Software Testing Tools and How to Improve Their Performance

Effective software testing is essential to ensure the quality and reliability of applications in today's digital world. However, relying on manual testing only can be time-consuming, inefficient, and error-prone, leading to delays and increased costs in the development process. Numerous automated software testing tools have significantly improved the testing process. The performance of these tools can also be enhanced so that testing in general returns better results.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at some of the most popular software testing tools and also solutions EPAM, as a software engineering company, has developed to improve their performance leading to faster, more efficient development cycles and improved overall software quality.

These solutions offer a range of features and benefits that ensure the high performance and accuracy of testing processes. At the same time, they are scalable, customizable, and compatible with most software testing tools. Among the EPAM solutions, we will review both products and accelerators that increase the efficiency of testing tools like Selenium, Appium, or SauceLabs.

Best Automated Software Testing Tools

The increasing demand for test automation in software development has led to the creation of a variety of software testing tools. These tools can range from open-source to expensive enterprise-level solutions and can support different types of testing such as:

• Functional testing

• Cross-browser testing

• Regression testing

• Performance testing

• Security testing

• GUI testing

• Load testing

• Mobile testing

• API testing

• Exploratory testing

• Data-driven testing

• Website speed testing

In this software testing tools list, we will explore some of the most commonly used testing tools, their features, and how they can benefit the testing process.

Selenium

This is an open-source automated testing tool that is primarily used for testing web applications. It supports multiple programming languages and platforms and can be used in a variety of testing environments. It can be integrated with other testing tools and frameworks, and can also be used as part of a continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) pipeline.

One of the key benefits of Selenium is its ability to simulate user interactions with web apps, which can help identify issues that may not be apparent through manual testing. It also provides detailed reports and logs to help testers diagnose and address issues more quickly.

TestComplete

This automated test management tool is used for functional GUI tests. It is a software testing tool for managing automated tests for desktop, mobile, and web apps. It supports multiple programming languages and frameworks and has an object recognition engine that simplifies test creation.

TestComplete also offers advanced reporting and analysis capabilities that allow testers to generate detailed reports on test results and track test coverage across multiple software releases and versions. This test automation tool can integrate with a variety of testing and development tools, making it easier for organizations to incorporate it into their existing workflows.

JMeter

It is an open-source performance testing tool designed to measure and analyze the performance of web applications and other types of software. It was originally developed as a load-testing tool but has since evolved to include functional and some other types of testing as well.

JMeter simulates user traffic by sending requests to a server and recording the response time and other performance metrics. Testers can use JMeter to create and execute complex test scenarios, including load testing, stress testing, and endurance testing, among others. JMeter supports a variety of protocols, including HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, JDBC, and more, making it a versatile tool for testing different types of applications.

SauceLab

Using this cloud-based cross-browser testing tool developers and testers can automate and run tests on a range of browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices. This allows them to ensure that their web applications are compatible and function properly across a variety of platforms.

One of the key features of SauceLabs is its ability to run tests in parallel, which can significantly reduce the time it takes to test across multiple browsers and devices.

Squish

Users can test software across different platforms and devices using this GUI testing tool. It supports a wide range of GUI technologies and programming languages. Squish's features, such as the visual test recorder, object map, and script debugger, help users automate and manage their testing process. It can also be integrated with other tools and frameworks.

SoapUI

Developers and testers can create, test, and analyze APIs using this open-source API testing tool. It supports multiple protocols including REST, SOAP, and GraphQL, and enables users to simulate and automate API requests and responses. With SoapUI, developers and testers can easily verify the functionality, performance, and reliability of APIs, and ensure that they meet the required specifications and standards.

Mobitru

This cloud-based platform allows mobile app developers to access hundreds of real devices for testing and debugging purposes on both iOS and Android. It offers a fully customizable device infrastructure that can be either cloud-hosted or on-premises.

Mobitru supports continuous testing at scale and provides consulting and implementation services to help deliver quality mobile apps faster. Through near real-time visibility into vulnerabilities, Mobitru enables engineering teams to speed up their product development and release confidently.

Agile Security Platform

This is a security testing tool that provides Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS) in an efficient and transparent way. The platform adopts an agile security methodology by incorporating penetration testing into software delivery cycles. This allows for continuous monitoring of the security posture and the detection of vulnerabilities that may be missed with a "one-off" approach (e.g., once per year). By providing near real-time visibility into vulnerabilities, Agile Security Platform enables engineering teams to speed up development and confidently release products.

Improve the Performance of Software Testing Tools

To address common testing challenges such as test data management, test automation, and test environment management, EPAM has developed a range of accelerators. They can integrate with popular software testing tools, such as Selenium, Appium or SauceLab, and enhance their capabilities.

Here are some of the EPAM software testing solutions that can help development, and testing teams improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the software testing process, resulting in better quality software and faster time-to-market.

