Stories about: Parasoft

SOAP is the currency of the SOA marketplace -- for now, anyway. Though SOAP's significance may diminish as Web services evolve, its importance for the time being is unquestionable. Therefore, a substantial portion of the QA work by Web service providers and consumers must entail verifying the accurate exchange of SOAP messages. Not surprisingly, several SOAP-focused Web service testing tools have appeared.

Microsoft revealed the official names Monday of the next major upgrades to its Visual Studio software development tools platform and its SQL Server database, which will be called, simply, Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008.

Compuware, Parasoft, and AutomatedQA this week plan to offer products to improve software development processes, with Compuware focused on quality assurance, Parasoft on SOA testing, and AutomatedQA on build and release management.

Parasoft continues to send its Jtest Java testing suite out to hunt down bad Java code. And Jtest knows that the definition of bad Java code continues to expand: One bit of code might be bad because its developer didn't follow best practices for coding style, making it difficult for other programmers to understand and interface with it. Yet another bit might be bad because it is poorly factored and overly complex, or because it crashes when executed. A different bit of code might be bad because it was written with no consideration for security and could be easily compromised by a malicious hacker.

Microsoft on Monday is unveiled its official Atlas technology branding for AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) programming on ASP.Net, and will make the software available sooner than planned.

Service oriented architectures continue to capture attention; at the same time their complexities need managing.

As I mentioned in my last column, establishing an effective, self-regulating group culture offers a tremendous benefit to managers: It allows you to effectively guide the group by managing the culture rather than micromanaging the team members.

Few group managers and technical leaders spend much time thinking about group culture, but establishing an effective, self-regulating group can be a giant step toward achieving the positive project outcomes that are critical for career advancement. Such a culture will relieve you from having to micromanage, which can detract resources from the higher-level management tasks that are essential in guiding the project to success. Micromanaging is also typically resisted by group members and ultimately ineffective.

For Web apps, 2005 was the year of AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). In addition to bringing rich GUIs to many high-profile commercial apps, AJAX got a boost from some top-notch toolkits including Backbase, JackBe, and Tibco General Interface. We also witnessed the emergence of static code analysis tools -- from vendors such as Compuware, Coverity, Fortify Software, and Secure Software -- as a promising way to identify software defects and security issues. JRules 5.0 broke new ground in exposing business rules to business users, and Borland reigned in our roundup of enterprise Java IDEs.

One of the most difficult career decisions that an IT professional must make is determining when it's time to leave his current employer and start anew at another. Many people in the industry change companies fairly often because they believe that the best way to increase their value is to be well rounded, versatile and prepared to on take any project. I believe that the opposite is actually true: It is the most specialized developers who are most valuable.

It's not uncommon for standout techies to move up the ranks to IT management. Management assumes that techies are fully prepared to lead the group because they excelled in their previous position and know the ins and outs of the group and projects that they're being asked to manage.