Wind River Test Automation Suite Targets Embedded Linux Developers

Wind River has announced a test automation framework aimed at streamlining the software quality assurance process for embedded Linux developers. Wind River Test Management (WRTM) enables development teams to plan and execute tests, perform fact-based analysis, and rapidly resolve testing issues, says the company.

Like Wind River's existing diagnostics products, WRTM is written as a J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) application. WRTM will integrate other Wind River diagnostic products, or with those from other vendors, says the company.

"We have learned that in devices, testing represents thirty to fifty percent of the device development lifecycle, and a growing part of that is testing the software," said Amit Ronen, Wind River's VP and GM of the new Device Management unit, which boasts some 60 employees.

"Testing is growing in importance as the complexity of devices grows almost exponentially," he continued. "Quality is becoming a big business issue. For some vendors, a single customer call to tech support can mean losing margins on that sale."

According to Ronen, WRTM does not currently offer a tracking service, but can integrate with TestLink and other tracking products. Much of WRTM is devoted to managing the complex collaborative and testing process of distributed development, said Ronen, who acknowledged that much testing is outsourced off-shore. "

You have the mothership application, and then you can drop in smaller satellite servers in remote locations," he said. "The architecture offers control over execution engines that can be deployed remotely, so you can run a test locally, and then record it back to the mothership via a secure connection."