Change based tool slashes source code testing time

“Testing that could take weeks can now be reduced to a couple of days,” says Bill McCaffrey, Vector Software’s Chief Operating Officer.

The Change-Based Testing (CBT) features built into the VectorCAST 6.2 release are focused on supporting the frequent build and iterative test cycles required by Agile and Test-Driven Development (TDD) methodologies.

These features allow every engineer on a project to quickly and easily assess the impact of a source code change on not only their code, but the entire software application. Instead of waiting until the following day to find bugs, engineers can now get test status quickly, and take corrective action to fix any test failures. In addition, this cycle can be repeated several times a day by all engineers. When this process is implemented for large development teams, the time savings is enormous, and bug free integration cycles become a reality. Reduced bugs during integration testing means that companies are better able to achieve their time-to-market and quality goals.

As applications become larger and more complex, the number of tests that must be run for each release grows dramatically, Change-Based Testing is a practical way to perform more testing more often, and maximise testing effectiveness. Software development organisations will be able to test their code faster , enabling them to meet aggressive time-to-market and quality objectives.

In addition, and particularly for automotive applications (and projects in safety-critical industries), Change-Based Testing offers a way to effectively manage tight development cycles and rigorous safety-critical software standard requirements. For those using the VectorCAST solution, delivering quality applications in a timely manner is made much easier.