Sir Syed University of Engineering & Technology, Karachi

CS-470
Software Quality Assurance & Testing
Week 15
Session 1

Batch - 2017 Department of Computer Science 1

 Test Tool Categories
• We can classify tools as:
• ■ By the level of testing they support; e.g., unit test tools, integration test
tools, system test tools. This strikes us as quite weak, given the potential
for reuse.
• ■ By the types of defects we are looking for with them.
• ■ By the type of test techniques they support; e.g., orthogonal arrays and
classification tree tools are useful when pair wise testing is needed.
• ■ By the purpose of tool.
• ■ By the application domain they are used to test, which is most useful
for domain-specific rather than general-purpose test tools.
• ■ Based on how they are applied.
• ■ Based on the user who is expected to use the
tool.

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 Test Tool Categories - Based on the user who is
expected to use the tool
• Test Management Tools
• Test Execution Tools
• Debugging, Troubleshooting, Fault Seeding, and
Injection Tools
• Performance Testing Tools
• Monitoring Tools
• Web Testing Tools
• Simulators and Emulators

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 Test Tool Categories - Based on the user who is expected to use the tool

• Test Management Tools

• Test management tools are used to help manage the artifacts and
processes of testing.
• Since testing generates information, there’s a lot of information to
manage.
• Good test management tools facilitate the storage and dissemination of
information.
• Some test management tools have built-in requirements modules, others
allow programmatic/API connection to full requirements management
tools.
• Since most test management tools also include the ability to act as a
central ISTQB Glossary test management tool: A tool that provides
support to the test management and control part of a test process.
• It often has several capabilities, such as testware management,
scheduling of tests, logging of results, progress tracking, incident
management, and test reporting. Repository to store analysis, design, and
implementation artifacts and link them all together, these tools can
facilitate full traceability between the test basis and the artifacts we 4
create to test it.
 Test Tool Categories - Based on the user who is expected to use the tool
• Test Management Tools
• Some tools allow the test team to organize conditions for testing in different
environments.
• Together with the storage of test environment data for different environments and
the instructions for building and initializing different environments, these tools can
help us manage very complex testing environments. Most test management tools
allow the tracking of concurrent test execution, including when tests are running in
different test environments at multiple sites.
• Some tools automatically collect results from automated tests and supply a
simplified interface for manual testers to record their results.
• Some of these tools contain modules for tracking incident/defect records. Some
have built-in defect workflow management; others simply interface to stand-alone
defect tracking tools.

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 Test Tool Categories - Based on the user who is expected to use the tool
• Test Management Tools
• By storing all of the artifacts in one place, these tools facilitate the automatic
generation of various test-related metrics, including these:
• ■ Number and current status of requirements
• ■ Time metrics, including the time needed for preparing and executing test cases,
test suites, regression test sets, and other test-process-describing metrics
• ■ The number of test cases, test scripts, test environments, and so forth
• ■ The current state for all test cases, including passed, failed, skipped, blocked (and
the blocking conditions), queued, and in process
• ■ Trends in various metrics like bug find/fix rates
• ■ Logging and failure information Test management tools are used by test
managers, test analysts, and technical test analysts.
• These tools are useful throughout the project lifecycle

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 Test Tool Categories - Based on the user who is expected to use the tool
• Test Execution Tools
• Used properly, test execution tools should reduce costs, increase coverage, and/
or make tests more repeatable.
• Because of the large amount of effort and tedium, test execution tools are often
used to automate regression tests.
• Most test execution tools are also called capture/replay (or sometimes
record/replay) tools; they work by executing a set of instructions written in a
scripting language, which is just a programming language, customized for the tool.
• The tool usually gives precise ability to drive key presses and mouse actions,
along with inspection of the graphical user interface or some other interface.
• The scripts can be recorded using capture (record) facilities; in many of these
tools, you can also program the scripts as you can a real application.
• Capture/replay tools can be useful for tracing the path of exploratory or other
non-scripted testing, but the resultant scripts and expected results are very
difficult to maintain.
• These tools lie at the heart of an effective automation architecture; we’ll discuss
that later.
• Recording is usually performed by intercepting and reading the messages sent to
the operating system queue. Every time you press a key or mouse button or move
the mouse, messages are generated by the operating system and sent to a central
queue. From there, they are dispatched to the GUI elements that are to react to 7
them