Best Automated Testing Tools for Continuous Testing

Today, software development is all about Agile and Continuous Delivery practices that aim to keep up with changing business needs and requirements. How can we ensure quality when the software requirements keep changing?

With Continuous Delivery, every build passes through multiple stages of the execution pipeline where they are continuously tested, modified, re-tested, and released before delivery with less or no manual intervention. Software releases are made incrementally to ensure the quality of the software being delivered.

Continuous Delivery can help meet customer requirements effectively and draw the return on investment (ROI) without having to wait for several months and years altogether.

Continuous Testing with Shift-Left approach is one of the key enablers for Agile And Continuous Delivery practices. Continuous Testing involves automating the tests and running these automated tests early and often, along with service virtualization to setup all the required infrastructure. Automation Testing must be integrated at the initial stages of the development cycle to ensure Continuous Testing.

Data from the World Quality Report indicates the need to increase the level of test automation and the need for smart test automation platforms. Organizations looking to deliver software at speed need intelligent automation and smart analytics to speed up decision making and validation and to better address the challenges of testing smart devices and products that are highly integrated and continuously changing. The report also suggests the need for smart test platforms that are self-aware and self-adaptive to support throughout the complete application lifecycle.

The success of a test automation process depends on the automation testing tools being chosen. You need to choose an automation testing tool that supports multiple environments, integrations with several tools, provide a wide array of resources and has a dedicated help system.

Age-old test methods and tools can impact the delivery speed and quality, which in turn affects the cost of software development. Thus, the selection of the right set of tools is very important to implement Continuous Delivery. Continuous Testing is directly related to Continuous Delivery.

Hence, in this article, I have jotted down a list of automation testing tools and framework that has the potential to keep pace with Continuous Delivery through Continuous Testing. The list includes both open-source and commercial automation testing solutions.

These are some of the automation testing tools that we considered to ensure Continuous Testing in our organization:

1. Testsigma

We are currently working with Testsigma and are quite impressed with it. Testsigma uses natural language statements to create test steps and is quite easy for manual testers and for anyone getting started with Test Automation.

We have been using Siesta since our code is primarily written in Ext JS, but the tool demands extensive source code knowledge. With Testsigma, writing tests are quite easy and has turned out to be a huge time-saver.

Highly available test environments and required infrastructure are important to ensure Continuous Testing. They offer what is called a Testsigma Lab that has thousands of Device/Browser/OS configurations on the cloud to match with the dynamic testing requirements continuously. Modification on some parts of a test can affect related tests, but the AI can warn you of this.

There are many other additional features, including Test Data Management, Reusable Step Groups, Object Repository, Integrations with CI/CD tools, Email, Slack, Jira, and many more. Custom Functions in Testsigma lets you add customized Java/Selenium code which helps you extend the functionality of Testsigma with your own Test Steps for distinct scenarios.

Testsigma is a SaaS test automation software with support for Web/Mobile applications and RESTful services and uses a Shift-Left approach in parallel with the Development phase.

Testsigma is an AI-driven Test Automation software. Definitely worth a try.

2. Selenium With Test Automation Frameworks

Selenium is a popular automated testing tool. It is the most widely used open-source test automation framework for web applications. Selenium has always been a choice for automation testers with scripting skills.

Selenium supports multiple operating systems(Windows, Mac, Linux) and browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE, and Headless browsers). It supports various programming languages such as Java, Groovy, Python, C#, PHP, Ruby, and Perl.

Lately, many automation testing tools and frameworks have been built on Selenium with all the essential components to enable continuous testing instantly by eliminating huge initial setup time, resources and programming skills.

However, Selenium on itself is not sufficient for all your Continuous Testing requirements. There are multiple other tools and frameworks you need to consider to enable Continuous Testing through Selenium. It involves a huge effort to integrate these tools together.

Also, Selenium demands advanced programming skills and a dedicated time and effort to build the automation framework to meet specific testing needs.

Robot Framework is one of the most popular frameworks used with Selenium for Continuous Testing. It uses keyword-driven approach for acceptance testing and acceptance test-driven development (ATDD). The test capability can be further extended by implementing additional test libraries using Python and Java. Robot Framework can not only be used to test web apps but also to Android and iOS apps.

There are many other test automation frameworks (open source and commercial) similar to Selenium available on the market today.

3. IBM Rational Functional Tester

IBM's Rational Functional Tester (RFT) supports a variety of applications and allows for both storyboard testing and test scripting. It includes API testing, functional UI testing, and performance testing. It enables shift left testing to run these tests much earlier in the development cycle, allowing better collaboration between testers and developers to identify and fix bugs much earlier in the development cycle.

Regression tests are vital in ensuring software quality. RFT helps create regression tests automatically, to enable testing the effect of each change made to the applications without manual effort continuously.

RFT integrates tightly with IBM Rational Quality Manager (test management tool) and many other tools to enable continuous testing. It’s a commercial tool and it supports functional testing, regression testing, and data-driven testing.

4. Tricentis Tosca

Tricentis Tosca is a Continuous Testing platform that speeds up testing and help achieve better test coverage through automation testing. It helps provide feedback fast and continuously to identify and fix the bugs at the earliest in the development cycle.

Tosca helps you automate many layers of enterprise architecture, including APIs, app UIs, business intelligence etc. Tosca also provides insight on the risk of release candidates.

Using a model-based automation approach, Tosca reduces maintenance overheads. A Model is an abstraction of the software functionality. When the underlying model is modified as per change in the requirement, the Test Cases are automatically synchronized to the new model.

5. UFT

Unified Functional Testing (UFT) is a well-known commercial tool for functional testing. It provides a comprehensive feature set for API, web services, and GUI testing of desktop, web, and mobile applications across platforms. The tool has advanced image-based object recognition feature, reusable test components, and automated documentation.

Other features include Reusable Test Components, which reduces redundancy in Test Steps, easy conversion of Manual Tests to Automated ones, shift-left compliance, and Test Execution on multiple machines and devices.

Test scripts in UFT are crafted using Visual Basic Scripts which requires a considerable amount of scripting knowledge.

UFT supports integration with Mercury Business Process Testing and Mercury Quality Center tools. It also supports Continuous Integration by interfacing with CI Tools such as Jenkins.

Bottom Line

With the right tools, Continuous Delivery enables an organization to release incremental deliverables with quality and efficiency and yield a good return on the investment. With so many options, it can be challenging for enterprise teams to choose the right solution that enables you to develop, test and analyze continuously.

The tools mentioned above are my top five picks for the best automated testing tools for Continuous Delivery. They may or may not be the right fit for your continuous testing needs.

Try out different tools as per your requirements and analyze their capabilities closely. Look for feature-rich tools that offer integrations and provide adequate support. Test Automation tools that pave the way to agility, shifting left, continuous testing are key to achieving Continuous Delivery.