Application Quality Management (AQM) vendor Original Software has announced a partnership with Green Hat to deliver an end-to-end automated testing solution for multi-tiered applications that utilize SOA.

The combined strength and competencies of Original Software and Green Hat will reportedly enable customers to take advantage of a total Software Quality solution across the UI, web services and database layers, plus the SOA infrastructure, with all the ease of use and code free functionality that customers of both companies have come to rely on.

Gartner, Inc. notes that through 2010, 60% of unplanned downtime for SOA-based, loosely-coupled applications will be the result of application failure, compared to 40% for non-SOA-based applications.  [“Model-Driven Application Management Is a ‘Must’ for Modern Architectures Such as SOA and Web 2.0”, Milind Govekar, July 10, 2008.]

Colin Armitage, CEO of Original Software, said: “A number of our key clients and prospects working on SOA initiatives want a quality solution that extends the benefits of GUI testing to the entire integrated application.  This alliance with Green Hat gives Original Software an important additional route to market and enables us to deliver a best of breed solution across the user interface, database layer, services, third party systems and middleware that will prevent unexpected costs and delays as critical applications become more complex.”

Business processes involving ERP and BPM systems are two areas affected by the introduction of SOA technologies.  As the major ERP vendors introduce more services into their platforms, customers must go beyond GUI testing to assure the function and performance of the total system.  Gartner, Inc. observes that when too much manual work is involved, it causes an inability to stay current with patches to packaged software and to deliver well-tested applications. [“Key Issues for Software Quality and Testing, 2008”, Thomas E. Murphy, August 8, 2008]

Continuous improvement expected in BPM projects requires regression testing from the beginning of the implementation.  Many long-running BPM processes also touch systems outside their business unit and company.  Process owners need end-to-end visibility to pinpoint the exact location of development errors or sub-optimal performance.  Green Hat will OEM Original Software Solutions as part of their GH Tester for BPM offering.

“BPM project teams who want GUI testing as an element of a more complex integration and SOA testing framework have asked us to make this part of our offering,” said Peter Cole, President and CTO of Green Hat.  “This alliance will give them a single point of contact for all their automated testing requirements.”