Type “how to choose the right software testing tool” into Google and you will find various answers, from open source to best of the breed. How do you move past the flashy product demos and pick up the right tool?
The correct software testing tool will help you accelerate delivery speed, minimize business risks and lower testing costs. Make a bad choice and you will be taking the blame for negating the speed gains otherwise achieved by automation. Here are certain important points to consider while choosing a tool that will work for your culture, your existing team members and your application architectures.
1. Flexibility and ease of use
If you don’t have a proper testing tool, MS Excel is the most popular choice for managing test artifacts. A major reason behind this choice is the ease of use and flexibility of the tool. So, when you are picking up a software testing tool, you must ensure that the tool is easy and flexible to use. Apart from that, the training and user adaption time should be as less as possible. Each organization has a different workflow for their projects and own models of testing. The testing tool that you are picking should be configurable enough to support these model variances.
2. Estimate cost and benefit
To make sure that your software testing tool, or if applicable, the Billing Software is beneficial for your business, the test manager should balance the following factors:
- Cost
- Value and benefit
Carrying out a cost-benefit analysis before acquiring a testing tool is a must-do task. Discuss with the software vendor and see to it that the cost of the tool is not too high as compared to the benefit that it can bring to the teamwork.
3. Try experimenting with various software test automation tools
There are plenty of testing tools available in the market. You must identify which testing tool is made for you. For that, you can download the trial versions of these tools and analyze each one of them. You can have some sample test cases to see how a tool works on them. If you feel you are not satisfied with the trial version, you can request a demo from the software vendor.
Keep in mind the following things while trying the testing tool:
- Compatibility with other tools such as bug tracking tools.
- Support for various OS and browsers.
- The language that your team members are comfortable with.
- Multiple testing solutions.
- Visual record/playback feature, etc.
4. Test planning and management
The software testing tool should be able to manage the test process, provide organization for testing components and generate meaning reports at the same time. A testing tool is a bad investment if doesn’t provide meaningful outputs someone can use. It should let the users include non-automated procedures within automated test results and plans. Along with that, it should be able to link business requirements to the test results so that the users can evaluate application readiness.
5. Integrated support for CI and DevOps tools
A robust automation tool should be able to integrate with CI and DevOps toolchains. This is because test automation is the cornerstone of CI and DevOps practices. If the CI and DevOps support is missing from a software testing tool, it can significantly reduce the effectiveness and benefits in agile projects where speed is a priority.
Going by the trend of an increase in DevOps adoption, the integration capability has become an essential feature for the testing tools. Ask for the DevOps integration from the software vendor at the time of purchase of your testing tool.
Bottom line
Selecting a test automation tool sounds like an easy task in the first place. But if you dive deeply into the automation approaches and your own needs, the selection process becomes more intense and difficult.
The time invested to choose the right tool is worth it to avoid the mistake of taking the tool that seems to fit in the first place. The preparation phase, as well as the selection criteria, will help you save the project budget in the long run.
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