Rational Integration Tester: Introduction (formerly Green Hat)

Software development is facing four major challenges:

customers expect higher quality of delivered software (Delivering high quality software)
which should be delivered faster (Reducing cycle time)
although they require higher complexity (Increasing dependency between systems)
(and of course companies have to hold down the costs)

First two challenges probably don’t surprise you since we have been facing them for many years. What’s growing on it’s importance is application complexity.

Imagine that you are a part of a development team working for a bank. Your task is to develop a new application consisting of 5 components and depending on other 20 live subsystems. These are the challenges your test team would be facing (considering the well known theorem saying testing software late in it’s development lifecycle is a painful problem causing significant costs, delivering poor quality software, and extending time cycle):

How to test particular component before the other components have been fully developed?
How to test the application when creation of test environments consisting of 20 subsystems is costly or impossible?

Rational Integration Tester

Rational Integration Tester (RIT) is a integration testing and application (service) virtualization tool formerly named Green Hat which has been acquired by IBM in 2012 (more about the acquisition). RIT is part of the Rational Test Workbench offering and it enables:

1. Continuous Integration Testing

There is no need to wait for all of the software middleware and other components to be available, components can be simulated early in the process for testing purposes.

RIT reduces time cycle by incorporating integration testing in early stage and avoids “Big Bang” test method which brings all integration points together.

RIT also cuts risk by enabling iterative and agile development.

Please check this short video explaining what is Continuous Integration Testing:

2. Test virtualization

You can accelerate the availability of your test environment with virtualization of services and applications (RIT offers built in support for over 70 technologies and protocols). RIT can also cut costs associated with the hardware, software and labor required to create and maintain complex test environments. And it also reduces cycle time by removing time wasted setting up test environments.

Please check this short video explaining what is service virtualization:

Conclusion

Rational Integration Tester offers capabilities that use virtualization to create cost effective 24×7 test environments, enabling clients to test earlier and more frequently throughout the development lifecycle. More practical articles about virtualization will come… stay tuned.