Agitar Software Announces Formation of Agitar Software Laboratories (AgitarLabs) to Foster and Advance Research in Test Automation

Initiative Includes Sponsorship of Researchers and Open-Source Contributors Working on Software Test Automation

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif, October 31, 2006 -- Agitar Software, the leader in enterprise developer testing, today announced the formation of Agitar Software Laboratories (AgitarLabs). In addition to serving as the focal point for internal research and advanced development, a key component of the AgitarLabs’ mission is involvement with academic researchers and the open-source community through sponsorship and research collaboration. AgitarLabs will be headed by Alberto Savoia, Agitar’s co-founder and CTO.

"I am very excited about the formation of AgitarLabs," said Savoia, whose previous experience includes being the Director of Software Research at Sun Microsystems Laboratories. "There are huge opportunities for advances in software testing and test automation, but there are also formidable technical and cultural challenges to overcome. I believe that active collaboration between industry, academia, and open-source is the most effective way to tackle those challenges, foster innovation, and increase adoption of test automation tools among software developers. The creation of AgitarLabs will help us focus on these activities."

AgitarLabs' first community initiative is the creation of the AgitarLabs Research Fellowship program. The fellowship will provide financial sponsorship and other forms of support to researchers and open-source contributors working on software testing technology. More details about this and other academic programs, together with the announcement of the first recipient of the AgitarLabs Research Fellowship, will be made in November.

"Agitar Software has deep roots in industrial and academic research, and we owe much of our success to that research," said Dr. Roongko Doong, Agitar’s co-founder and Vice President of Technology. "Alberto and I met while working on test automation research at Sun Microsystems Laboratories. Agitar’s core technology, software agitation, was inspired by Dr. Michael Ernst’s innovative research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is only natural for us to establish a research program that will contribute back to the people and the community that made Agitar possible."

In addition to its academic initiative, and to help foster the adoption and spread of best practices in software development and developer testing, AgitarLabs will sponsor several open-source projects in the area of software testing and test automation.

"Customer success with our products has taught us a lot about what software development organizations need to easily embrace developer testing and see maximum business benefit," said Jerry Rudisin, Agitar's President and CEO. "JUnit and CruiseControl are perfect examples of open-source tools that have changed the way many developers design, build, and test their code, and have also started a much needed movement to enable developers to take direct responsibility for the quality and testing of their own code. Software developers need more tools like JUnit and CruiseControl. Through AgitarLabs, we will increase our sponsorship and active participation in several key open-source projects."

Researchers, open-source developers, and students who are working in the area of software testing, or test automation, and are interested in learning more about AgitarLabs’ initiatives and activities, should contact Dr. Marat Boshernitsan, AgitarLabs’ Director of Research, for further information.

Dr. Marat Boshernitsan
Director of Research
Agitar Software Laboratories
marat@agitar.com

About Agitar Software:
Agitar helps development teams release software faster while improving quality. Agitar’s products help Java developers find and fix problems in the riskiest parts of their code as they write it, "building quality in" instead of "testing bugs out." Customers have documented shorter development cycles, 90 percent reduction in defects handed over to system integration, and up to 90 percent lower cost of bug fixes. Agitar’s breakthrough technology, software agitation, has won awards including the Java One Duke’s Choice, Jolt Award, Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Award, and InfoWorld Technology of the Year. Thousands of users at organizations such as Avaya, Bear Stearns, Cisco, EDS, GE Healthcare, IBM Global Services, Northrop-Grumman, NTT Data, Siemens Medical, and webMethods use Agitar’s products to improve in-house, offshore, or outsourced software development. Agitar is funded by leading Silicon Valley venture capitalists Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates & Globespan Capital Partners. Agitar is a privately-held company headquartered in Mountain View, California. For more information on how to develop software with confidence, please visit www.agitar.com.

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