Software Testing Tools | Quality Assurance Testing

Open Source Testing Tools

June 5th, 2011 by Joe Burns Categories: Featured, Software QA Testing, Software Testing Tools One Response

First – I am a big fan of open source tools. This is a great way to build real solutions in a collaborative way. However (and that’s a big however), don’t put all your “eggs in one basket”. Meaning, don’t count on open source tools to address all of your organizations needs for Test Management, Functional Automation and Performance and Scalability testing.

Let’s start by what they these tools are called - “Open Source Testing Tools”. This means that you as an organization are able to use them with little or no procurement involvement. It is important to understand that you as an organization are obligated to not only be an active participant of ideas and collaboration but frankly the maintenance and support of the tool itself (particularly if you bring into your own organization).

Here are a few tools out there that you may what to know about. Free to offer your opinion on these open source tools.

Functional Testing:

Canoo WebTest

Development-focused solution for web applications producing HTML (JSP, PGP, etc)
Scripts written in java or xml
Provides detailed reporting

Selenium

Flexible solution for web applications with strong support for JavaScript but limited reporting
Record/playback or written scripts in “Selenese”
Scalable for larger testing efforts

Performance Testing:

Apache JMeter

Pure Java desktop application designed to load test functional behavior and measure performance
Scripts written in Java
Supports web, SOAP, LDAP, Database, Mail, etc

OpenSTA

Windows-based application for performing and measuring scripted heavy load tests
Record/playback or written scripts in SCL
Supports HTTP/HTTPS; only manual correlation

Quality Assurance Testing Q&A

If you have any questions about the blog content or specific questions on how CAI's Quality Assurance Testing can help your organization, "Ask Joe."

Question :

Joe: What has your experiece been with open Source Tools? i.e. Selenium?

Answer :

Kristen, Good question. The increased use of open source tools is growing in the enterprise space. Many organizations are taking advantage of these tools. Selenium in particular is an excellent GUI capture and playback tool. Remember regardless of open so...

Question :

Joe, How effective is testing when we've got legacy systems to integrate with new dashboards--all in a secure environment? Thanks for the info.

Answer :

Dave, The important key is understanding your integration points. These integration points can be "file based interfaces" or even wrappered "SOA" Architecture. Once you have an understanding of these interfaces, you then need to develop a Integration Test P...

Question :

My organization is looking to incorporate automated testing into our monthly release process to reduce our testing cycle time. We are just starting to create a strategy for introducing automation, and I'm looking for some tips on how to approach automation and where to...

Answer :

Scott, Many companies make the mistake of "happy capture" of functional scripts. The key is developing a "framework" that is based on components (i.e. a single logon test script that is parameter driven). In addition, pick a key area that does not have alot of ...