The need for faster delivery of high-quality software (or "fast quality") requires organizations to find solutions with agility, continuous integration (CI) and DevOps methodology. Test automation is an important part of these aspects. The latest "World Quality Report 2019-2020" shows that test automation is the biggest bottleneck in achieving "fast quality" because it is the driving force for the successful adoption of agile and DevOps.
Test automation cannot be achieved without good tools. Because they determine how to perform automation and whether the benefits of automation can be realized. Test automation tools are a key component in the DevOps tool chain. The current trend in test automation has grown in terms of applying artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to provide advanced functions for test optimization, intelligent test generation, execution, and reporting. It is necessary to understand which tool is best to take advantage of these trends.
These top automated testing tools are considered to best solve the challenges in the automation field in the next few years. Select the tools included in this list from the following criteria:
Support API and service testing
Provide some AI/ML and analysis functions
Awareness and maturity
1、Selenium
Selenium is a household name for test automation. It is considered an industry standard for automated testing of user interfaces of web applications. According to the "Test Automation Challenge Survey", nearly nine out of nine out of ten testers have used or have used selenium in their projects.
For developers and testers with programming and scripting experience and skills, Selenium provides flexibility that many other test automation tools and frameworks do not have. Users can write test scripts in multiple languages (such as Java, Groovy, Python, C#, php, Ruby and Perl). These scripts can be used in multiple system environments (Windows, Mac, Linux) and browsers (Chrome, Firefox, IE and headless browsers).
Selenium recently released its first alpha version of Selenium in April 2019. The release of the official version of Selenium 4 has not been determined; currently, Selenium 4 is officially released. But you can expect that this version will have many improvements and rich features.
In order to use Selenium effectively, users must have advanced programming skills, and it takes a lot of time to build automation frameworks and libraries required for automation. This is the main shortcoming of Selenium, which can be solved by integrated tools such as Katalon Studio.
License: open source
2. 、 Katalon Studio
Katalon Studio is a powerful and comprehensive automation solution for testing API, Web, mobile and desktop applications. It also provides a rich feature set for these types of tests and supports multiple platforms including Windows, macOS and Linux.
Using Selenium and Appium engines, Katalon Studio provides a unique integrated environment for testers who are difficult to integrate and deploy different frameworks and libraries to use Selenium and Appium, as well as testers who are already familiar with these engines.
Katalon Studio won the software test automation award from Gartner Peer Insights customers and received more than 450 positive reviews. The review received more than 450 positive reviews, which once again proves that the tool is now one of the largest companies in the market.
Highlights of this tool include:
A complete feature set of test automation for API/Web services, Web and mobile applications.
Supports both SOAP and RESTful API and service testing.
Hundreds of built-in keywords for creating test cases.
Can be used for automation and exploratory testing.
Available through Katalon Store The plug-in on the extension test function, in-depth understanding of the report on Katalon TestOps
License: Free
3 、 UFT
UFT is a popular commercial tool for testing desktop, web and mobile applications. It has been expanded to include a set of functions for API testing. By supporting multiple platforms for the target application under test (AUT), UFT provides a convenient option to test AUTs that can run on desktop, web, and mobile devices.
UFT provides several advanced functions for smart object detection, image-based object detection and correction. In May 2019, Microfocus has released the latest version of UFT (v14.53) with new and enhanced functions
Features of this tool include:
Intuitive user interface for creating, executing and reporting API tests.
Supports generation of API tests from WADL documents.
Test actions, activities and parameters can be visualized in charts.
License: Starting at $3,200 per year.
4、TestComplete
This year, TestComplete continues to be among the best with its powerful, comprehensive web, mobile and desktop application testing capabilities. Testers can write test scripts using JavaScript, VBScript, Python or C++ Script.
Like UFT, TestComplete has an object recognition engine that can accurately detect dynamic user interface elements. This engine is particularly useful in applications with dynamic and frequently changing user interfaces.
The latest TestComplete version 14.2 includes native integration with Jenkins to accelerate the CI/CD process, support for web test components (such as Shadow DOM and custom elements), and support for all the latest browser versions and mobile platforms.
Testers can easily use TestComplete's recording and playback functions, such as Katalon Studio. They can insert checkpoints into test steps to verify the results. As a product of SmartBear, TestComplete can be easily integrated with other products provided by SmartBear.
License: Starting at $9,114 per user per year
5 Soap
SoapUI is not a test automation tool for web or mobile application testing; however, it can be used as the tool of choice for testing APIs and services. It is a headless functional testing tool specially designed for API testing.
SoapUI supports REST and SOAP services. API automation testers can use the open source version or the professional version. The professional version has a friendly user interface and some advanced features, such as assertion wizard, form editor and SQL query builder. SoapUI is a tool of the ReadyAPI suite provided by SmartBear.
