Overview

Parasoft, a vendor in automated software testing with over 30 years of industry presence, announced the 2020.1 releases of three enterprise products: SOAtest, Virtualize, and the Continuous Testing Platform (CTP). The update was showcased at the STAREAST Virtual Conference 2020 and targets DevOps and Agile teams that need to collaborate and execute test automation remotely.

Key New Features in the 2020.1 Release

The release focuses on two broad themes: simplifying virtual service management and improving traceability across distributed teams. Specific capabilities introduced include:

• Intelligent virtual service creation wizards – Guided workflows that lower the barrier to adopting service virtualization, enabling testers without deep technical expertise to create and manage virtual services.
• Sequence recording and playback – Teams can record interaction sequences and replay them as virtual services, reducing manual configuration effort.
• Remote performance monitoring of virtual services – Distributed team members can view and track performance characteristics of virtual services through shared dashboards, without needing local access to the test environment.
• Work item traceability – Pre-configured integrations allow teams to associate test cases directly with work items in popular project management tools, including Jira, Xray, and VersionOne.
• Enhanced testing and virtual service dashboards – Updated dashboard views expand visibility across the test environment and give teams a consolidated picture of test coverage and service health.

Why This Matters for DevOps Teams

As organizations accelerate digital transformation, the ability for Agile teams to collaborate asynchronously and remotely inside a testing ecosystem becomes critical. Service virtualization—simulating dependent services that are unavailable, unstable, or costly to access—is a well-established practice for unblocking CI/CD pipelines. The 2020.1 release aims to make that practice accessible to a broader set of team members, including non-technical testers and QA analysts.

Work item traceability is particularly valuable in regulated industries and for teams practicing behavior-driven development (BDD) or requirements-based testing, where linking test execution results back to stories or requirements in tools like Jira is a compliance or governance requirement.

Coverage Across the Testing Stack

According to Parasoft VP of Products Mark Lambert, the suite provides coverage across the full testing pyramid—from unit testing through API testing to Web UI testing—within a single, organically built toolchain:

“With the current state of the world, it’s more important than ever for organizations to embrace digital transformation and for Agile teams to be able to collaborate remotely within their testing ecosystem. In this release, we focused on making that collaboration easier with preconfigured work item traceability for systems such as Jira, Xray, and VersionOne and enhancements to our testing and virtual service dashboards. With Parasoft, we’ve got you covered from Unit to API and Web UI testing. And, because all these technologies were built by the Parasoft team, and not assembled through acquisition, they integrate seamlessly so there’s no need for you to stitch disparate tools together to achieve a consistent workflow.”

— Mark Lambert, VP of Products, Parasoft

This distinction—a natively integrated suite versus a collection of acquired tools—is positioned as a differentiator for teams that have experienced integration friction when combining point solutions from different vendors.

CI/CD Integration and Continuous Testing

The 2020.1 release continues Parasoft’s focus on embedding test automation into CI/CD workflows. The Continuous Testing Platform (CTP) is designed to orchestrate testing activities across environments, making it easier to trigger, monitor, and report on automated tests as part of pipeline execution. By tightening the feedback loop between code change and test result, teams can identify and remove defects earlier in the development cycle.

Products in the Release

Further Reading

For more information on Parasoft’s automated software testing tools, visit the Parasoft website. Details on service virtualization concepts and CI/CD testing practices can help teams evaluate whether this suite fits their pipeline requirements.