Identification of the right software testing tool is critical to ensure the success of software testing. The effort put in the tool evaluation process enables the successful execution of the project. Also, it’s essential to balance the requirements of both the Dev & QA team and Management. However, selection of the right software testing tools mainly depend on the project requirements, but there are some common important criteria you should always consider. Here I’ve divided these criteria into two parts: For QA team & Developers and For Organization.
Criteria for QA team and Developers
Broad technology support
An application must support users across a wide diversity of platforms, environments, and technologies. To avoid the need to purchase multiple testing products, select a testing solution that provides an all-inclusive testing environment to support all system configurations.
Look for a tool that supports the type of automated testing you need — Most common candidate of automation testing are: Functional testing, Unit testing and Performance testing. Ensure that the tool provides broad testing support, as your needs may change in the future. Add-ons may be available to expand the versatility of a given tool.
Make sure the tool supports all the platforms(web, mobile web, iOS native, Android native). Also, see which languages does the tool support for writing test scripts? Many automation testing tools provide flexible scripting options, allowing testing teams to write test scripts in their most favorable languages.
CI, DevOps Support
To avoid the automation delay, QA team run automation tool with CI process. Running the tests under CI creates a new requirement: The tests will need to be versioned with the code. That means the tool needs to run from the command line and produce output the CI system can interpret. For such requirements, your tool must be compatible with other CI tools like Jenkins, CircleCI, etc.
Integration with other tools
It is important for the testing tool to be in sync with the existing Release and Build Management Tools. Some testing tools have ready plugins for common bug reporting and project management tools like Jira. It is important to carefully analyze the support of the integration with these tools available in the new automation tool. While in some cases some API implementation may be required but that requires development skills to be integrated. It could be a simple integration with the e-mail service in an organization, or an SMS based reporting in case of failure, but these requirements could be essential for a testing program in an organization so should be carefully considered.
Test Management
A robust testing tool should have the capability to manage the testing process, provide organization for testing components, and create meaningful end-user and management reports. It should also allow users to include non-automated testing procedures within automated test plans and test results. A robust tool will allow users to integrate existing test results into an automated test plan. Finally, an automated test should be able to link business requirements to test results, allowing users to evaluate application readiness based upon the application’s ability to support the business requirements.
Criteria for Organization
High adaptability to cope with ever-changing business requirements
New business requirements can emerge literally overnight – creating an immediate need to revamp an application. But will you be able to revamp all of the associated test cases in time? Look for software testing tool that minimizes the burden of heavy maintenance. The inherent
reusability and easy maintenance of an object-oriented testing solution will provide the ability to change test scripts quickly, along with the portability and extensibility to embrace different technologies.
License Cost
An important concern while choosing any product or service is the cost. It is also the case when choosing a testing tool. The important thing to take care of this aspect is to balance between the needs and the budget. It might not be as simple as comparing the posted rates on the website. Every license cost is different in terms of the pricing of their products. Open source license is another lucrative option. The one thing you need to take care of is that the tool has a strong technical support.
Test Reporting
Test Reporting is another critical factor while choosing a testing tool. One important aspect is that whether the tool allows customized reporting, what form the data can be exported/imported from the tool. If the organizations already have reporting system it is important to check whether the same reporting can be derived from the new testing tool. In many tools, these options are built in while in others there are ways to make the report more comprehensive. If a tool gives a comprehensive report on failure then it is the best for the organization.
Conclusion
Tool evaluation is indeed a process in itself and requires a lot of research irrespective of who does the evaluation. The above listed criteria help you to make an informed decision with regards to the best tool to assist you with your software testing process.