Typical software & tools short-list for *manual* QA specialist (tester) working environment

Question

For QA workstations preparation (Windows-based PCs) our IT department uses typical batch deployment tools. I'm not at all interested in the details of such process, but IT guys ask me:

What typical set of software you need for everyday *manual* testing tasks? We could include these in our deployment so that you guys could save more time for testing, not for environment prep & tuning.

Sure thing we do test various range of projects, from web applications to standalone solutions, and each application requires its own set of tools for manual testing, e.g.:

• Browsers
• Virtualization utilities
• DB clients
• Screens capturing tools
• FTP clients
• XML editors
• etc.

However, and that's for sure - there's a list of tools every QA MUST have installed on its PC, regardless of project types under testing. My area of experience is mostly standalone / complex web apps, that's why my vision on the task is a bit subjective.

So, your suggestions of what are tools / software an average QA specialist can't live without will be highly appreciated. 2 assumptions:

1. Manual testing is a point of interest.
2. Let's limit list as not more than 15 (better 10) items.

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Assuming you exclude the systems used to execute the application-under-test (Operating System, Browser, etc) there are no tools a tester cannot live without. There are many tools that make testing stronger, more thorough, easier, faster, and/or more efficient.

We use bug tracking tools, text reading/editing/printing tools, document storage and retrieval tools for pretty much everything we do.

And we use lots more tools on many of the things we do. Here are some:

WinTask

http://www.wintask.com

We use WinTask for most of our website automation tasks, regression tests, etc. It's very easy to use, yet amazingly powerful.

BareTail

http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baretail/index.php

Our systems tend to have fairly comprehensive logs which provide a lot of useful information for analyzing the results of tests. BareTail makes it easy to watch several logs simultaneously, and highlight areas of interest.

BareGrep

http://www.baremetalsoft.com/baregrep/index.php

Our systems tend to have a lot of configuration files. BareGrep makes it easy to search through them and find the desired settings.

PL/SQL Developer

http://www.allroundautomations.com/plsqldev.html

We use this for pretty much all of our analysis of database activity, for creating test data, for testing stored procedures, etc.

WinMerge

http://winmerge.org/

Often our testing involves comparing the recent output to baselines. Sometimes the output comes from our system-under-test, sometimes the output is created during our automated tests. WinMerge makes comparison with the baseline, and analysis of the differences, very efficient.

SharePoint

http://sharepoint.microsoft.com

We keep our development and test assets (Requirements, Specs, Test Plans, Schedules, Checklists, etc) in SharePoint.

Bugzilla

http://www.bugzilla.org/

Our current bug-tracking tool of choice.

MWSnap

http://www.mirekw.com/winfreeware/mwsnap.html

We're currently using MWSnap for screenshots, typically for attaching to bug reports.

And here's another list of good tools we've used at times: http://www.allthingsquality.com/2010/04/testers-tool-box.html

Answer 2

Some additional tools to the others (+1 to Phil and Joe, great suggestions) mentioned:

• Mind Mapping tool (e.g. XMind)
• Database Querying/Scripting tool (e.g. SQL Server Management Studio)
• Screenshot Capturing tool (e.g. PicPick, windows problem step recorder)
• Data Generation tool (e.g. www.generatedata.com)
• Notepad++
• Browser specific dev tool bars (e.g. firebug, IE dev toolbar etc.)
• Combinatorial testing/pair-wise tools (e.g. AllPairs, PICT)

Answer 3

I'll try not to repeat any of the tools already listed. Some that I use extensively that I don't see in other answers are:

• Fiddler - http debugging proxy
• Beyond Compare - diffing tool for files or folders
• Perfmon, Filemon, Processmon - monitoring different parts of the SUT.
• Snipping Tool - screenshots

Answer 4

You might think my answer is snarky but my brain, notebook and pen is pretty much all I need I do use other tools but none I consider 'essential'

Answer 5

I'd add the sysinternals suite to the mix - especially Process Explorer. Knowing how to use even a handful of the tools in the suite can help diagnose and discover a huge number of quality issues.

Answer 6

below is my addition to the list - tools I use very often during testing and preparations:

1. Firebug addon for Firefox - for me it's a true *must-have* for web testing
2. CRC/MD5 checksum creation / verification utility (I use QuickSFV, it's free and really quick)
3. DB Clients:
   • SQLDeveloper (for Oracle)
   • SQL Server Management Studio (for MSSQL, was mentioned above)

Other tools I use are the same or similar to already listed.

Answer 7

One of the most important tools I use all the time is virtual machines. I have a library of different test environments saved and if I need to test something in any one of those environments I just fire up that VM. The ability to snapshot the virtual machine means that I can corrupt the environment and very easily come back to a pristine state.

I would hate to be a (manual) tester in a world without virtual machine capabilities...

Answer 8

Peter, great topic. I'd list some other new apps, not mentioned eariler:

1. Altova XML Spy - great in working / processing XML files
2. Filezilla - good FTP client with SSH support
3. Kitty - http://www.9bis.net/kitty/?page=Download - a small SSH client, we use in viewing server logs in real-time

Answer 9

Remote access tools - Putty, WinSCP.

Mark.

Answer 10

1. Notepad++ is certainly the No.1 tool I need all the time :-)
2. WMHelp XMLPad/Foxe/IE to read XML files.
3. Lightshot as a printscreen utility.
4. Webex recorder/Camstudio for screen record.
5. Oracle SQL Developer to query database.
6. Oh I need Wordweb also :-)
7. HP Quality Center (Licensed)

Answer 11

• Selenium+*Firefox* for recording/playback of web sessions
• Cygwin for access to useful Unix-style tools (file, stat, lsof, bash, vim, nc)
• JetBrains dotPeek to disassemble DLLs (I use this so that I can call methods from IronPython)