Conformiq

Conformiq delivers technology software that automates end to end testing. Its tools are designed to make all of today’s functional testing tools better, by eliminating the manual steps in the test design, data selection, and execution processes. More specifically, Conformiq focuses on providing solutions for Enterprise and IT software testing. These tools are Conformiq Creator for the automatic creation, design, and generation of executable test scripts, with validation. In addition, it can reverse engineer manual tests for new test design purposes. Conformiq’s independent but complimentary tool, Conformiq Transformer, simplifies the path to automated test execution through generated keywords. It also can reverse engineer manual tests for direct automated execution in Micro Focus UFT or Selenium.

The Conformiq suite of tools can be used to test applications of many different types including UI, desktop, API, web services, back office, mainframe, mobile, packaged applications, and combinations of these.

Conformiq’s main go to market approach is to partner with global testing services companies so that the end customer receives a complete solution. However, many companies utilise multiple service partners or want to deliver their own testing services and to support these companies Conformiq has a global sales team.

Conformiq has an “integrate with everything” strategy so that users can leverage their existing tool assets while eliminating any capability gaps. To support this strategy Conformiq has a large list of technology partners and continually adds to the list as new customer and partner requests are made. These software partners include Micro Focus, Atlassian, CA, IBM, Microsoft, Parasoft, Egg Plant and Tricentis, from a testing perspective; as well as modelling tools that include Aris (Software AG), Microsoft Visio, and Sparx Systems amongst others.

Conformiq has users worldwide and focuses on the Fortune 1000, so most customers are located in North America. These customers usually have global operations and very often captive test centres, usually in India.

Conformiq’s customers are primarily those testing “mission critical” applications where errors would represent major financial losses or liabilities. Thus, many of Conformiq’s customers are banks, insurance, and other financial services companies. Additionally, logistics, communications service providers, pharmaceutical, and healthcare companies use Conformiq software. Note that there are no vertical application limitations to the software and other vertical market segments such as retail, technology, media, and travel (including hotels) are potential fits to leverage Conformiq capabilities.

Conformiq user starts by deploying Creator to create a graphical representation (“model”) of the application to be tested. The technology also includes the ability to automatically create these models from existing testing assets. This model can begin with simple business requirements and/or Gherkin feature files that might be created by a business analyst. The graphical flow is reviewed by all project members and stakeholders to ensure everyone understands the expected operation. The model is created in two parts: an activity diagram made by dragging and dropping objects onto the canvas and a structure diagram of the actions occurring in each activity object, such as click button, fill form, etc. As further details become known and/or changes are made over the course of the project, the model can be changed to match, and tests generated or regenerated for manual or automated test execution (depending on the model details). As user operation details become known, these are added to the model and provide the ability to generate fully executable scripts directly for automated execution.

When you decide to generate tests, you select the coverage option most suitable for your project and Creator automatically generates optimised executable test scripts, test validations, and test data, which can – again – be automatically executed via third party test frameworks, or Conformiq Transformer will automate the link to the execution tool. As tests can be generated on the fly without complete or finalised models for progression execution, it is well suited for agile CI/CD development.

This full automation is at the heart of Conformiq’s value proposition: that you should never (emphasis: never) have to fall back on manual coding. As far as we know, Conformiq is unique in providing this capability: it generates executable test scripts, test validations, and test data all directly from the model of the system under test for direct automated execution. This end to end automation enables major efficiency gains over both traditional manual testing methods and test execution tools which lack the capability to automatically generate optimised test cases and scripts.

Conformiq services focus on training for tool use and best practices for both testing partners and end customer companies. Conformiq utilises an onshore/offshore support model similar to that used by global testing services companies. This allows Conformiq to staff support close to its actual tool users rather than just near its sales force. Due to Conformiq’s distributed support structure, global 24×7 support is available in or near customer operation times.