Software Testing Tools

Software testing can be performed either manually or using automated testing tools. In manual testing, test cases are generated, the software is executed, and the result produced is documented manually. Hence, manual testing is considered to be costly and time-consuming. To reduce the time and cost, automated testing is used. There are many testing tools available that are useful in several places while testing software product. These tools can be categorized as static testing and dynamic testing tools.

Static testing tools: These tools test the software without executing it; rather, they are concerned with analyzing the code or documentation for syntax checking, consistency, etc. Static testing can be manual or even automated with the use of static analysis tools. Static analysis tools examine the source code of program and highlight the statements with wrong syntax, undefined symbols or variables, use of uninitialized variables, and so on. They also check for flaws in the logic flow of the program.

Dynamic testing tools: These tools interact with the software while execution and help the testers by providing useful information about the program at different events. This information may include the number of times some particular statements is executed, whether all the branches of decision point have been exercised, minimum and maximum values of variables, and so on. While performing testing with automated tools, the following points should be noted.

1. Clear and reasonable expectations should be established in order to know what can and what cannot be accomplished with automated testing in the organization.
2. There should be a clear understanding of the requirements that should be met in order to achieve successful automated testing. This requires the following consideration.  The organization should have detailed, reusable test cases, which contain exact expected results and a stand-alone test environment with a restorable database.
   1. Technical personnel to use the tools effectively
   2. An effective manual testing process, which must exist before automation begins.
4. Testing tool should be cost-effective. It should involve minimum technical personnel and should ensure that test cases developed for manual testing are also useful for automated testing.
5. Select a tool that allows implementation of automated testing in a way that conforms to the specified long-term testing strategy.

Many automated tools are available for performing the testing process in an effective and efficient manner. Automated tools like Mothora are used to design test cases, evaluate their adequacy, verify the correctness of input and output, find and remove the errors, and control and summarize the test. Similarly, Bug Trapper is used to perform white box testing. This tool traces the path of execution and captures the bug along with the path of execution and the different input values that resulted in the error. Some other commonly used automated tools are listed in Table.

                                           Table Software Testing Tools