Tricentis Tosca Classic Engine Deprecation

With the launch of Tosca 14.3 in November, Tricentis announced a deprecation schedule for the Tosca Classic engines. This is a big change that has been in the works for a long time. As one of the Senior Managers at TTC, I was asked to share a bit more about what’s going on and how it impacts Tosca users. You can read about this announcement by visiting the Tricentis Knowledge Base.

What is a Classic Engine?

So, what is a classic engine? Tricentis Tosca is a model-based automation tool, at its core; you define a module which maps the technical properties of an application to an element which Tosca steers. Each module uses an engine to interact with the applications we are testing with. Tosca has two types of engines – Classic (or version 1.0) engines and TBox (or version 3.0) engines. Tricentis’ TBox engine was introduced in the 7.x series and has several advantages. Tricentis has been creating more and more TBox engine modules. TTC has recommended using the TBox engine wherever possible, and some clients have never needed to use any of the classic engines. Other clients made extensive use of them in their tests.

Does this kind of change happen often? Not really, Tricentis has supported both modes for a while. In terms of deprecated functionality, this is the largest change we have seen from Tricentis in a long time. As always TTC stands ready to support our clients through every challenge.

What Should Our Clients Do?

When the depreciation process is finished, Tricentis is implementing this depreciation in two phases. When a customer upgrades to 15.0, they will no longer be able to create new classic engine modules, but all existing tests will still run. When they upgrade to 15.1, If a customer has tests which use classic engine-based test steps, those tests will not run successfully. Customers that are impacted by the deprecation do not have to upgrade Tosca immediately, but impacted tests will need to be updated at some point going forward.

What should our clients do right now? I'd recommend three things:

1. Stop creating new classic engine modules. My dad used to say the first step to get out of a hole is to stop digging. Sometimes we would rather use the tool we know than learn a new method. It's time to start investing in upskilling our teams right now.
   
2. Reach out for support for any challenges to automate without the classic engine. Tricentis says at the start of their announcement: "With the availability of new Engines 3.0 and improved VisionAI capabilities, Tricentis will discontinue support for Classic Engines with the release of Tricentis Tosca 15.1." If the new TBox engines don't work for your use case, let them know so they can address this in 15.1. If Tricentis support is not able to help, TTC stands ready to aid with creating customizations that enable your teams to move forward.
   
3. Understand the impact of the upcoming deprecation on your test suites. At the client I work with, some teams are not impacted at all while other teams have 30-40% of their tests impacted. One thing to keep in mind is even teams who don't use the classic wizard to create modules might be using classic engine modules provided in the Tricentis Aid Pack - like TC Dialog and TC String Operation.

Who Will Be Impacted?

How can I confirm if I am impacted? TTC has put together a reporting tool that can show you how many of your tests are impacted and give you an initial high-level estimate of how long it might take to rectify these issues. We are offering a complimentary assessment and report of the impacted elements. You can reach out to us by contacting info@ttcglobal.com to learn more about it.