REASON #5:  Professional Software Teams Deploy Thoroughly Tested Applications

It's no accident that rigorous software application testing is a core component of every quality and process improvement methodology used today (ITIL, CMM, ISO 9001, Six Sigma); it's also common sense and a good business practice.  Would you order a meal from a restaurant that says, "We've cooked only some of the items on our menu, but not all of them, so if you order something you don't like, please accept our apologies and tell us what was wrong with it, so we can fix it for our next customer."  Hmmm . . . probably not.  So why put your internal (or external) customers through this same treatment?

 
REASON #4:  Automate, Automate, Automate

Sure, we've all heard the horror stories of performing full-scale QA testing on Remedy applications.  Test plans that look like dictionaries.  Test procedure documents that look like encyclopedias.  Plus the sheer amount of time (hours, days, weeks) of tedious, mind-numbing testing activity.  But it doesn't have to be like that!  Load Challenger frees you from virtually all repetitive activities by working alongside your Remedy User Tool and automatically recording your keyboard entries, mouse clicks and API calls associated with each test procedure.  Everything is saved into a XML script file, which can be replayed on demand, either by itself or in conjunction with other XML scripts.  Stop wasting your time and killing yourself performing manual testing!  There's a better way, it's specifically designed for testing Remedy applications, it works with modified out-of-the-box applications AND with custom applications built entirely from the AR System, and it can be downloaded today for an onsite evaluation.

 
REASON #3:  Your Boss (and Their Boss) Can't Afford Another Error-Ridden Remedy Deployment

This will apply to only some of you reading this (and you know who you are).  It's a fact that some IT groups are respected for their diligent efforts maintaining network services and deploying quality software applications . . . that is, until the word "Remedy" comes up.  Why?  In many cases, it's because Remedy applications inherently lack three essential ingredients:

• No monitoring agents or other tools to tie Remedy back to a central system management console
• No automated testing tools to streamline unit, component, system and acceptance testing
• No measurement tools to establish absolute or incremental performance benchmarks

Load Challenger can't do much about the first item, but it directly and completely addresses the remaining two items.  That's a HUGE improvement for Remedy support teams, and a substantially better way to ensure the deployed Remedy application will realistically meet customer requirements and meet acceptable levels of performance.  (And that's cheap insurance to help preserve EVERYONE'S job!)

 
REASON #2:  Change Management?  We Don't Need No Stinkin' Change Management!

Actually, you do.  A simple change management process can mean the difference between a chaotic and reactive IT operation, and a smooth running IT operation with few surprises and almost no unplanned outages.  "Can't be done" you say?  It HAS been done and CONTINUES to be done, by companies of all sizes and within all industries.  It's no secret that most unplanned outages occur immediately after a system change, so it's no surprise that a core component of successful change management is assessing system features before a change activity (e.g., an operating system or network upgrade), then performing regression testing on the same system after the change activity.  This ensures that all features present BEFORE the change are still present AFTER the change.  A simple but effective concept, and one which Load Challenger streamlines to the extent that automated Remedy application regression testing will quickly become part of your standard application management process.

 
And the #1 reason for automating Remedy application testing with Load Challenger . . .

 
REASON #1:  Deploy Better Remedy Applications, in Less Time, with Less Effort, and at a Lower Cost

By "better" we mean applications that roll out containing substantially fewer errors, or applications that roll out with known and acceptable levels of performance for both local users and remote users (or a combination of both).  Load Challenger automates virtually all aspects of unit testing, integration testing and acceptance testing, and it automates load testing and performance benchmarking from a variety of local and remote client locations.  In fact, assuming you've performed automated QA testing, acceptance testing and performance testing on a new or enhanced Remedy application, it's hard to imagine end-users reporting ANY major issues.  (Enhancement requests are an entirely different matter!)

By "less time" we mean a shorter elapsed time between project inception and finished application deployment, effectively reducing the Remedy application's software development life cycle.  That's because once the procedures for unit testing, integration testing and acceptance testing are stored as XML scripts in a test library, they can be run whenever necessary, thus reducing the lag time between developers and QA, and turning around test deliverables in hours, not days or weeks.  Plus, ongoing regression testing virtually eliminates "feature loss" throughout the software development process, so there's less time going back to debug previous code ("fresh" code is MUCH easier to debug than old code) and you'll be far more successful earning a "pass" on the FIRST round of formal acceptance testing.

By "less effort and at a lower cost" we mean fewer labor hours expended by both your development team and by your QA team (and in these times of reduced IT staff levels, that's a HUGE advantage), thus a lower overall cost.  Near-immediate turnaround for unit and integration testing means addressing missed application features and coding issues immediately, before additional features have been layered on top, thus minimizing expensive rework time.  Plus Load Challenger's automation lets QA accomplish in minutes what used to take them hours.  (Dare we say that with this level of automation, you may not even need a separate QA team for your Remedy application effort?)

Load Challenger can and does deliver all of these benefits.  See for yourself by sending us an email asking to view a live demonstration or requesting a trial version for your own team's evaluation.