Borland Software said Monday it bought Gauntlet Systems, which makes technology that helps automate quality assurance in software development, allowing Borland to increase its focus on its application life cycle management business.

said Monday it bought Gauntlet Systems, which makes technology that helps automate quality assurance in software development, allowing Borland to increase its focus on its application life cycle management business.

Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed. San Francisco-based Gauntlet was far along in the process or getting venture funding before being acquired by Borland. The company had only four employees, which included founder Sam Pullara, a BEA WebLogic veteran, who will now become chief architect at Borland.

BEA

“Borland’s focus on both improving developer productivity and optimizing the software delivery process is a great match for our goals at Gauntlet,” Mr. Pullara said.

This acquisition will help Borland introduce and enforce quality and security standards earlier in the development life cycle, without slowing down the process and deterring developer productivity, the company said.

Cupertino, California-based Borland is a provider of technology that helps developers streamline the process of software development, which is often chaotic and unpredictable. Borland’s software helps developers make development easier to manage and more predictable.

Gauntlet’s technology, which will be integrated into Borland’s Application Lifecycle Management program, will extend the company’s offering in the quality assurance area.

Gauntlet’s product tries to detect potential problems in the software development process before they have a chance to affect other developers by pre-screening all new code against a set of quality guidelines.

“It’s prevention as opposed to a diagnosis of the problem after it happens,” said Rob Cheng, director of developer solutions at Borland. “These tests [from Gauntlet] include things like license compliance, security vulnerability, and best practices.”

Along with the above feature, Gauntlet will also provide business intelligence capabilities for software development teams. These will include dashboards and interfaces giving a broader look into the software life cycle. These features are expected to provide data such as project status, code metrics, test results, and code coverage tends. The dashboard will also provide data on other factors that influence a project such as meeting the timeline, budget, and specifications.

This acquisition is also expected to complement Borland’s other recent buyout, Segue Software, for $100 million (see Borland Buys Segue for $100M). Segue specializes in providing systems for managing and improving software quality throughout the development life cycle.

Borland Buys Segue for $100M

In February, Borland also said it is seeking a buyer for its Integrated Development Environment (IDE) business, which includes the Borland Developer Studio (Delphi, C++Builder, and C#Builder) and JBuilder product lines.

Delphi

Borland stock fell $0.13 to $5.26 in recent trading on the Nasdaq.