Agile Designer

Agile Designer is an end-to-end test case design and requirements definition tool, which allows users to automatically generate test cases, linked to test data, virtual assets and expected results. As a part of this, it can find and make test data, map requirements to active flowcharts, automatically generate automation frameworks, calculate the cost and complexity of requirements, and quickly manage changes.

The problem for testers is testing the right things, just enough. You don’t want to over-test or under-test and you want to test the things that are important. Automation can significantly help with these issues.

Historically, automated test case generation has centred around two major approaches: pairwise testing and cause and effect modelling. The former is limited in its applicability, does not lend itself to collaboration with business users, offers no way to tie it back to the requirements of the application under test, and does not include any mechanisms to support real-world constraints. Cause and effect modelling is much more comprehensive and is requirements-driven. However, it is complex and requires special training to use. Grid-Tools’ Agile Designer supports both of these methods, plus constraint modelling, but also introduces a third way.

Agile Designer’s third way is based on flow chart modelling. While this isn’t as perfect as cause and effect modelling at discovering defects it is significantly better at this than pairwise testing or other methods. Conversely, it is much easier to use than either of the other methods and is easy for business users to understand, which is especially important in agile environments.

Agile Designer integrates with Datamaker and there is a Test Data on Demand application that allows users to expose Datamaker functions to testers.

Grid-Tools is not fussy about who uses Agile Designer and has no particular industry focus although it does, to a certain extent, focus on the Healthcare and banking sectors, where it has had some notable success. Both of these sectors are ones that are heavily regulated and where compliance requirements around the protection of personal information are paramount.

More generically, the company’s main emphasis is on companies that agree with its data-driven approach and who appreciate that agile development is as much about the data, and particularly the test data, as it is about the development processes themselves. It would argue, and we would agree, that you can’t have a truly agile development process without agile test data to go with it.

In addition to its own teams, the company has an extensive network of partners across the globe, with trained staff in over 18 countries worldwide. These are split between regional resellers that serve the needs of local markets, and global strategic partners, which include CA Technologies, Accenture and HP. Partners in the Americas include Orasi Software and Softworx, while Central and South America is served by Green Light Technology. In Europe, the Middle East and Asia, partners include ANECON GmbH, Blue Turtle Technologies, Cast Info, INFA Partner, Infuse, Lemontree, Sothis Yazlim, Spica Solutions, WSM, MTP, Soflab Technology, and Software AG.

Grid-Tools has had some significant success in the financial sector though none of its major banking clients can be named. Projects range from establishing a new data warehouse to migrations. Government contracts and healthcare are also notable but again unnamed. The company’s website provides a number of case studies though none of the named users will be familiar to the man on the Clapham omnibus.

While offering both pairwise testing and cause and effect modelling as options we will concentrate here on those features of Agile Designer that make it unique, in particular its use of flow charts. To begin with, flow charts are directly linked to requirements. If you already have the latter in place using some third party tools (HP ALM, TIBCO Nimbus, Cordys, Critical Logic TMX or VersionOne) then there are facilities to import and reverse engineer those requirements so that they can be presented as a set of flow charts. One of the effects of this process is that you can easily identify ambiguities in the original requirements.

Flow charts are colour-coded so that you can differentiate visually between possible and impossible (constrained) paths and between those paths that have been tested and which have no defects, those that have been tested and which have defects (which are highlighted), and those that have not been tested yet. You can select a sub-flow and work on that element of the overall requirements set and you can also prioritise. In any case, the software will automatically generate all the relevant test cases within a minimal number of test cases, while coverage metrics can be generated to know how much of a system is being tested. The flow charts are very easy to understand and will help collaboration with business users.

Going beyond test case generation itself Agile Designer provides test case management capabilities. These include the ability to import existing test cases that you may have developed so that these can be analysed in a fully managed environment. This allows you to do things such as identifying duplicate and zombie test cases that are no longer required, as well as enabling reuse.

This is particularly useful when managing changing requirements, as it reduces the need to manually update test cases and scripts. Instead, users can simply add or remove functional logic from the flowchart, and Agile Designer will automatically remove or repair broken, redundant or invalid tests, and will automatically generate any new ones required.

When used in conjunction with Grid-Tools’ Datamaker the requisite data for each test case can be derived – this can radically reduce the effort required in identifying and accessing the right data to use for any particular test case – and there is a portal (Test Data on Demand) which enables the sharing of both test cases and test data. In addition to working with Datamaker, Agile Designer also works in conjunction with Grid-Tools’ (and third party) service virtualisation offering.

Agile Designer also integrates with a number of technologies that companies may already be using to create test cases and automated test scripts, as well as several project management and test case design tools. In this context, Agile Designer serves as an accelerator to existing technologies, allowing users to optimize existing requirements and test cases, automatically generate automation frameworks, calculate cost and complexity, and manage change.

Grid-Tools offers a range of professional services which supplement the company’s core product range.

Potential clients can sign up for a free 15 day trial of all of Grid-Tools primary solutions. During this period, they will receive the full support of Grid-Tools’ consultants, who will help demonstrate how the solutions can most benefit their development projects.

Once a client has settled on a tool, Grid-Tools aim to help them get the greatest benefit out of it within their organisation. In addition to a full range of consultancy work packages, introductory training courses and workshops for users of all technical ability are offered, and are frequently held in local regions including the UK, USA and India.

For companies wishing to “shift left” testing, Grid-Tools consultants can work closely with an organisations’ business analysts, to remove ambiguity from requirements. They can then assist in using Agile Designer to optimize test case design and improve software development.

A one day Agile Designer basics training course is offered, to help users grasp the basics of visual flows and functionality, as well as more advanced functionality such as the HP ALM/QC integration. An Implementing Agile Designer workshop provides bespoke advice, based on existing test case design practices, on how to improve daily processes, and how test cases are stored and managed.