This tool provides a fairly comprehensive feature set for API testing, which contains many advanced features, including:
Drag and drop, click to easily generate tests.
Use data in files and databases for powerful data-driven testing.
Asynchronous testing.
Scripts can be easily reused.
Use RESTful simulation to create mock services.
In addition, SoapUI recently introduced SoapUI Pro’s API Explorer function to the open source version. This allows developers and testers to debug their API responses immediately.
License: SoapUI is packaged and distributed in two versions, open source and Pro. The latter starts at $659 per year.
Please note that SoapUI and Postman are only two representatives of the top API testing tools in this list. To learn more about the comparison between these tools, please refer to this article.
6、IBM Rational Functional Tester（RFT）
IBM Rational Functional Tester is a test automation tool designed to test applications developed in different languages and technologies, such as Web, .Net, Java, Visual Basic, Siebel, SAP, PowerBuilder, Adobe Flex and Dojo Toolkit. It is also a data-driven testing platform for functional and regression testing.
RFT provides a feature called "Storyboard Testing", which can visualize and edit tests using natural language and application screenshots. RFT's ScriptAssure function enables testers to generate test scripts that can adapt to changes in the AUT user interface. RFT can also be integrated with other IBM application lifecycle management tools, such as IBM Rational Team Concert and Rational Quality Manager.
License: Commercial
7 、 Tricentis Tosca
There are a number of continuous test platforms that provide a comprehensive tool set to support most, if not all, testing activities, from test design and test automation to test reporting and analysis. Tricentis Tosca is one of them.
The tool has many functions such as dashboard, analysis, integration and distributed execution to support continuous integration and DevOps practice. In addition, it provides a friendly user interface and a rich feature set that can be used to design, implement, execute, manage, and optimize API testing.
Some other highlights of the tool:
DevOps can be easily integrated as a key part of the process
can be executed in the browser test API, mobile devices and platforms
to enable a variety of protocols and standards, including HTTP JMS, AMQP, Rabbit MQ, TIBCO EMS, SOAP, REST , and IBM MQ
set Very good test report and analysis capabilities
Tricentis claims to greatly reduce regression testing (in a period of weeks to minutes). However, this statement needs to be carefully verified by the testing team.
License: Commercial
8, Ranorex
Having existed for many years, Ranorex provides a comprehensive and professional set of functions for web, mobile, desktop and API testing. Utilizing its experience in desktop-based test automation, Ranorex has advanced functions for UI element identification, editing and management.
Like Katalon Studio, Ranorex's friendly and intuitive GUI, record/playback and script generation functions make it easy for testers to automate testing.
Testers can integrate Ranorex with Selenium Grid to achieve distributed testing and parallel test execution.
License: Add-on components cost 690 Euros, and premium licenses start at 2,290 Euros.
9、Postman
Postman is another automated tool designed specifically for API testing. Users can install this tool as a browser extension or desktop application on Mac, Linux, and Windows. It is not only popular among testers for API test automation, but also among developers who use the tool to develop and test APIs. In fact, it is a development environment for developing and testing APIs.
Some highlights of the tool:
Comprehensive feature set for designing, debugging, testing, recording and publishing API
Friendly and easy-to-use user interface
Supports automated and exploratory testing
Accepts Swagger and RAML API formats
Requests and responders can be packaged and shared with team members
License: Commercial
10、Apache JMeter
JMeter is an open source tool designed for testing loading and performance measurement-the two functions of JMeter are well known. However, the tool is now also used for API and service testing, especially API performance. JMeter is the third most popular test automation tool. 25% of respondents in the "Test Automation Challenge" survey cited JMeter's information.
Highlights of this tool include:
Lightweight and easy-to-use user interface
Test results can be replayed
Support CSV file to set the value of API parameters
Support integration with CI tools (such as Jenkins). JMeter is often used as part of the CI and DevOps tool chain
License: Open source
The top tools listed here are not exhaustive. But it represents a mature and popular best tool, and provides the ability to use AI/ML to solve the challenges faced by organizations in delivering "fast quality". This list also includes support only for API and service testing which is essential for successful agile and DevOps transitions.
The testing tool you choose should not only meet your current needs, but also focus on potential trends and improvements. Decent tools should support basic optimization, automation of test cases and data generation, smarter solutions and analysis.
With the opportunity for growth, more tools will be introduced; even if the test automation level in the organization is as low as between 14% and 18% (WQR report). In addition, it is great to see how existing and upcoming tools can apply AI/ML to meet future challenges. API and service testing is also a trend, which should be further developed in the future.
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