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Quality at speed is the need of the hour in the software development industry. This is why organizations are looking to adopt Agile, Continuous Integration (CD), and DevOps methodologies to find solutions. Test automation is an essential aspect of these methods that can enable organizations to provide quality at speed. 

In simple terms, automation testing is a process of automatic execution of test cases and the production of test outcomes without any human intervention. It considerably lowers the cost and effort that is otherwise needed in manual testing. It minimizes the probability of errors by minimizing redundant manual work. 

To implement test automation, organizations require the assistance of a good automation testing company or at least good automation testing tools as they determine how automation is performed and whether the benefits of automation can be delivered. Currently, test automation is directing towards leveraging AI and ML to offer advanced capabilities for intelligent test generation, execution, reporting, and test optimization.

Let’s have a look at some of the best automation testing tools of 2020 and how they can help you to ensure “quality at speed”.

Selenium

Selenium is the most commonly used automation testing tool – almost 9 out of 10 testers are using or have ever used selenium in their projects, according to the Survey on Test Automation Challenges. It is considered the industry standard for web application testing. 

Selenium offers unparalleled flexibility to users who can write test scripts in various languages (such as Java, Python, PHP, C#, Ruby, etc.) that run on multiple system environments (such as Windows, Linux, Mac) and browsers (Chrome, IE, Firefox). 

For effective use of Selenium, testers are required to have advanced programming skills and spend a significant amount of time to build automation frameworks and libraries necessary for automation. 

Ranorex

Ranorex has a huge user base of more than 4000 companies who can use it as an all-in-one tool for mobile, desktop, and web application testing. It is easy-to-use for novice programmers as it has a codeless click-and-go interface but it’s also powerful enough for automation experts. 

Most prominent features are:

• Reliable object identification
• Shareable object repository
• Cross-platform and cross-browser testing
• Customizable test report
• Reusable code modules to reduce test maintenance
• Integrates with tools like Jira, Jenkins, etc.

Test Complete

Test Complete is another capable tool in our list that provides a comprehensive set of features for web, mobile, and desktop application testing. It allows you to build and run functional UI tests using robust record & replay capabilities or by using languages such as JavaScript, Python, or C++ Script to write test scripts. 

Test Complete is one of the few tools that have an object recognition that accurately detects dynamic user interface elements. It is especially useful in applications that have an interface that changes frequently and is dynamic. Test Complete supports a wide range of applications along with cross-browser, regression, and parallel testing capabilities that can scale your tests across 1500+ test environments for improved software quality and complete coverage.

With its recent version 14.4 which was released in April 2020, Test Complete made improvements in its integration with Jira. Cross-platform web testing allows users to manually create/record web tests in the supported browsers and run these tests in various other browsers. The tool’s self-healing functionality leverages improved AI-based algorithms to find a replacement object by its image. Testers can easily verify results by inserting checkpoints into test steps to verify results. It also allows for seamless integration with other SmartBear products.

IBM Rational Functional Tester

As the name suggests, IBM Rational Functional Tester (RFT) is an automated regression and functional testing tool that incorporates capabilities for functional, regression, data-driven, and GUI testing. It supports a variety of web-based applications (such as .Net, Java, SAP, etc.) and terminal emulator-based applications (such as Ajax, Dojo Toolkit, Adobe PDF documents, etc.). 

The tool has all the test scripting, editing, and execution capabilities for Linux and Windows but it only provides recording on the Windows platform. It also provides a visual, storyboard format to represent test actions, allowing testers to understand and communicate test flow and edit test action without writing or reading test script code. With the advanced ScriptAssure technology, IBM RFT enables accommodation of frequent user interface changes and avoids increases in maintenance overhead. The software also allows users to automatically detect data during test recording and prepare the test for data-driven testing.

Katalon Studio

Last on our list is Katalon Studio, which, in no way, is a less capable device for testing mobile, desktop, and web applications. It supports all the platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) and leverages Appium and Selenium engines to provide testers a uniquely integrated environment to simplify deployment and integration.

Katalon Studio is a Gartner-recognized tool and is one of the biggest players in the market. The main highlights of this software are as follows:

• Supports both RESTful and SOAP for services and API testing
• Hundreds of built-in keywords for creating test cases
• Katalon TestOps
• Can be used for both exploratory and automated testing

Conclusion

Above-listed is our top picks for the automation testing tools in 2020. We would like to mention, that while relevant tools are important for implementing automation, acquiring services of an experienced automation testing company can help you deliver ‘quality at speed’ in a much better way. But if you are keen on acquiring a tool first, we hope that our list will help you make an informed buying decision.