If you would take a look at testing tools today - more specifically software test tools, that is - you would see a lot of them that are automated. This is because having automated software test tools would certainly make the process of software testing much more convenient and faster. The world of technology revolves at a fast pace today. This week, you would see the latest unit released by one of the prominent mobile phone brands in the industry. The next week, you would see another mobile phone brand releasing another unit, pitting itself against the latest release, which is just a week old. With that fast a pace to deal with, it really becomes a must to have automated test tools. This is all for the welfare of the company still so software development companies better get a head on with these tools fast.
Manual test tools did have its fair share of responsibilities back in the day, and they did perform very well. However, gone are the days when you can rely on manual tools. Investing in such could even mean the untimely demise of the software development company because they would inevitably be left behind by its competitors who have already joined the worthwhile bandwagon.
You also have to understand that the testing phase of the software could even take longer than the production phase itself. This can be pretty hard on any software engineer if he or she were to use manual test tools because testing takes a lot of time, effort, and resources. Technically, using manual tools would just be a waste of time. Imagine how much time would be wasted when you would have to start from the very beginning whenever you would detect a particular error, defect, or bug in the program. Without automated test tools, this would be the likely scenario, going back to square one or starting from scratch. A month's worth of manual software testing could be had in just a few weeks' time when you use automated tools. There would even be times when it would take just a few days or even hours, depending on the nature of the software being developed.
Basically, automated software test tools function as virtual testers. The software actually explores each and every possible program function and operation all at a speed that no human tester would be capable of. As the software browses and explores all of the functions and operations, it takes note of all aspects of the program that are functioning as they should be. More importantly, it takes note of all the aspects that are not in working order. When it is done recording its results and findings, it then proceeds to give these results to the programmer, which would then be analyzed by the human programmer, of course. The proper courses of action would then be taken on, to make the necessary corrections. Once the corrections are done, the program is yet again fed to the software, and the process takes place yet again.
See how easy it is to weed out the glitches, errors, and bugs of a particular program with the use of automated testing tools? If you are in the industry of software development, no matter the gadget and gizmo you are developing, you should definitely get hold of these automated tools right now.