Healenium

With web applications constantly updating, there is often a problem with locator changes. Healenium is an open-source self-healing test automation tool that can help overcome this issue and reduce the time spent supporting tests. Utilizing machine learning algorithms, Healenium can identify new locators for updated web pages and fix the tests in real time.

This software testing tool can easily be added to the automation test code base as a standalone Java JAR. Additionally, the friendly reporting and locator-updater plugins for IntelliJ IDEA provide visibility of control states and allow for automatic updates of broken locators with new values in the code base. This gives the team more time to focus on product testing and increasing coverage with new automation scripts.

Key Features:

• NoSuchElement test failure handling - Healenium replaces the failed control with a new value that matches best, allowing the tool to perform an action with the replaced control successfully in runtime.

• Visibility of the control state - Healenium offers access to detailed reports that include fixed control values and screenshots.

• Code base easily updated - IntelliJ IDEA plugin enables updating controls in the code base with new values in just one click.

Integrates with: Selenium, Appium

Vividus

This open-source codeless automation testing tool enables human-readable tests. It includes all test types and can be integrated with CI/CD systems following a puppet approach.

It is intended for test engineers who lack programming expertise but still need to automate testing scenarios and integrate them into their CI/CD pipeline. With Vividus, test creation can begin from day one as it offers an implemented dictionary of test actions that can be applied to any business domain.

With the embedded test reporting of results and comprehensive logging, test implementation and debugging become much simpler with Vividus. Additionally, a known-issue detection mechanism is available, allowing users to reduce the time spent on test triage.

Key Features:

• Crawler-based content verification

• Test automation of native iOS and Android applications supported

• Implemented dictionary of test actions for web, visual testing, API, DB, and data formats (JSON, XML, HTML, CSV, Excel)

Integrates with: SauceLabs, ReportPortal, BrowserStack, Jenkins, TeamCity, Bamboo

ReportPortal

This is an open-source, AI-powered test automation dashboard. It acquires, aggregates, and analyzes test reports to determine release health.

This software testing tool gathers all critical information about test cases and presents test results on a real-time automation dashboard. Using this information, the AI-Analyzer module analyzes the test results and identifies the cause of a particular test failure. This allows the test engineer to troubleshoot noisy failures more efficiently based on the report obtained.

Using the ReportPortal test automation process becomes understandable and visual. It shows weak areas in automation at the earliest possible stages. This way teams can optimize software testing costs.

Features:

• Automation results and reports managed in one place - All logs, reports, and media data are centralized and aggregated in one place providing real-time visibility.

• Results analysis is actionable and collaborative - Through team collaboration, each failed test can be associated with a known product bug, automation issue, or any other custom defect type.

• Fast traceability - defects with full evidence can be submitted and tracked directly from a failed test case into a bug tracking system.

• Analytics performed by artificial intelligence - Failure causes are analyzed by Auto-Analyzer which reduces time and cost.

Integrates with: Jira, SauceLabs, Elasticsearch, GitHub, Rally, TestNG, jUnit, jBehave, Cucumber/-JVM, NUnit, xUnit, Specflow, Cucumber/Ruby

TDspora

This open-source test data management tool uses advanced machine learning models. It provides highly accurate and large datasets without restrictions on data availability or compliance in non-production environments. It reveals hidden patterns, trends, and correlations in your production datasets and generates production-like data compliant with GDPR, CCPA, HIPPA, and PCI DSS.

Testing teams are capable of executing an automated test suite on data that closely resembles production data, while still maintaining the ability to investigate the system in case of errors. In performance testing, it is possible to repeat several behavioral patterns, but with slight variations.

Features:

• Safe, reliable, and diverse synthetic data in sufficient quantities - TDspora generates production-like data compliant with privacy regulations.

• Advanced data sub-setting - It is possible to navigate through data sources, trace intricate relationships, and apply filters to reduce the size of test data while maintaining its coherence.

• Various data sources - TDspora supports multiple versions and dialects of databases, and can be extended accordingly. The built-in SQL translation engine enables rapid incorporation of new data sources to meet customer requirements.

Integrates with: Apache Spark, Oracle – RDBMS, PostgreSQL, Google Cloud Platform (Vertex AI), Amazon Web Services (SageMaker)

Conclusion

Software testing tools are essential for ensuring the quality and reliability of software products. From open-source options to enterprise-level tools, there is a wide range of testing tools available for software development teams. By understanding the different types of testing and the needs of your project, you can narrow down the options and decide on the most appropriate software testing tool to meet your needs. To help you, we have provided in the article some of the best software testing tools.

However, using these tools effectively can sometimes be challenging. That is why EPAM has developed automation testing solutions that improve the performance of other testing tools and enable continuous testing at scale. They help engineering teams to deliver high-quality software products faster and with greater confidence.

Overall, investing in the right testing tools and automation solutions is crucial for any organization looking to achieve success in today's rapidly evolving digital landscape.