Software professionals have been known to describe the task of building, configuring and integrating new software in as little as two words: "nightmare activity".
However, with E-infrastructure for Testing, Integration and Configuration of Software Phase 2 – or ETICS 2 – they have an all-in-one solution that helps to configure and build software, and at the same time check its quality. As the result of three years of project activities, this system provides tools and resources to build and test runs, thereby simplifying complex and often repetitive activities.
"By automating many day-to-day tasks, ETICS 2 supports software professionals to obtain higher-quality software, a shorter time to market, a lower risk on schedule and reduced project costs," said Alberto Di Meglio, ETICS 2 project manager at CERN.
ETICS 2 advantages
The ETICS 2 system exploits Grid software and distributed computing infrastructures. It is highly customizable, multi-platform and independent from any build or test tool. Project data and results from daily, nightly and continuous builds and tests can be viewed and edited through a rich web application.
The system's Automated-Quality Certification Model, known as A-QCM, provides a way to automatically evaluate and certify aspects such as functionality, reliability, maintainability and portability of any kind of software, while following current ISO software-quality guidelines.
Continuous refinements have been a hallmark of ETICS 2, thanks to collaboration with its users, which include organizations such as EGEE and D4Science. The ETICS 2 team is now working together with members of EGI, such as UNICORE, ARC and gLite, to enhance ETICS interoperability testing features. ETICS 2 is also developing a new functionality to design and run complex tests over distributed networks, a feature that is rare to find even in high-end commercial test management applications.
The ETICS 2 system user community now includes 35 projects that are using or evaluating its services.
"A-QCM trial certifications are now starting and whoever is interested in issuing their software with one can contact our support team at etics-support@cern.ch," said Jorgen Boegh, a senior consultant from Engineering Ingegneria Informatica S.p.A., responsible for the quality-certification model.
On 21–23 October, ETICS 2 testing and quality-verification features will be shown at the Q&ATEST conference in Bilbao, Spain, during a hands-on tutorial session.
Meanwhile, users can download the software from the ETICS 2 website.
Useful links
ETICS 2 website: http://cern.ch/etics
Q&ATEST conference: www.qatest.org
This article was published online in iSGTW on 27 May ( www.isgtw.org/?pid=1001819).