In the field of software testing, test designing may be seen as an art of deriving the test suites from the available specifications and requirements in order to execute testing activities on a software product.
The inclusion of software or designing tools in the test designing phase may results in the production of effective test cases as these tools are equipped with specialized features to study and analyze the specifications and requirements in a formal way so as to accomplish certain tasks, needed for testing purposes such as designing and creating high level test cases, generating test input, outlining the test procedures, and many such things. These test tools helps in reducing the efforts and time, required for identifying and specifying the test cases, covering all aspects of a software product.
Based on the certain needs and purposes, test design tools may be categorized in various forms such as
Test design tools for identifying test inputs along with the desired output.
Test design tools for identifying possible combination of factors/conditions and functionalities to be tested.
Test design tools to ensure the coverage of all branches and path under the test; and many more such things.
Here, we are detailing some of the tools used for the purpose of designing test suites or cases, which are readily available in the market.
Agile Designer
A product of CA Technologies (formerly Grid Tools).
Maps and implements the requirements, to produce out, clear and explicit visual formats, such as flowcharts, user stories, test cases, etc.
Ensures 100% coverage of requirements in smallest possible set of test cases.
Exhaustively test the software applications and maintains the synchronization with keep incoming change through active test automation.
One of the advantages of using agile designer is the convenience of introducing and implementing the agile methodology in the development life cycle.
Capable of managing the frequently changing requirements, and accordingly maintaining the test cases throughout the development life cycle.
Useful in estimating the project cost, along with the cost of changes to be brought in the development process.
Capable of identifying and removing the redundant and duplicate test case along with the ability of automatic generation of missing test cases.
Reduces the time and effort to prepare test data along with the correct association of the test data with the test cases and the expected output.
BenderRBT
A Product of Bender RBT Inc., encompassing, two test design engines-
Cause-Effect Graphing based on graphing for the business and mission critical, and
Pair Wise design engine comprising orthogonal pairs and optimized pairs.
Automates the process of designing and generating the test cases for the purpose of functional testing.
Ability to generate advance level of test cases irrespective of specification and requirement documentation, which may include narrative texts, UML diagram, decision table, and many such things.
Defines the test completion criteria along with the features of verifying the test coverage and test results and maintaining the test library.
Ensures maximum coverage using minimal sets of test cases.
Capability to strike out unnecessary repetitions and ambiguity, at an early of phase of requirement analysis to manage the testability issues, efficiently and effectively.
Enables, a tester to control the sequence of node in cause effect graphing test engine of BenderRBT.
Provides the advantage of multiple options for generating the test cases such as "Run New", "Run Old", "Run Both", etc.
Coronys Test Automation Framework
Developed by Coronys, it is an automation testing tool for various purposes such as script development, real time execution of tests, test management, etc.
Equipped with the MySql based server to ensure the task of remote test launching along with the test query, its detailed analysis and reporting.
Effective for performing black box testing over standalone module and the complex system.
Facilitates the job of designing and developing, the complex automation test scenarios using drag and drop functionality, which is used to drag and drop the "building blocks" scripts in the editor.
Scalable tool to function as per the need, either for single standalone module or the whole system.
Adds improvement in the continuous integration process.
Datamaker
A product of CA Technologies (formerly Grid Tools) also known by the name of Test Data Manager is used to manage the test data including test data generation, data masking and data coverage analysis.
Follows agile approach in automating the complicate processes.
Effective in generating, smallest set of test data covering 100% functionality.
One stop solution to create, maintain and provisioning the test data, required for thoroughly testing the gradually developing product.
Hexawise
A test design tool developed by the Hexawise Organization for speedy creation and documentation of the test cases.
Enables the fast execution of test cases.
Define inputs to create test cases along with the analysis of the coverage.
Develops test plans, which are efficient in revealing defects at an early stage of development life cycle.
Equipped with the in-built functionality of "coverage / thoroughness dial", which is used to create test cases in minimal or optimal quantity on demand within the specific time as per the requirement at any instant of time.
Delivers timely reports to monitor and track the coverage, being covered.
It is specifically used for the purpose of functional testing for performing both black box and white box testing. However, it may also be used to carry out the User acceptance testing.
Ensures maximum coverage using minimal sets of test cases, thereby aids in reduction of test cases such as decrease in the regression test cases.
Minimizes efforts and useless repetitions in creating the test cases.
It may be used for all sorts of software projects.