Category: Test Tools

Once you have made a selection, you have to roll out your new tool. This is usually done within the context of a pilot project in order to verify the tool’s usefulness in a real-world, project-based situation. A pilot project should be led and implemented by persons who were not involved in the tool selection…

Once you have decided which test tasks you want to automate, you can begin the tool selection process. Because the cost of investing in a new tool can be very high (see above), you need to plan the process carefully. The tool selection process comprise five steps: Selection criteria In Step 1, the following criteria influence…

Basic Considerations and Principles Some of the tools listed above (such as comparators or coverage analyzers) are already built into several operating systems (Linux, for example), enabling testers to perform basic testing using “onboard” tools. However, built-in tools often have fairly limited functionality, so you will usually need additional, specialized tools to test effectively. As…

Software automation tool selection, purchase, and maintenance costs money, while acquiring appropriate hardware and training staff to use them uses further resources. The cost of rolling out a complex tool to a large number of workstations can quickly run into six figures. As with any other investment, the planned amortization period of a new testing…

System access and data security Tools are also available to check for security vulnerabilities6 that could be used to gain unauthorized access to a system. Anti-virus apps and firewalls belong to this category of tool, as they produce logs that can be used to identify security flaws. Tests that reveal such flaws or check whether they…

Load and performance tests are necessary when a system has to execute large numbers of parallel requests or transactions (load), whereby predefined maximum response times (performance) are not to be exceeded. Real-time systems, most client/server systems, and web-based or cloud-based systems have to fulfill these kinds of requirements. Measuring response times Performance tests verify how…

Tools take over repetitious testing tasks People who refer to “test tools” are often actually referring to the tools used to automate dynamic testing. These are tools that relieve testers of repetitious “mechanical” testing tasks such as providing a test object with test data, recording the test object’s reactions, and logging the test process. Probe…

Static tests and analyses (such as reviews) can generally be performed on documents with any kind of structure, but tool-based static analysis relies on documents having as formal a structure as possible. For source code, the structure is prescribed by the syntax of the programming language, while formal specifications or models are governed by the…

To ensure that a test case is reproducible, the individual testing steps, the test data, and the corresponding pre-and postconditions have to be defined and recorded. Most test management tools offer templates or familiar notations to support the creation of consistently structured test cases. These include keyword- or interaction-based notations, as well as the generally…

Test management Test management tools offer ways to register, catalog, and manage test cases and their priorities. They also enable you to monitor the status of test cases—in other words, you can record and evaluate whether, when, or how often a test has been performed and the results it delivered (pass/fail). They help test managers…