Ability to Execute. Completeness of Vision. MQ for Distributed Testing, 2003: Visionaries and Niches

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1 Markets, T. Lanowitz Research Note 16 September 2003 MQ for Distributed Testing, 2003: Visionaries and Niches Testing is key to software application delivery and life cycle management. Many of the vendors shown as visionaries and niche players in this Magic Quadrant are likely to be the leading vendors of the future in distributed testing. Core Topic Application Development: Measuring, Operating and Maintaining Applications Key Issue Which vendors provide testing tools and processes for traditional mainframe, midrange and distributed computing environments? Testing is a key component of the application delivery and management process. Challenges for the future of testing include security at the application level, application programming interface (API) testing and compliance testing. Many of the vendors represented in the Visionary and Niche Players quadrants of this Magic Quadrant will be the providers of the future in the testing market (see Figure 1). These vendors are beginning to create products that will have significant effect on the testing market during the next one to two years. Figure 1 Distributed Testing Magic Quadrant, 2003 Challengers Leaders Mercury Interactive Ability to Execute Quest Empirix IBM/Rational Segue Keynote Systems Solstice RadView Telelogic Borland Compuware Parasoft As of September 2003 Niche Players Visionaries Completeness of Vision Source: Gartner Research (September 2003) Gartner Reproduction of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Gartner shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof. The reader assumes sole responsibility for the selection of these materials to achieve its intended results. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

2 One of the areas with the greatest potential is API testing at the developer level. Application integration and the continued use of packaged applications will drive API testing to a position of importance in the future. Although new challenges are abundant, the core of testing functional and performance will not decrease in importance. Here, we address the vendors in the Visionaries and Niche Players quadrants. In 2003, there is only one vendor designated a visionary. Vendors in this quadrant typically do not have the market presence, channels or size of their contemporaries in the Leaders and Challengers quadrants (see "MQ for Distributed Testing, 2003: Leaders and Challengers"). Visionaries are unique in the ways that they attack problems and make their presence known. The Niche Players quadrant is populated with vendors that offer tools for black-box and white-box testing. Many of the vendors offering white-box solutions are new to the testing market and must gain experience in finessing messages to the testing market. The Niche Players quadrant offers an interesting dichotomy of "old guard" black-box testing vendors and newly anointed vendors attempting to solve the problems of tomorrow (see "Selection Criteria for Distributed Testing Tools, 2003"). The Visionaries Quadrant Parasoft ( is a provider of a suite of tools that have performed well. Parasoft's automated error-prevention message harkens back to the essence of building quality. Parasoft believes that defects should never enter the code if proper engineering practices are followed. The Parasoft tools, which are designed for the developer, work with Java, C++,.NET, and Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) testing and monitoring. Technology Reputation as an innovator Management leadership Satisfied customers Limited partnerships Relatively small company 16 September

3 The Niche Quadrant RadView ( is an automated testing vendor that has struggled to carve out a significant segment of its own. RadView has consistently stayed on message and outlined the virtues of open standards and ease of use, and it has built a loyal customer base that shares its view; however, the task of competing with the larger testing vendors has proved to be challenging for this company. RadView has articulated a business strategy of offering a comprehensive level of functionality at a highly competitive price point, but it has yet to demonstrate that its strategy is sustainable. The company must focus on its strengths and make proactive decisions on the markets it should pursue to leverage these strengths to their fullest advantage. Easeofuse Good technology Satisfied customer base Shaky financials Web only (no legacy) Market visibility Solstice ( formerly Class IQ, is a vendor to watch in the testing market, especially in the area of application integration. Solstice understands the power and presence of the vendors in the Leaders and Challengers quadrants. This understanding of the market is rarely seen in the software industry. As a result of this keen insight, Solstice has positioned itself in the emerging application integration niche. The testing of application integration is key for the implementation and use of technologies such as Web services, the MQ Series and Tibco products. Solstice's technology is a good complement to established black-box vendors' functional and performance testing tools. Marketing Willingness to partner Weakness: Relatively unknown vendor Quest ( acquired Sitraka, the producer of JProbe, in October Sitraka was a pioneer in 16 September

4 the Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) arena. The JProbe product line is often used by developers for white-box testing in profiling, memory leaks, thread analysis and code coverage. Although the JProbe product line is quite well- known by white-box testers, Quest has an obligation as the parent company to continue innovation with white-box testing. This innovation and movement into newer problem areas is not obvious. Quest seems content to fold the former Sitraka products into its own lineup, rather than expand its market position and offer significant innovations, which were the hallmark of Sitraka. Good penetration Brand recognition of the JProbe products Inability to push beyond its comfort level in its current market position Not continuing with Sitraka's innovative style Borland ( has begun to create products that fit into the whole software development life cycle. With its acquisition of StarBase and TogetherSoft, Borland has elevated itself to compete directly against, yet work with, IBM and Microsoft. Borland is in a strong position to become a preferred provider of software development life cycle tools for J2EE and.net a position that was recently dominated by Rational. There's more to Borland than a company offering leading-edge tools to grassroots developers. It has always innovated on standards and had a loyal customer following. This cachet of quality will go a long way in helping Borland break through to new customers. However, Borland must be able to provide strong business value propositions to potential customers, rather than merely offering technology solutions. This has been the dilemma Borland has faced numerous times in its history. Borland's largest opportunity is the growing J2EE market, where developers often struggle to track and trace production problems back to their root causes deep within Java applications. Borland's entry into the testing market is Optimizeit, a white-box testing tool for developers that provides a profiler, debugger, and code coverage for.net and J2EE. Borland's history of leading-edge products will be reason enough for loyal developers to use Optimizeit. Borland must convince a broader market that Optimizeit is a tool that should be seriously considered for use by developers of any platform. 16 September

5 It is consistently a leading-edge technology provider It is a developer company It has the ability to reinvent itself after a near-disaster Weakness: Inability to expand its customer base through concise value propositions centered around business Telelogic ( is a purveyor of a suite of tools for the software development life cycle. Telelogic's testing entry, Tau, delivers a Unified Modeling Language (UML) tool, the ability to design and implement real-time software, conformance testing, metrics, and systems and integration testing. For test organizations with an understanding of process and the discipline of software engineering practices, Telelogic Tau is a product to be considered. The average Type B or C testing organization will not benefit from Telelogic Tau, because the assumption is made that the test team is technical in nature and is fully integrated into the software development life cycle. Management Understanding of market segmentation for its products Extensive partnering program Open and extensible tools Relatively small company Acronym Key API J2EE SOAP UML application programming interface Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition Simple Object Access Protocol Unified Modeling Language Partnerships to offer more-robust solutions Bottom Line: IS organizations need to understand the requirement for multiple types and layers of testing. Testing is an important part of the application delivery and management cycle. Enterprises with competencies in testing will be more competitive and successful than those that ignore or delay testing. 16 September