Agitar, a provider of enterprise unit testing, has integrated AgitarOne to Java unit testing—with the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform 7.0, desktop products. Unit testing is the practice in which software developers create tests for their code as they write it, helping to ensure that the code works correctly.

AgitarOne claims to bring simplicity to Java unit testing by automating the generation of JUnit tests, supporting interactive exploratory testing on Java code, and helping developers eliminate error-prone coding patterns. The integration of AgitarOne and the IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform 7.0, desktop products, complements IBM's current offerings for testing with a unit testing solution that increases developer productivity, improves code quality, and helps companies be more agile. The validation of AgitarOne to the Ready for IBM Rational software validation program offers IBM customers assurance that the product meets IBM's requirements for interoperability and user experience, the company claimed.

As customers adopt Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), they are challenged with mapping their enterprise architectures and business processes to IT services architectures. In addition, more systems teams, like those developing aircraft systems or electronics products, need to interact with the IT systems, manage co-development and meet new compliance regulations. Increasingly, customers are looking for ways to use open source products in their software delivery. In view of this IBM had rolled out IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform 7.0 desktop products, the company claims.

The desktop products are Eclipse-based tools designed to help Rational customers govern the process of software and systems delivery, and to tighten the relationship between IT and line of business, said Scott Hebner, vice president of strategy for IBM Rational.

This product release has special relevance for customers involved in SOAs, Hebner said, because the new capabilities are designed to help them to take an architectural approach to automating the delivery of software and services, and to improve their quality particularly in a geographically distributed environment, he continued.

"We're talking about empowering the 'A' in SOA," Hebner said. "As customers mature their approach to modular software, that sound architectural approach becomes increasingly important."

The IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform 7.0 is based on the Eclipse 3.2 release. "We're using Eclipse to make this set of products more consumable," Hebner said. "We've taken advantage of Eclipse to make it possible for developers to plug-and-play the different functions they need. You could almost think of the platform as a portal for developers to these capabilities."

IBM had earlier announced the contribution of translations for the Eclipse Project, the Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) Project, the Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform (TPTP) Project, the Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) Project, the Eclipse Modeling Project, the Eclipse Data Tools Platform (DTP) Project and for several subprojects of the Eclipse Tools Project for the Callisto releases.

Further, Business Objects, a provider of Business Intelligence (BI) solutions, has revealed that Crystal Reports for Eclipse is available as an integrated reporting solution within the new version of IBM Rational Software Delivery Platform 7.0, desktop products. Crystal Reports for Eclipse, a 100 per cent Java reporting solution, is part of the embedded reporting solution provided by Business Objects for Rational desktop users, the company said.