Reflections of Software I Created over the Last 14 Years in My Spare Time

Zhimin Zhan
5 min readFeb 6, 2021

After announcing my latest app WhenWise, I took the time to review the software I developed these years:

  1. TestWise — functional testing IDE (2006 — present, first public release in 2009). Demonstrated at Agile 2009 conference’s AAFTT workshop in Chicago, listed as the first testing tool by Agile testing book author Lisa Crispin, and a finalist in the 2010 Ruby Award. For 14 years, on the days when I program or test, I use TestWise.
  2. AdminWise (2012 — present). A small admin system I created for a charity organization, and have been maintaining for free. It is still in use.
  3. ClinicWise — practice management software (2013 — present). A system I originally developed for my brother’s dental clinic, ClinicWise helped his clinic become one of the most successful dental clinics in the region. Later, ClinicWise has been made publicly available, and clients have expanded to Physios as well. In 2020, I started merging ClinicWise into WhenWise, our new app.
  4. BuildWise — Continuous Testing Server (2014 — present). Continuous testing is a key process of DevOps/Agile. Tools, such as BuildWise, enable real Agile/DevOps: to develop high-quality software at great efficiency. BuildWise received the runner-up prize of the 2018 Ruby Award in Japan.
  5. SiteWise CMS (2012 — present) — Content Management System. Frustrated by the existing web publishing platform (due to lack of flexibility), I created my own. All AgileWay products’ sites are hosted on SiteWise, as well as some businesses.
  6. LoadWise (2010–2013) for load testing web apps. It has got some commercial interests, including the US Department of Homeland Security. However, with more web apps adopting AJAX, the approach does not work well. Though it is still commercially feasible, I shelved it. I am now experimenting with a simpler loading testing approach with BuildWise.
  7. SupportWise (2014 -present) — our internal support system. AgileWay customers raise support tickets and manage purchases/renewals there.
  8. StoryWise (2010–2017), an extension of RedMine to generate a requirement traceability matrix. While StoryWise is still working well and appealing to software managers, I rarely use it myself…
Zhimin Zhan

Test automation & CT coach, author, speaker and award-winning software developer. Help teams succeed with Agile/DevOps by implementing real Continuous Testing.