TESTING
SOFTWARE QA
RESOURCES
This page lists a number of categories of automated software tools and websites with more information on each type of tool:

Open Testware Reviews lists open source and free test tools.

StickyMinds.com has a searchable Tool and Vendor business directory.

Some of the listing categories are taken from "Effective Software Testing: 50 Ways to Improve your Testing" (p.162) by Elfriede Dunstin. Others are from Testing FAQS Org.

, , ,
Type of Tool Description
Test Procedure Generators Generate test procedures from requirements/design/object models.

See Testing FAQS Test Design Tools list

Code (Test) Coverage Analyzers and Code Instrumentors Identify untested code and support dynamic testing.

See Testing FAQS Test Coverage Tools list

Memory-Leak Detection Verify that an application is properly managing its memory resources

Not necessary if the application is running on Microsoft .NET Framework

Metrics-Reporting Tools Read source code and display metrics information, such as complexity of data flow, data structure, and control flow. Can provide metrics about code size in terms of numbers of modules, operands, operators, and lines of code. Also includes Static Analysis Tools that analyze programs without running them.

See Testing FAQS Static Analysis Tools list

Usability-Measurement Tools User profiling, task analysis, prototyping, and user walk-throughs.

For everything about usability see Jacob Neilson's Usable Information Technology Website

Test-Data Generators Generate Test Data for populating data bases, or for lists of variables for financial software, etc.

See Datatect or Princeton Softech

Test-Management Tools Provide such test management functions as test-procedure-documentation and storage and traceability

See Testing FAQS Test Drivers and Test Suite Management Tools list

Network-Testing Tools Monitoring, Measuring, testing, and diagnosing performance across the entire network.

There are many such tools. Likely the network adminsitrator would be testing and maintaining networks.

GUI Testing Tools (Capture/Playback) Automate GUI testsby recording user interactions with online systems, so they may be replayed automatically.

See Testing FAQS GUI Test Drivers Tools list

Load, Performance, and Stress Testing Tools Load/performance and stress testing

See Testing FAQS Load and Performance Tools list

Unit Test Tools Tools, frameworks, and libraries that support unit testing. Developers typically perform these tests.

See Testing FAQS Unit Test Tools list

Test Implementation Tools Tools that assist with testing at runtime - memory leak checkers, comparators, and a wide variety of others.

See Testing FAQS Test Implementation Tools list

Specialized Tools Architecture-specific tools that provide specialized testing of specific architectures or technologies such as embedded systems.

A lenthy IBM article on embedded systems testing is of interest.