey has revealed a real shift as most companies are now actively integrating test and test automation into their Agile development cycles. By integrating test and test automation successfully within their Agile process, companies are able to move towards genuine Continuous Delivery. It goes to show that our users are at the forefront when it comes to proactive development methods."  

As businesses look to release new products and services to the market faster than ever before, Agile continues to dominate the spotlight. In an effort to integrate, it comes as no surprise that TestPlant users place high value on the functionality that lays the foundation for Agile. For eggPlant Functional users specifically, script creation and maintenance productivity quickly rose to the top of the list of most valued functionality.  

"Over 80 per cent of our users rated script creation and maintenance productivity as the most valuable elements of eggPlant Functional," says Edwards. "Maintaining scripts is one of the biggest challenges and concerns that our Agile customers cite when we first engage with them, and we're pleased that so many realize how straightforward the tool makes this. Deploying test automation in an Agile environment would be very difficult if test scripts required significant maintenance every time the product changed, and users really rate a tool that helps maintain the scripts in a clear and direct way."   

The survey also goes to show that within eggPlant Performance, TestPlant's performance, load and stress testing tool, users are satisfied with web script creation and maintenance productivity. In fact, beyond eggPlant Performance's "general usability", which took top place in the tool's strong points, web script creation and maintenance productivity were top in terms of specific functionality. While it was no surprise that users specified web (HTTP) virtual-users as the top type of user they were most interested in, it was interesting to see that almost the same number of users were interested in eggPlant Performance's unique "Application-level Virtual Users." This goes to show how important end-to-end user experience has become even in the server-oriented world of performance testing.

Perhaps the most interesting responses to come out of the survey were the personal responses dedicated to TestPlant products, many of which support the growing enthusiasm for Agile. One user's opinion summed up the growing relationship between development and quality assurance teams, underpinned by both Agile methodologies and end-to-end testing tools:

"By using TestPlant products I can use one set of tools which work together, with the highest amount of functionality of any test tool currently on the market. The tools have become an extension of our integrated development quality assurance team. No other test tool does so much, so well, in one package."

For more results, visit: http://www.testplant.com/2015/09/09/eggplant-users-at-the-forefront-of-agile-and-devops

About TestPlant
TestPlant is an international software business based in London. It has development centers in the USA and the UK with sales and support centers in the USA, the UK, Germany and China as well as an extensive network of business partners. TestPlant's products are used in over 30 countries by well over 350 enterprise customers in sectors which include Financial Services, Automotive, Healthcare and Life Sciences, Media and Entertainment, Retail and Defense and Aerospace. The eggPlant range is a set of tools which supports the design, development, test and management of software applications for mainframe, desktop and mobile use in any technology platform environment. The tools are relevant in agile, mobile, web and DevOps deployments. eggPlant use improves and reports on the quality and responsiveness of software systems, reduces time to market and lowers costs by introducing process automation. The eggPlant tools have been granted patents with several applications pending. The company's achievements have been recognized within the software industry and by the venture capital community. TestPlant is also a Red Herring Global Top 100 company, a Deloitte UK Technology Fast 50 and EMEA 500 business and is the recipient of two Queen's Awards for Enterprise. http://www.testplant.com