News
Visual Studio TFS Among Leaders in Gartner's Test Suites Report
Microsoft's "team sport"-style integrated development suite makes it among leaders on Gartner's 2014 Magic Quadrant report.
Research firm Gartner released its 2014 Magic Quadrant report on Integrated Software Quality Suites last week, and Microsoft is among the leaders with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server's "solid focus on testing as a 'team sport' involving product owners, developers and testers."
Among leaders, Microsoft is in good company, with IBM at the top, with HP, Borland, Oracle and Soasta on the tail end. CA Technologies, Telerik and Parasoft are other companies cited in the report.
Gartner's report says one of the strengths of TFS is its "solid support for the integration of testing into the build process and for governing code quality processes," matched by tools and training offerings through its Microsoft Developer Network and third-party offerings, as well as its support extended out to the open source community.
Microsoft got serious about adding testing tools to the Visual Studio suite about four years ago, according to a blog from Microsoft Technical Fellow Brian Harry, when the company developed Visual Studio Test Professional. Improvements were made to the tools over the years, and in 2013, Gartner recognized TFS among the testing tools leaders in that year's report, even despite an acknowledged industry ignorance. "So often, I run into people who are surprised that we even have an offering for testers -- it's a very well-kept secret," writes Microsoft Brian Harry in his blog this week.
Microsoft is one-upped only by IBM, which Gartner says has "has one of the broadest portfolios in the testing tool market, going beyond the core of test management and test automation to include static analysis, unit testing, service virtualization and test data management."
The report knocks TFS for its focus within TFS and the Microsoft stack, lack of packaged app testing, and limited mobile testing support.
Gartner's report here.
About the Author
You Tell 'Em, Readers: If you've read this far, know that Michael Domingo, Visual Studio Magazine Editor in Chief, is here to serve you, dear readers, and wants to get you the information you so richly deserve. What news, content, topics, issues do you want to see covered in Visual Studio Magazine? He's listening at [email protected].