Build Your Own Automated Software Testing Tool

Whatever its claims, commercially available testing software is not automatic. Configuring it to test your product is almost as time-consuming and error-prone as purely manual testing.

There is an alternative that makes both engineering and economic sense: building your own, truly automatic tool. Inside, you'll learn a repeatable, step-by-step approach, suitable for virtually any development environment. Code-intensive examples support the book's instruction, which includes these key topics:

• Conducting active software testing without capture/replay
• Generating a script to test all members of one class without reverse-engineering
• Using XML to store previously designed testing cases
• Automatically generating testing data
• Combining Reflection and CodeDom to write test scripts focused on high-risk areas
• Generating test scripts from external data sources
• Using real and complete objects for integration testing
• Modifying your tool to test third-party software components
• Testing your testing tool

Effective Software Test Automation goes well beyond the building of your own testing tool: it also provides expert guidance on deploying it in ways that let you reap the greatest benefits: earlier detection of coding errors, a smoother, swifter development process, and final software that is as bug-free as possible. Written for programmers, testers, designers, and managers, it will improve the way your team works and the quality of its products. "