Agitar Software Laboratories Raises the Bar for Thought Leadership in Developer Testing

AgitarLabs Announces New Research Results and Contribution to Amazon’s Top-Selling Software Development Book

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., August 1, 2007 – Agitar Software Laboratories, or AgitarLabs, established in 2006 to advance the state of the art in developer testing, today announced publication of its recent results in testing research and a key contribution to O’Reilly’s best-selling book on software development, Beautiful Code: Leading Programmers Explain How They Think.

"Architects, novelists, and musicians routinely study classic works in depth before trying to create masterpieces of their own," said Dr. Greg Wilson, an assistant professor of Computer Science at the University of Toronto and co-editor of Beautiful Code. "Our aim with this book was to help programmers do so as well by having some of the world's best-known developers 'think aloud' about their favorite pieces of code. And just as programs aren't finished until they have been tested, we wouldn't have considered the book complete without a chapter on beautiful testing. Given Alberto's expertise, passion, and sense of humor, he was an obvious choice to write it."

"We invited pioneers in software development and design to share examples of the artistry and strategy behind programming," said Andy Oram, an editor at O’Reilly Media, a respected book publisher and technology information provider, and co-editor of Beautiful Code. "In particular, the Beautiful Tests chapter by AgitarLabs’ Alberto Savoia illustrated how to bring the same sense of adventure and suspense into testing that programmers feel when coding. The chapter reminded me of the excitement security experts express when they think out of the box and try to imagine unconventional uses of software."

Beautiful Code is a collection of essays and articles by well-known software development and programming experts such as Brian Kernighan, creator of the C language, Jon Bentley, a renowned author of the book Programming Pearls, and Tim Bray, a major contributor to the XML and Atom web standards. Currently rated No.1 on Amazon.com in the programming category, the book gives advice and case studies on how to creatively and carefully design solutions to high-profile software projects and development dilemmas. AgitarLabs’ contribution, "Beautiful Tests," written by Alberto Savoia, CTO and co-founder of Agitar Software, helps developers understand how running consistent and thorough tests can make code more robust.

"Writing the Beautiful Tests chapter for Beautiful Code was a great privilege and a unique opportunity for sharing my approach for making code more robust and more beautiful through testing," said Savoia. "There is no doubt that we are in the middle of a developer testing revolution. More software organizations than ever are realizing that there are huge benefits to be gained from early unit testing. Unfortunately, there are still too many developers who consider testing to be beneath them – a poor cousin to real coding. I hope that the examples in ‘Beautiful Tests’ will help some of those developers realize that, when done properly, testing code can be as challenging and rewarding as writing it in the first place."

In addition to its contribution to Beautiful Code, AgitarLabs continues to demonstrate its thought leadership in developer testing with three research papers that advance the state of the art in developer testing.

Differential Testing: A New Approach to Change Detection by Robert Evans and Alberto Savoia, and State Coverage: A Structural Test Adequacy Criterion for Behavior Checking by Ken Koster and David Kao, explore advanced technical ideas that will enhance Agitar’s commercial products. These papers will be presented at the 6th joint meeting of the European Software Engineering Conference and the ACM SIGSOFT Symposium on the Foundations of Software Engineering in Dubrovnik, Croatia.
Using Portfolio Theory for Better and More Consistent Quality by Ken Koster proposes a novel approach to managing testing efforts in large software development organizations, and was recently presented at the 2007 International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis in London, UK.

"I am very proud of Agitar’s contributions to academic research on software testing," said Dr. Marat Boshernitsan, Director of Research at AgitarLabs. "Agitar has long benefited from the wealth of academic research on software testing by absorbing its core ideas and turning them into successful products. By publishing our own research results in open scientific venues, we hope to gain valuable feedback on our work, contribute back to the community that made Agitar possible, and demonstrate Agitar’s commitment to advancing the state of the art in developer testing."

More information on Agitar’s research initiatives and downloadable versions of AgitarLabs’ research publications are available from its website at www.agitar.com/company/agitarlabs.html.

About Agitar Software:
Agitar Software enables the enterprise to release its Java applications faster and to change them more easily to meet changing business needs. AgitarOne automatically creates the tests needed to simplify complex code and to make all code easier to change. Customers have cut by 50% the time they spend fighting with existing applications, released new ones 30% faster with fewer bugs, and cut by 90% the cost of finding and fixing bugs after releasing applications to users. Software teams can meet their schedules without sacrificing quality and functionality. Customers such as Bank of America, Cisco, EDS, Fujitsu SSL, IBM Global Services, MindTree Consulting, Siemens, Tata Consultancy Services, and Tokyo Gas see these benefits using Agitar’s solution for in-house, offshore, or outsourced software development. Agitar is a privately-held company headquartered in Mountain View, CA. For more information visit www.agitar.com.

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Editorial Contact: Sarah Conway
Page One PR for Agitar Software
Phone: +1 978-969-3010
Email: sarah@pageonepr.com