BIO PRESENTATION

International Conference On Software Testing Analysis and Review

May 15-19, 2006 Orlando, Florida USA

T12

Thursday, May 18, 2006 1:30PM

AUTOMATED SETUP AND TEAR

DOWN OF COMPLEX, MULTI-TIER

TEST CONFIGURATIONS

James Phillips Akimbi Systems

James Phillips

James Phillips brings more than 20 years of software industry experience to Akimbi Systems, which he co-founded in 2004. Prior to founding Akimbi, James was senior vice president of products and marketing at Actional Corporation (acquired by Progress Software) the pioneering leader in the service-oriented systems management software category. Previously, James was vice president of business development and product marketing at Ensim Corporation, where he successfully commercialized the company's technology assets. James has held leadership positions in software engineering, product management, business development and marketing management at Intel, Synopsys, Intuit, Central Point Software and Fifth Generation Systems. He is a popular speaker and writer, and has been featured in a number of industry conferences and publications. James holds a BS in mathematics and earned his MBA, with honors, from the University of Chicago.

T12

Automated Setup and Tear Down of Complex, Multi-tier Test ConfigurationsJames Phillips, Akimbi

Enterprise Software Architecture Evolution

Monolithic Client-server 3-tier, n-tier Service-oriented

Resulting Challenges for QA organizations

• Server Sprawl– 2-3 machines in application development and test for

every server in production (+ storage, networking …)– Server to Staff Ratios exceed 7:1 in some cases

• Setup and Provisioning Overhead– Repetitive system setup tasks overwhelming IT and

slowing software development cycles– Accounts for more than 50% of time expended in the

development and test cycle • Costly System Failures

– Difficult to reproduce and resolve software defects before production deployment

Gaps have opened in test automation solution continuum

design develop test deploy support

development

architecture

QA

data centeroperations

applicationsupport

IBM Rational Rose

Mercury TestDirector Mercury QTP

defects can’t be reproduced (interop and proximity)out-of-context unit testing

manual test system configuration

Visual StudioJUnit

Merant PVCS Serena TeamTrack

design develop test deploy support

A virtual lab automation system integrates with existing processes and solutions, filling the gaps

development

architecture

QA

data centeroperations

applicationsupport

IBM Rational Rose

Merant PVCS Serena TeamTrack

Mercury TestDirector

Visual StudioJUnit

Mercury QTP

VLA system VLA system

VLA system

Virtual Lab Automation – Shared Resource Pool, Automated Provisioning

Central QA Supportin Bangalore, India

Equity Capital Markets Trading System Developers

in New Jersey

Fixed Income AnalyticsSystem Developer

in New York

Akimbi SlingshotConfiguration Library(grouped machine images)

Servers are ProvisionedFrom Library

Shared pool of servers, storage and networking resources

Virtual Lab Automation – Architecture

Virtualized Server Pool

VLA Server Image Storage LibraryCIM Application Developer

CIM Application Developer

FP&A Application Developer

QA Automation Engineer

New Jersey Dev Facility

Walldorf Dev Facility

Bangalore Outsource Partner

VLA System Users

Vancouver Data Center

Self-service, instant “check out” from library

Automated Virtual Lab

Virtualized Server Pool

Akimbi Slingshot Server

1Image Storage Library

2

Application Developer

Walldorf Dev Facility

3

Effortless capture of configurations to the library

Automated Virtual Lab

Virtualized Server Pool

Akimbi Slingshot Server

1

Image Storage Library

2

Application Developer

Walldorf Dev Facility

3

Before Testing – QA creates and snapshots test case configurations

test server controlakimbi control

virtualtest servers

Test Lab in Palo AltoQA engineer

1. Create from scratch2. Clone existing snapshot3. Clone partial snapshot

QA engineer creates test case configurations:Servers, OS, Data, Application

2 Snapshots saved –single virtual test server or a bundle of servers for management as a unit.

1

Testing – Existing test tools provision test configurations using VLA Akimbi Snapshot

virtualtest servers

3 tier testconfiguration

reanimate test servers: server-OS-app

elapsed time for snapshot, clone and reanimation measured in seconds

Testing – Automated test executes as usual

virtualtest servers

3 tier testconfiguration

test inputs and results

Test success - Configuration is removed in preparation for next iteration

delete test servers

Test anomaly - Snapshot, create bug report and continue testing

virtualtest servers

1

2

anomaly detected

“create snapshot” command

3 snapshot taken and stored

4 problem report createdwith snapshot links

Debugging – Step 1: Developer receives bug report and clicks to restore environment

4

test server control

reanimatedvirtual

test servers

Test Lab

Test Lab in Palo AltoDeveloper in Austin

Bug report arrives toassigned developer

Developer clicks toreanimate testconfiguration –

before or after theanomaly was detected

2

1

Test server configurationreanimated

(following physical cues)

3

Debugging – Step 2: Developer debugs in exact environment in which bug occurred

test server controlakimbi control

remote connections

virtualtest servers

3 tier testconfiguration

Test Lab

Test Lab in Palo AltoDeveloper in Austin

Virtual Lab Automation - Benefits

Akimbi Slingshot Capability Customer Benefit

Pool and share server, networking, storage and other resources between software development, and test teams and individuals

Automatically and rapidly set up and tear down complex, multi-machine software configurations for use in development and test

Give every developer or test engineer the equivalent of their own fully-equipped data center with dedicated provisioning staff

Maintain a comprehensive library of customer and production system environments

Suspend and capture “ live” multi-machine configurations to a shared library

Efficiently move configurations between development and test facilities

• Reduce equipment-related capital and operating expenditures• Accelerate functional testing

• Shave man-weeks or months off every software development project• Increase the number of certified deployment configurations supported

by new software systems• Find and fix more bugs, earlier in the software development lifecycle

• Enable “ real world” unit testing• Slash time and energy wasted begging, stealing, re-configuring and

protecting hoarded servers, storage and networking equipment

• Eliminate upgrade breakage• Deliver better support users of a software system• Rapidly troubleshoot customer production problems

• Reproduce bugs reliably and reduce time spent in the debug phase• Reduce the number of latent software defects that slip into production

• Increase communication and productivity across distributed software development teams

• Enable confident and efficient outsourcing of software development and test activities

Leading organizations in deployment

Akimbi Systems1400 Fashion Island Blvd.Suite 900San Mateo, CA 94404(650) 887-2204 fax

James Phillipsjames@akimbi.com(650) 356-4401 direct(408) 832-3066 cell