When it comes to test automation tools for web application testing, it is hard to choose between the available options in the market and the right alternative that offers best of the latest technologies from the market place at the right budget. Open source tools provide the benefit of low initial investment but they’re not always the best alternative in the long run due to lack of official support & training. Commercial tools on the other hand are highly expensive to implement, resulting in higher cost of failure, should the right tool not be selected.
Automation is a continuous process and it’s very important to have the basics right:
1. Setting up the test environment
2. Screening the available tool options
3. Creating a Proof of Concept with a few sample test scenarios for the application
4. Preparing (automation) frameworks
5. Building libraries of functions & methods
6. Defining configuration parameters
What if you get a tool, which helps you to execute manual testcases in automated way. To help testing professionals, choose the right alternative, we have prepared a comparison matrix between the three closest contenders, which are HP QTP, Selenium and Test Complete.
| TestOptimizer | HP QTP 10 | Selenium | TestComplete | ||||||||
| Programming knowledge required? | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| Learning curve to be productive | 2-4hrs | 3-4 months | 2-3 months | 3-4months | |||||||
| Script generation | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| Data Driven Testing | Its possible using excel or any spreadsheet; No coding | Requires Extensive Coding | ✓ | Complex VB Scripting required | |||||||
| Database Support | yes; We can connect using batch or shell | With the help of DSN (ODBC32 Interface) | Requires Extensive Coding | Requires Extensive Coding | |||||||
| Object Repository | No object repository maintained ; there is action sheet which contains keywords along with Locators | Official term is Window declarations. They can be edited directly from the Editor | Non Editable | Editable | |||||||
| Test Case | Termed as Test Case or Test Scenario No programming blocks are there. Set of keywords with elements is prepared that can be re-used | Termed as Testcase. Each Testcase has block of coding statements. | Termed as Automation Script | Termed as Testcase. Each Testcase has block of coding statements. | |||||||
| Language Support | it’s code-less, script-less | VBScript | Selenese, Java, Ruby, Perl, PHP, Python, C#, Groovy | VBScript, JScript, DelphiScript, C++Script and C#Script. | |||||||
| Functional Testing, Cross Browser Testing | Its possible using excel or any spreadsheet; No coding | Complex code required | Complex code required | Complex code required | |||||||
| Run tests in your QA lab, or both | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| Results Reporting | 1. Result displayed in excel sheet itself 2. Advanced Reports with Screen shots 3. Html report 4. Reports can be mailed to concerned stakeholders on a mouse click. 5. Reports to give defect trends based browser wise, module wise for a span of period. |
Results are stored into *.res binary files. It can be converted into different formats. Multiple versions can be stored into single file. | Basic Reporting | ||||||||
| OS Platform Support | Windows, Linux & Mac | Windows Only | Only stable on Windows & Linux | Windows, Linux & Mac | |||||||
| Scheduled execution | Manage to do bulk execution with multiple browser with | ✗ | Yes, but with complex code | ||||||||
| Dynamic Validation is possible | it’s possible to do it one keyword | possible with coding | possible with coding | possible with coding | |||||||
| Interaction with third part application to cross verification | possible using one keyword | possible with coding | possible with coding | possible with coding | |||||||
| Creation of customized keywords | possible to create customized keywords without any coding | possible with coding | possible with coding | possible with coding | |||||||
| Parrallel execution | It takes intelligent decision to do combination of sequential & parallel execution so that over all execution should be fast enough to give you | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||||||
| Logging | 2 types of log modes are available to give ease to debug the issue | possible with coding | need to intregated with log4j etc | possible with coding | |||||||
| Price | StartUps and Enterprise licenses are available. Check Pricing Here. | $6000 USD Per Seat, Plus $1500 Annual Maintenance | Free (GPL 2, Apache 2) | Non locked license $1,000 | |||||||
