Smooth as Silk Integration
Rounding out Gauntlet's backend integration is its connectivity to test suite software, especially Borland's own SilkCentral Test Manager (SCTM). While the product currently performs a hand-off to links from preconfigured tests performed by SCTM, Borland is currently working on a new iteration of the tool that should provide seamless drill down and bubble ups of test metrics directly related to check-in data so that a developer's work can be closely monitored from any point in the lifecycle. Hooking into client-side installations of Borland's SilkTest (www.borland .com/us/products/silk/silktest) for automated regression and functional test runs, and SilkPerformer (www.borland.com/us/ products/silk/silkperformer) for load testing and application performance analysis, SCTM rolls-up these individual runs into a collective presentation across the active application's construction. The next version of SCTM will bring this accessibility and lifecycle visibility even closer and more real-time than ever before.
Additionally, because of Gauntlet's open platform, the ability to communicate with other IT ALM investments should alleviate concerns of legacy and future product integration efforts. To further facilitate this objective, Borland has opened up Gauntlet's internal APIs to allow plug-in extensions to further enhance the product. As of this writing, Borland has posted several plug-ins (www.borland.com/us/products/silk/gauntlet/ plugins.html) for the platform and anticipates a healthy open and third-party market of future Gauntlet plug-in extensions.
Coming Soon
While Borland is understandably keeping its secrets close, it does provide a key word of what's to come—more. More dashboards, more details, more reporting options, more integration partners, more platforms, and more processes. The Gauntlet cornerstone has been set in place and the OpenALM wheels have been set in motion. Borland has reinvented itself as an enterprise application lifecycle management company and with its products and services aligned, its solutions coming to fruition in the form of an OpenALM-enabled product portfolio, its vision is innovating positive change in the market and destined to help software development organizations succeed.
