News

Merant, Mercury link PVCS and TestDirector

• By Lana Gates
• March 31, 2003

Change management tool maker Merant Inc. (http://www.merant.com), Hillsboro, Ore., and Mercury Interactive Corp. (http://www.merc-int.com), Sunnyvale, Calif., have integrated the former's PVCS Dimensions, PVCS Version Manager and PVCS Tracker with Mercury's TestDirector 7.6 test management software.

Prompted by what officials from both firms described as demand from customers and prospects, the integrated products can automate communication, collaboration and coordination across development and quality assurance (QA) groups. "There is an increasing need for closed-loop change management across the project life cycle as organizations seek competitive advantage and reduced time to market, while ensuring quality," explained Ash Owen, Merant's director of product marketing.

By integrating the products, industrialization and mechanization of IT is tightly tied into quality and the testing process, noted Jonathan Rende, Mercury's VP of product marketing. This is significant, he added, because "what's core to the business should seamlessly integrate with testing. Information can flow freely from one to the other."

Users of both Merant's and Mercury's products can take advantage of this integration and can realize numerous benefits as a result, the key being a seamless flow and consistent view of information. Officials said the integration replaces TestDirector Defect Manager with Tracker, and all defects are submitted directly to Tracker. In this way, defects between TestDirector and Tracker are synchronized. A set of roles defines synchronization, deletion and override rules.

Other benefits include secured and managed test scripts and plans, an automated and optimized QA process, and an automated bug-fix cycle. A test defect raised in TestDirector, for example, can be synchronized with Dimensions change documents or Tracker software change requests, providing full traceability of defects throughout the life cycle.

"Integrating test management with change management practices and disciplines derives value to development and QA," Merant's Owen said.