
In this article, you will learn about the different testing tools used in software testing. Let us begin the article by asking the question, why you need software testing. Let us find the answers.In this article, you will learn about the different testing tools used in software testing. Let us begin the article by asking the question, why you need software testing.
Let us find the answers
Why is Software Testing Necessary?
Without beating around the bush let us straightly go for the answers point by point.
- Software testing process is needed to find a defect in the software. Significantly, it is a performance test and functional testing determiner of the software.
- Moreover, these defects or bugs should be identified at an early stage to avoid more costs.
- Software testing ensures reliability and user-friendliness
- Untested software can be error-prone and it can lead to a business crash, thereby, causing heavy loss to the customer.
- Software issues can also lead to loss of life. For example in the case of Therac 25, many died due to repeated programming errors. Patients died because of heavy radiation doses, a hundred times greater than normal.
- Tested software provides efficient resource utilization, resulting in low cost
Different Testing Tools Used in Software Testing
First, we have to understand that there are different types of testing tools. In this article, we shall focus on nine different types of test and the tools employed to carry out the tests.
But before that, software testing is broadly divided into two, namely, manual test and automated tests.
The 9 different tool categories are,
- Automated Testing Tools
- Cross Browser Testing Tools
- Test Management Tool
- Load Testing Tools
- Defect Tracking Tools
- Mobile Testing Tools
- API Testing Tools
- CSS Validator Tools and
- Security Testing Tools
Now let us look into the tasks accomplished with each tool in software testing.
1. Automated Testing Tools
Top automated testing tools are,
Selenium
Selenium is designed to support automation testing of functional aspects of web-based applications, a wide range of platforms and browsers.
Furthermore, it also helps in regression tests. Moreover, Selenium API works with Java, C#, Ruby, and Python.
UFT/QTP
Unified Functional Test (UFT) formerly known as Quick Test Professional (QTP) is one among the leading cross-platform test automation tools. It allows the automation of user actions on a web or client based computer application.
Furthermore, it is widely used for functional regression test automation. Moreover, it can be used to automate desktop, mobile, web, net, SAP, ActiveX, Flex, Delphi, Java, Oracle, Visual Basic, and many other applications.
2. Cross Browser Testing Tools
Top cross browser testing tools are,
Browsera
Some of the important features of Browsera are,
- It can quickly detect cross-browser layout problems automatically by comparing each browser’s output.
- JavaScript errors are collected and reported from every browser after each test.
- It’s site crawling feature makes it easy to test all the web pages of a single site.
Browsershots
Browsershots is a cross-browser testing tool. This allows testing websites that run on Windows, MacOS, Android or iOS. Furthermore, this tool provides screenshots of websites in a testing environment which makes it possible for finding all the major HTML or CSS faults.
3. Test Management Tool
Top Test Management Tools are,
qTest
Some of the prominent features qTest are,
- Allows real-time integration with Jira
- Seamless test automation scheduling and CI integrations
- Agile test management
- Exploratory testing and session based test
- Enterprise BDD
QMetry
With QMetry test management, automation, and predictive analysis are covered in a single platform. Furthermore, it has integrations with platforms such as JIRA, Selenium, Appium, Bamboo, Jenkins, etc..
4. Load Testing Tool
The top load testing tool is,
Apache JMeter
Apache JMeter is an open source Java desktop application designed for load test. Its architecture is actually centered around plugins. This allows JMeter to provide a lot of box features.
Furthermore, it supports different types of applications, servers, and protocols. Other features include powerful Test IDE, dynamic reporting, command line mode, probability, and multi-threading.
5. Defect Tracking Tools
Top defect tracking tools are,
JIRA
Prominent features of JIRA include,
- JIRA Query Language helps to create quick filters with a single click
- You can create custom workflows of any size helpful to build, test and release software.
- Install plug-and-play add-ons from The Atlassian Marketplace to fit all types of cases.
BugNet
BugNet helps to find out bugs. Moreover, it is a cross-platform application written using an ASP.NET platform. It requires MySQL database as a backend tool. Furthermore, the main objective of BugNet is to make codebase simple and easy to deploy.
6. Mobile Testing Tools
Top Mobile Testing Tools are,
Appium
Appium is an open source test automation framework which can be used with native, hybrid, and mobile web apps. Moreover, it drives iOS, Android, and Windows apps using the WebDriver protocol.
Perfecto
Perfecto is a SaaS platform. It allows app developers to test web, mobile, and IoT. Furthermore, it’s prominent features are,
- Cloud base mobile application testing
- Support for Agile Environment
- Integration with other testing tools like Selenium and Appium.
7. API Testing Tools
Top API Testing tools are,
SoapUI
SoapUI is an open source web service testing application. It is applicable for service-oriented architectures (SOA) and representational state transfers (REST). Moreover, it is a leading open source cross-platform API testing tool.
Tricentis
This is prominent among APIs testing tool. It’s features are,
- It offers Autonomous SAP Testing
- It has mature, robust, SAP Test Automation Capabilities
- Solution Manager Integration
8. CSS Validator Tool
The main tool under this category is,
W3C CSS validator
Some of the features of the tool are,
- It recognizes many browser extensions and prefixes
- It has an integrated web browser. This allows browsing and checking of the websites parallelly.
- Furthermore, it alerts accessibility issues to prevent people from using a particular page.
9. Security Testing Tools
Some of the important Security Testing Tools are,
NetSparker
This is a security testing tool. It automatically scans websites, web applications and web services for vulnerabilities. It is renowned for automatically identifying and verifying vulnerabilities with a proof of concept. Furthermore, it supports Enterprise Level Collaboration.
OWASP
It’s prominent features are,
- Verifying security early and often
- Validate all types of inputs
- Implement identity, authentication controls, and all the appropriate access controls.
Final Thoughts
Faster delivery of software is today’s demand. Software testing needs good tools. Furthermore, with AI and ML taking the lead, the current generations of tools offer advanced capabilities, intelligent test execution, and comprehensive reporting. For further understanding of various implementation techniques used in software testing, you can get resources from a software testing course.
Finally, the above tools implementation process comprises the following,
● To analyze the problem carefully that includes identifying strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities.
● Constraints such as budget, time and other requirements are noted
● Developing the Proof of Concept that captures the pros and cons
● To create a pilot project using the selected tool within a specified team
● To roll out the tool phase wise across the organization.