Tools for test execution and logging

Following are the tools used for text execution and logging:

i) Test execution tools
ii) Test harness or Unit test framework tools
iii) Test comparator
iv) Coverage measurement tools
v) Security tools

i) Test execution tools

• Test execution tools are called as test running tool as they help in running the tests efficiently.
• Test execution tools start with recording or capturing manual tests, hence they are called as capture or playback tools.
• These tools require a scripting language to run a particular tool. If any tester runs a test execution tool directly, he will require the  programming skill to construct and modify the script because scripting language is a programming language.

Features of test execution tools:

• They record the test inputs during manual execution of tests.
• Expected output is stored in the form of the object and this output is compared with the next output.
• The tests are executed from the stored scripts.
• They run the test log results like pass or fail & provide the differences between expected and actual result.
• They compute the time for tests.
• Send the summary of outputs to the test management tool.

ii) Test harness / Unit test framework tools

• The test harness/ unit test framework tools are mostly used by the developers.
• Test harness provides stubs and drivers. Stubs and drivers are the small programs which interact with the software.
• Unit test framework tools are used in object-oriented software.
• The unit test framework is used in agile development to automate the tests along with the development.
• Both the tools i.e. harness and unit test framework allow the developers to test and recognize any defect.
• The stubs and drivers provide the required information and receive any information sent by the software.

Features of test harness and unit test framework tools:

• Provide the input to the software which is being tested.
• Receive the output produced by the tested software.
• Execute a set of tests in the framework.
• The pass or fail outputs are recorded for each test.
• Provide the support for debugging.

iii) Test comparator

• Test comparator help to automate the actual and expected results generated by the software.
• Dynamic comparison and post-execution comparison are the two ways in which actual result of test is compared with the expected result.

iv) Coverage measurement tools

• The coverage measurement tools are used to recognize the elements which can be counted.
• The process of recognizing the coverage items at component testing level is known as instrumenting the code.

Features of coverage measurement tools:

• Recognize the coverage items.
• Calculate the percentage of coverage items tested by a set of tests.
• Report the coverage items which are not tested.
• Produce stubs and drivers if it is a part of a unit test framework.

v) Security tools

• Security testing tools are used to test the security of the system by hacking it.
• The attacks focus on the network, application code or database, provided software.

Features of security testing tools:

• Recognize the viruses and instructions.
• Simulate the different types of external attacks.
• Recognize the weaknesses in the password files and passwords.
• Security checks are completed during operations.