Investments done in testing tools usually extends over many repetitions of the same project and may be useful to many other projects too. So the Test Manager needs to look at test tool investment from multiple perspectives when selecting a tool.

Some of these are:

• Positive ROI – From a business’s perspective, this is one of the most essential viewpoint to be adopted. To ensure high ROI, the selected test tools as well as non-test related tools must be able to work together well. Sometimes, teams need to extend tool functionalities to accomplish this.
• Effective – From a project’s perspective, it is essential to ascertain that the selected tool is effective in what it does, like minimizing mistakes in manual testing. It is not necessary that the tool gives a positive ROI in the first instance of use. The Test Manager must consider the complete lifecycle to judge when the tool will give a positive ROI. This means that business perspective of selecting a tool must never go out of sight.
• Support for the team – From the team’s perspective, the selected tool must enable team members in performing their activities effectively and efficiently. The Test Manager must consider the amount of learning necessary to start using the tool.

To ascertain inclusion of all these three viewpoints, a roadmap must be created for introduction of the testing tool.

The syllabus for Foundation Level has already covered how to select a testing tool. Here is a recap for you:

• Assessment of organizational maturity level
• Specifying requirement which the tool must fulfill
• Evaluation of available tools, vendors and support services
• Identifying training and mentoring needs of teams using the tools
• Performing cost-benefit analysis as described earlier

Irrespective of the testing phase where the test tool will be used, the Test Manager must take note of these capabilities of the tool:

• Analysis
  • Is the selected tool suitable for the job?
  • Will the selected tool make sense of the inputs provided?
• Design
  • Is it possible to generate the design automatically?
  • Will the tool be able to design testware according to information provided?
  • Will the testware code be generated partly or fully and is it easy to maintain and use?
  • Is it possible to generate test data automatically using this tool?
• Data and test selection
  • By what logic does this tool decide which data is needed? Example: Which set of test data is to be used for a given test case?
  • Will the tool be able to accept the criteria for selection, both manually and automatically?
  • Can production data be “scrubbed” by the tool, depending on input data selected?
  • Will the tool be able to select the necessary tests according to coverage criteria? Example: Can the tool decide which test cases are to be executed based on the requirements by analyzing the traceability matrix?
• Execution
  • Can this tool function automatically without manual involvement?
  • In what way can the tool restart and/or stop?
  • Does the tool need to monitor for relevant incident that affect its operations? Example: If a defect is closed, should the status of the test case be updated by the tool automatically by a test management tool?
• Evaluation
  • By what logic does this tool decide that it has been provided the correct result?
  • What is this tool’s ability to recover after an error?
  • Does this tool offer sufficient reporting and logging?

Other popular articles:

• How to select a testing tool? Open Source, Vendor Tools & Custom Development
• What is Test data preparation tools in software testing?
• How to manage software testing tool lifecycle and tool metrics?
• What is Testing Tool ROI? One time/Recurring Costs & Risks related to tools?
• What is Coverage measurement tools in software testing?