The Magic Quadrant for Software Test Automation

One of the most fundamental questions test engineers ask before starting a new project is what tools they should use to help create their automated tests. Luckily, Gartner issues a yearly report to address this issue. This report, “Magic Quadrant for Software Test Automation,” focuses specifically on functional software test automation and the UI automation facilities of tools. The use cases the report considers with regard to each tool includes:

• They must support mobile applications
• They must feature responsive design
• They must support packaged applications

With those use cases as evaluation criteria, Gartner evaluated 12 major vendors:

1. Automation Anywher
2.  Borland
3. Hewlett Packard Enterprise
4. IBM
5. Oracle
6. Original Software
7. Progress
8. Ranorex
9. SmartBear
10.  TestPlant
11. Tricentist
12.  Worksoft

As part of its analysis, Gartner placed each vendor in one of four categories:

1. Leaders – Those who support all three use cases.
2. Challengers – Those who have strong execution but typically only support two of the use cases.
3. Visionaries – Those who generally focus on a particular test automation problem or class of user.
4. Niche Players – Those who provide unique functions to a specific market or use case.

Beyond that, the vendors were assessed by their ability to execute and their completeness of vision. In short, ability to execute is ultimately the ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Completeness of vision is the ability of the vendor to understand buyers’ wants and needs and successfully deliver against them.

The result is above. It’s important to mention that Gartner notes that most organizations typically have more than one automation tool provider. In addition, many of the solutions are still maturing – and will continue to mature over time.

Gartner updates the report on an annual basis, and it’s valuable to any organization who does testing. Testing, as we often say at DCG, is a key part of the development process, but it’s one that is often overlooked. The information in this report can enable organizations to make educated choices about software vendors, resulting in improved software quality and execution.

Read the article: “Magic Quadrant for Software Test Automation.”

Mike Harris
CEO

This blog was originally posted at https://www.softwarevalue.com/insights/blog/posts/2016/october/the-magic-quadrant-for-software-test-automation/.