Compuware unifies an Agile ‘DevOps toolchain’ across the mainframe
Compuware has been busy.
Along with its usual weekly basket of supermarket essentials, the firm has announced a product acquisition, unveiled enhancements to its automated unit testing tool Topaz for Total Test, plus also unveiled a partnership designed to champion Agile and DevOps on mainframes through the broader use of automated unit testing.
Compuware has acquired XaTester from Xact Consulting A/S.
This is software to allow developers to create unit tests for both batch and CICS-based programs written in COBOL, PL/I and Assembler.
NOTE: CICS is especially important as the transaction processing technology especially in financial institutions and insurance companies due to its extremely high integrity, performance and scalability.
Topaz for Total Test
The company has also enhanced Topaz for Total Test to provide automated unit testing for IMS batch and transactional applications.
“Testing for IMS is especially important given that contemporary developers often have little or no hands-on experience with IMS code. These enhancements complement Topaz for Total Test’s existing support for batch applications written in COBOL – as well as its integration with leading cross-platform DevOps tools such as Jenkins, SonarSource SonarQube and Compuware ISPW,” said the company, in a press statement.
The company has also Partnered with Parasoft, a provider of test automation for software development. The first deliverable for the partnership is integration between Parasoft SOAtest and Topaz for Total Test.
This integration is hoped to enabled developers working on mainframe applications to quickly and easily test API calls between mainframe and non-mainframe systems.
Compuware says that Topaz for Total Test gives developers the same type of unit testing capabilities on the mainframe they’ve become accustomed to on other platforms.
Granular (crunchy) & organic
As we know, unit testing is a fundamental requirement for modern software development — it enables developers to find potential problems in their code as early as possible, to more quickly and frequently deliver incremental changes in software functionality and to more granularly or organically (sounds like a crunchy breakfast cereal) document code for the benefit of other developers.
“REST and SOAP APIs provide the backbone of today’s business-critical applications, especially when these services are used to access the power of the mainframe.” said Parasoft VP of products, Mark Lambert. “Test automation at the API layer is essential to delivering high quality at the speed of Agile and the Parasoft SOAtest plugin for Topaz brings API test automation directly to the mainframe developer, helping ensure the delivery of reliable, scalable and secure services.”
Compuware Topaz is visually intuitive environment used to understand and work on any mainframe application — regardless of age, complexity or lack of documentation.
Chris O’Malley, CEO of Compuware asserts that the result of the above moves for large enterprises is a unified DevOps toolchain that accelerates development across all platforms – including the mainframe – so they can more effectively compete in today’s markets.
