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Test Tools

What is a test tool?

Let us start by stating the obvious: a test tool is a piece of software or an aid that is used when, for example, a developer or software tester is testing software. Pretty obvious isn’t it?

IT has become an extremely important part of our lives. Every day different specialists are working together to code and build software as cleanly as possible. But that doesn’t mean the code can’t contain bugs. You should always assume that bugs are part of the development process. Of course, you would rather see those errors be removed before you go live with your app, software. system, website or other platform.

Take for example performing a stress test. In this particular test type, you use a tool that helps you simulate traffic or usage. You use the same test tool to map out what a normal situation looks like. And you use the tool to monitor the system when it is heavily overloaded. The advantage of using a suitable tool is that the tests can easily be simulated. It can also be used to detect bugs or to reveal other findings.

Popular tools

There are many different test tools and test frameworks that are in use by testers and developers. Their goal is to provide valuable insights into the test results. Popular tools for automated testing include Open Source tools like Selenium and SoapUI, and commercial tools like Ranorex.

Selenium

One of the most widely used software testing tools is Selenium. Selenium belongs to the group of Open Source test automation tools. It is specifically designed to support Automation Testing of functional aspects of web based applications and a wide range of platforms and browsers.

SoapUI

If you are looking for a cross-platform open source tool for functional testing of SOAP or REST, then choose SoapUI. SoapUI is written in Javascript and is used to perform functional and load tests on API’s.

Ranorex

Ranorex Studio is an automated testing solution designed to help businesses design, run, and deploy automated tests for mobile, web, and desktop applications.

These tools are just a few examples of the tools used on a daily basis within a lot of different companies. But there are a lot more common test automation tools available which can be explored. For example, there are specific test tools for automated mobile testing, like WebdriverIO and Appium (WebdriverIO is a test automation framework that allows you to run tests based on the Webdriver protocol and Appium automation technology).
Other non-functional test tools are placed in the domain of performance testing and security scan tools. Examples are Jmeter, Loadrunner, Neoload and Zed Attack Proxy (ZAP).

It’s a software jungle

Testing tools are designed to make testing simple, more secure, and insightful. However, in practice we see a major pitfall for automated testing. With all the different test tools available in the market, it seems like we can automate almost everything and every step in the process with almost unlimited tools.

There seems to be a test tool solution for every problem. All test tools say they can provide new insights. And all tools deliver their solution in their own way. Not necessarily being able to work together with other tools and test automation solutions.
As a result, you have a lot of data from different test tools at your disposal that needs to be brought together and managed in a consistent way. We see that this management of test results is not happening because it is too complicated or simply takes too much time. This is often the bottleneck. How do you ensure that all data is correctly read out and used for improving the quality of the software?
How do you make sure you do not just run every test? How do you know which ones will be inefficient? How can you point out easily what the cause of a bug is?
How often have you seen a bug at the final stage, which you already have seen before?
It happens more often than you think, because you cannot not remember all bugs or errors. The human brain cannot remember everything. Besides, if we look at all the test output that automatic testing generates, there is just too much data to follow and it is growing all the time.

Say goodbye to the jungle!

Are you looking for clear and actionable insights into your automated test results? Do you like to see all test results presented in one clear way for the best overview of your testing and quality?
At Orangebeard we have many years of experience with software testing and mapping the generated data. We know what a struggle it can be to manage and prioritize all the data from your automated tests. We have used many different test and development tools and processed enormous amounts of data.
With our knowledge and experience, we have developed a platform that connects to all known test tools, collects the data and presents your test results in an uniform way for easy analysis and understandable reporting. And, above all, Orangebeard automatically analyzes and classifies the test results with machine learning, so you save a lot of time that you can spend on other crucial test activities!