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Precise Data Services Revitalizes Application with DevPartner Studio
   
Lyndon Aistrope, managing director for Precise Data Services, understood exactly how critical it was to his client for the application to work successfully. "Biotechnology research is expensive and time-consuming. It’s essential that organizations in this field are supported by technology that is faultless, reliable and achieves maximum results." Without effective software to process its raw research data, the client company couldn’t maximize the return on its research investment. DevPartner Studio Identifies the Problem, Offers Solution
Precise was able to identify the existing problems within the application and develop solutions to fix them—thanks to DevPartner Studio. "We used DevPartner Studio to conduct an objective audit of the customer’s faulty application. We were able to detect, diagnose and fix problems with the code and maximize the application’s overall performance," Aistrope says. DevPartner Studio Professional Edition is Compuware’s comprehensive suite of Windows-based, multi-language productivity tools. Fully integrated into the Visual Studio .NET IDE and used in building .NET, web-enabled, e-commerce and distributed applications, these tools help developers detect, diagnose and facilitate resolution of software errors; maximize code performance; and ensure optimum code coverage and testing whether developing in Visual Studio .NET or Visual Studio 6. Among the suite’s more noted capabilities include source code review, error detection and diagnosis, code coverage analysis, performance analysis and distributed application analysis. "DevPartner Studio let Precise identify critical faults within the application and rebuild it from s scratch—guaranteeing it performed to expectations," Aistrope says. "When the audit revealed the application was incapable of accepting any new functionality, the client approached us to completely redevelop it," he continues. "DevPartner Studio’s analysis and development functions also allowed us to cross-sell our initial analysis services with more lucrative development services. It’s a great tool for generating new revenue opportunities."
Aistrope says selecting DevPartner Studio as the tool to use for Precise Data Services was an easy choice. "We chose Compuware’s DevPartner Studio over its competitors because of its sophisticated code review and automated testing capabilities—capabilities not found in other vendor technology."
TestPartner Aids in Development EffortsTestPartner from Compuware also played a critical role in the application redevelopment and testing. TestPartner is an automated software test management tool designed specifically to validate Windows, Java and web-based applications by coordinating the efforts of testing and development. TestPartner bridges the gap between development and testing teams, enabling them to work closely together to find and resolve problems early in the development cycle. Testers who do not have programming knowledge can use the TestPartner Visual Navigator to quickly create visual-based tests and execute them. Developers can utilize TestPartner for unit testing and share test scripts with testing teams. By executing the test scripts created by testers, developers can immediately reproduce reported errors and therefore quickly identify and fix software problems. TestPartner leverages DevPartner’s automated error detection technology for detecting internal software errors and determining code test coverage. This results in more productive testing and less redundancy in the testing life cycle. Aistrope says TestPartner continues to play a vital role in the ongoing project. "It greatly reduces the need for time-consuming, manual testing of code," he says. "The scripts we created during development were reused and tracked during our QA testing, saving us a tremendous amount of time and hard work," adds Jadranka Krapic, testing manager for Precise. Four Stages of Application RedevelopmentThe application redevelopment and new functionality were completed in four stages by a four-person team from Precise Data Services. "We used Visual Basic 6 for the project," Aistrope states. Stage one of the project involved migrating the database application to an SQL server so it was stable enough for the developers to add new functionality. Stage two involved standardizing the application’s forms and scripts in Visual Basic so it could deliver the intended functionality. "DevPartner Studio helped considerably in the redesign of the application for our client because it enabled us to refine the existing code considerably, making it more concise and effective," Aistrope says. "Its code review functionality acts like the grammar check in Microsoft Word—it picks out sloppy programming and offers tips on refining what’s there to improve the quality of the code." The first and second stages of the project were completed by the end of 2002, at less than a third of the original development cost. Stages three and four will involve the addition of new features to the application and enhancements to some existing features. Would Aistrope recommend DevPartner Studio and Compuware to others? You bet. "We’ve already done that," he says. "DevPartner Studio is easy to use, gets the job done and is fully supported by Compuware. We value our relationship with Compuware and look forward to the continued revenue-generating opportunities DevPartner Studio will present." |
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When an Australian-based biotechnology company approached Precise Data Services to detect why one of its applications designed for storing and analyzing research data was not performing as expected, Precise IT professionals turned to the tool they knew would help identify the cause of the problem: DevPartner Studio.
