The Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform (TPTP) project said it is achieving success advancing the TPTP platform through increased industry adoption and contribution. A number of companies are contributing to TPTP, which is gaining a wealth of features thanks to a dynamic collaborative environment. New contributors include Computer Associates, which joined in December and was appointed to lead the TPTP Monitoring Tools, one of the four projects in TPTP, and OC Systems, a provider of application performance tools and services, which announced its involvement with TPTP today and will release an add-in later this year.

"We are extremely pleased by the level of participation from such diverse companies. The TPTP Project brings together market-leading test and performance tools vendors along with highly innovative, smaller vendors and technology organizations," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director, Eclipse Foundation. "We look forward to further growth from this Eclipse Top-Level Project and to wider market adoption of the TPTP platform as a unifying platform for testing and performance tools."

IBM and Scapa Technologies have already released TPTP-based products. Computer Associates, Intel and OC Systems have discussed publicly plans to use TPTP-based technology. Scapa built its application performance testing, diagnosis and monitoring product, Scapa Test and Performance Platform 3.1 on TPTP. IBM's offerings on TPTP include Rational Functional Tester, Rational Manual Tester, Rational Application Developer and Rational Software Architect. The TPTP project continues to gain momentum within the IT industry as a whole.

"[TPTP] will reshape the testing and monitoring tools market," noted Carey Schwaber, a research associate at Forrester Research, in a 2004 report. He said, "As more vendors standardize on [TPTP], the result will be better tool integration, easier tool customization, increased tool choice, and less vendor lock-in. This will be a boon for users and a force for change in the industry. Users should expect and demand that their tools use [TPTP]."

Building on the recent TPTP 3.2 release, the TPTP roadmap calls for continuous expansion of new capabilities and enhancements, including another major release, TPTP 4.0, in mid-2005. Key enhancements to be delivered include broadening the platform's reach by integrating more open source technologies such as JUnit and supporting additional operating systems and hardware platforms.

In addition, TPTP 4.0 will include lifecycle management tools that target large organizations and improve scalability in handling high data volume. "One of our goals when launching the TPTP Project was to expand the scope and adoption of the Eclipse Hyades Project, now TPTP. To achieve this, we set our sights on attracting new contributors from a wide range of stakeholders," said Tyler Thessin, project lead for the Eclipse TPTP Project and engineering manager for Intel software development products. "We are encouraged by recent growth in contributors and commitment levels from large and small companies, and we aim to drive further development and adoption of the project with innovation from current and new contributors."