Two of the most important steps in both the waterfall and agile software development life cycles are software testing and quality assurance. In order to thoroughly test their products, developers will often turn to a number of software testing tools.
However, quality assurance is an equally important step towards ensuring that the software will perform well under a number of potentially unforeseen circumstances.
Below you will find five software testing and quality assurance tools that can provide true value to your software development life cycle.
TechExcel
TechExcel is an award winning IT company that designs a number of software testing tools. These Application Lifecycle Management tools are compatible with both agile and non-agile development teams.
Their premier software is DevTest, which is used for software quality assurance testing. The key perk of this particular software testing is that it offers real-time testing, reporting, and analytics. By offering real-time services, DevTest better positions developers to more efficiently resolve development problems; thus expediting the delivery date of a new product.
A few of the other perks include:
- Test automation
- Central management features
- Out-of-the-box integration with JIRA®, Mantis®, Bugzilla®, and DevTrack
- Improved accountability during testing phases
Telerik
Telerik provides a full suite of software testing tools, known as Test Studio.
Each of these tools is automated to better increase efficiencies and product development.
In short, Telerik seeks to provide clients with improved software testing tools, so that clients can finish their software development projects on time and within budget.
A few of the software benefits include:
- Functional testing of multiple platforms - Simultaneously test HTML5, AJAX and XAML apps, JavaScript calls, and more.
- Manual and automated tests can be controlled in one area
- Improved mobile testing capabilities - Better testing on multiple mobile devices, while also testing against browser capabilities.
- Flexible pricing options that are geared towards greatly reducing manual development testing.
SmartBear
SmartBear is a unique company that has situated itself to offer a stream of software testing, as well as quality assurance tools. The company aims to provide clients with improved capabilities for multiple development platforms.
Right now the company has an impressive 2 Million clients, is based in over 90 countries, and has recorded over 7 Million downloads.
Some of their key takeaways include:
- Test Complete: designed specifically for software testing. One of the best parts is that it can be used by both novice and advanced developers with a seamless interface. It is designed to automate your functional testing phases across mobile and browser platforms.
- QA Complete: This quality assurance tool allows you to better prioritize your key test functions, account for potential risk (which is key to staying within budget), better control over the testing, and improved reporting.
QA Symphony
QA Symphony offers a software known as qTest. The company has self-dubbed qTest as an "elegant, scalable test management solution."
In our book, this particular software solution offers a few perks to its users:
- Due to its communication system of notifications it is good for small teams.
- It improves testing transparency by offering full records, which are easily accessible, for each test.
- Each component of the testing is broken up into digestible parts. For example reporting and tracking are located in itemized sections of qTest, which allows you to better analyze each individual component.
Selenium
Selenium is a set of software tools that are designed to support test automation in a variety of manners. The entire suite of software tools offer a number of advantages to users.
However, one of the primary advantages is the support offered for software testing on multiple browsers.
- Selenium automates web browsers.
- It is an open source tool.
- Selenium IDE - designed for Firefox specific applications.
- Selenium WebDriver - a powerful open ended tool that offers a variety of web browser automations.
Concluding Thoughts
Perhaps the best way to determine which software testing and quality assurance tools are best for your development needs, is to try a few out. Each solution offers certain advantageous; from improved user interfaces to better record tracking, you are sure to find success with one of the above solutions. An alternative is to outsource your software QA and testing to a certified team experienced with these and other software tools to improve the quality of your software.