Simplification - for Technology and Tools Adoption
It is beyond any doubt that technology has ridden on a dramatically steep and exponential curve over the last few centuries. From pigeons and pony riders to Video Conferencing and Twitter, the communication and networking media testifies the progress very aptly. Until the last two decades, the advancements in technologies, though significant, had limited audience and users. However, the massive communication and entertainment revolution has resulted in technology becoming affordable and easy to use. Never before in the history of humankind have so many people and diverse physical objects, ranging from mobile phones to microwave ovens been networked. [1]
Perhaps the best illustration of the impact of this change would be the penetration of cell phones in the day to day lives of people. Simplicity and affordability hold the key to the success of this device and the technology that runs it. If however, one draws a parallel to the engineering tools used in the IT industry on the same lines, these tools have some catching up to do.
Short learning curves, usability and efficient process enactment can bring about a change in the perception and the subsequent usage levels of engineering tools. The inception of these tools is often met with challenges in terms of complexity (installation-wise and feature-wise) and affordability. While the latter challenge is addressed in organizations like Infosys through standardization and procurement of engineering tools across services, the former remains to be addressed.
IDEs for one have been widely embraced by the software development communities across technologies. IDEs have been successful in abstracting many activities like compiling, creation of build files, code indentation, commenting etc. to significantly reduce the learning curves for the technologies they support. Also, with platforms and frameworks like Eclipse, end to end integration of tools becomes a reality that allows seamless flow of data across lifecycle stages. Modern IDEs come with features that enable the creation of User Interfaces with minimal coding skills and also reduce the amount of effort spent in connectivity with application and database servers alike.
With a view to simplify the usage of automation testing tools, attempts have been made from all leading enterprises to develop testing tools that generate English-like scripts. This would help end users like Business analysts to record and play back test scenarios with little or no programming capabilities. The advent of such scripts has significantly improved the productivity in these activities and reduced the learning curves.
Testing tools have also undergone significant improvements with respect to data centric testing. Functional testing tools like IBM Rational Functional Tester and HP Quick Test Pro can now get filtered data from the appropriate dataset for testing. Performance testing tools like IBM Rational Performance Tester and HP Loadrunner provide virtual user environments to create the load and stress testing scenarios with minimal technological/ programming skills.
With speed and high performance being the new mantras of the current age, it is all the more important that engineering tools are simplified in a way that can enable them to be embraced by the IT community. The ease of deploying the tools which do not complicate the process and steps to get the final product will be dependent on the simplicity of the usage, decrease in the learning curve and the accessibility.
[1] Read more on "Bridging the gap between real and virtual worlds" by SD Shibulal, CEO and MD, Infosys Limited
Created with inputs from Mallika Singh, Infosys Tools Group
