| Commercial Tools | |
| Test Explorer | While not exactly an "Automation Tool", this is one of the
most useful QA tools that I have ever used. It essentially records all
actions performed in discrete steps, for reproduction manually. I
include this here, as it "Automates" the Test Case Authoring phase of
QA, and essentially frees you up to do more actual work at testing the
application. Since there are many applications, or parts of
applications, that either are not able to be automated, or not cost
effective to automate, and since a human is always going to find issues
that an automated system won't, this is definately a tool that every
member of QA needs in their arsenal. Test Explorer records not only your test steps in clear text form, but also screenshots of the current window during mouseclicks, and periodic screenshots on window events, like page reloads for web based applications, or another window becomes active. After the test has been run, and recorded, you can then save/play a video file of the entire test from start to finish. This is not only useful for delivering to development, but also to look at tests as they were actually executed. Currently, this is focused on Web Based technologies, and standard windows applications, but handles most types of applications (Java Swing, etc.) well enough, both with context sensitive text turned on (Resulting in "Tester clicked the OK button") or off (Resulting in "Tester clicked X:Y") This is actually intended to be an Exploratory Testing tool, and is VERY good for this purpose as well. It works exceptionally well if there is little or no documentation on the software, and includes everything from an issue tracker, to a test execution interface for followup testing once an issue has been resolved. This, in conjuction with the ability to define Charters (paths through the application) prior to testing, as well as an exceptional reporting system, makes this an absolutely must have if exploratory testing is an important part of the QA cycle. Full Disclosure: I do Beta Test this software prior to release. I also speak with Dave Gilbert (the owner of Sirius SQA) regularly, and consider him a friend. That said, the software has garnered the same reaction from most everyone that I've seen use it. |
| Proxy Sniffer | This is a tool that is very good for easily defining load tests for websites, without any coding knowledge. In general, this is not acceptable, as I need more control, however this is a "90 percent-er" (It does 90% of what I need, with 10% of the effort), in that it does give you some control with loops. Also, this is something that I can give to those without a programming background, and expect them to be able to use it. |
| Free Open Source Tools | |
| Selenium |
Selenium is a functional web testing tool that supports AJAX,
comes with an easy "recorder" plugin for firefox, and has the ability
to translate the tests into a variety of languages, python among them,
through Selenium-RC. |
| Pexpect (Python Module) |
Yes, this is a python module. I've included it here because I
find it incredibly useful for testing services, daemons, and
commandline applications, as well as checking logs, and a host of other
actions that aren't as easily automated without it. Essentially, it automates anything that you can do on the commandline. It requires a Posix environment, but cygwin is acceptable in a pinch. It has an extended class specifically for automating SSH sessions, which comes in handy many times, as these are not able to be automated in other fashions easily. |
| Tools Under Review | |
| ConsoleTest |
I would like to either emulate this, or use it in conjunction
with Pexpect, to impliment some record/playback functionality to
automate commandline applications. It seems useful at the very least. |
| FunkLoad |
I am considering this for the 10% of web load testing I can't easily do in Proxy Sniffer. |
| Marathon | I'm currently planning on using this, in conjunction with tools written internally, to automate two very difficult Java Swing applications. If it works out, I'll add it to the toolbox. |
| VNC Robot |
This is a load test application for nearly any GUI
application. It actually automates the VNC session itself, and doesn't
talk to any underlying components. This can be both a blessing and a
curse, but coupled with other technologies, or if I have need to test
citrix applications, this is a wonderful addition. While this is not
FOSS yet, it might well be released under an open source license when
v2.0 arrives. |
| Python Testing Tools | I need to take a look at this site and evaluate the tools contained on it for use in my own toolbox. |