Choosing an Automated Testing Tool (Continued)

Developer-Oriented Tools
Tools in this category, also called component testing tools or unit testing tools, test individual software components or groups of related components, helping isolate and rectify problems as early in the development process as possible. Areas of testing include memory analysis, function analysis (to determine if the product has bottlenecks), and optimization of those areas. Key products include:

• DevPartner Studio (Compuware Corp.) allows developers to test and debut their .NET and native Windows code prior to formal functional testing. Through static source code analysis, developers test code against a set of more than 600 rules identifying errors, performance issues, poor software engineering practices, and adherence to group coding standards. Other features include error detection and code coverage analysis, .NET memory analysis, and performance analysis.
• PurifyPlus (IBM Rational) focuses on white box testing (also called open testing), which involves getting into the code to determine where memory might be leaking, where bugs might be lurking, and where bottlenecks might be occurring. Another aspect is development of the component, or unit. Developers use Rational XDE to model, develop, and generate code for those components.
• Optimizeit Enterprise Suite (Borland Software Corp.) . Developers can use this tool for Java-based applications to isolate J2EE performance issues during the development phase, with a combination of code-level performance tools and J2EE system component-level performance profiling, rather than locating potential problems during quality assurance.
• C++Test, Jtest, and .TEST (Parasoft). C++Test allows developers to perform unit testing and static analysis on C or C++ code to determine if it is working immediately after being written. Jtest does the same for Java code. .TEST tests that each module of a Web service being written on the .NET platform is working correctly.