IBM Rational Functional Tester
Encyclopedia
IBM Rational Functional Tester is a tool for automated testing of software applications from the Rational Software
Rational Software
Rational Machines was founded by Paul Levy and Mike Devlin in 1981 to provide tools to expand the use of modern software engineering practices, particularly explicit modular architecture and iterative development...

 division of IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

. It allows users to create tests that mimic the actions and assessments of a human tester. It is primarily used by Software Quality Assurance
Software quality assurance
Software quality assurance consists of a means of monitoring the software engineering processes and methods used to ensure quality. The methods by which this is accomplished are many and varied, and may include ensuring conformance to one or more standards, such as ISO 9000 or a model such as...

 teams to perform automated regression testing
Regression testing
Regression testing is any type of software testing that seeks to uncover new errors, or regressions, in existing functionality after changes have been made to a system, such as functional enhancements, patches or configuration changes....

.

Overview

IBM Rational Functional Tester is software test automation tool used by quality assurance
Quality Assurance
Quality assurance, or QA for short, is the systematic monitoring and evaluation of the various aspects of a project, service or facility to maximize the probability that minimum standards of quality are being attained by the production process...

 teams to perform automated regression testing
Regression testing
Regression testing is any type of software testing that seeks to uncover new errors, or regressions, in existing functionality after changes have been made to a system, such as functional enhancements, patches or configuration changes....

. Testers create scripts by using a test recorder which captures a user's actions against their application under test. The recording mechanism creates a test script from the actions. The test script is produced as either a Java or Visual Basic.net application, and with the release of version 8.1, is represented as a series of screen shots that form a visual storyboard. Testers can edit the script using standard commands and syntax of these languages, or by acting against the screen shots in the storyboard.. Test scripts can then be executed by Rational Functional Tester to validate application functionality. Typically, test scripts are run in a batch mode where several scripts are grouped together and run unattended.

During the recording phase, the user must introduce verification points. Verification points capture an expected system state, such as a specific value in a field, or a given property of an object, such as enabled or disabled. During playback, any discrepancies between the baseline captured during recording and the actual result achieved during playback are noted in the Rational Functional Tester log. The tester can then review the log to determine if an actual software bug was discovered.

Storyboard Testing

Introduced in version 8.1 of Rational Functional Tester, this technology enables testers to edit test scripts by acting against screen shots of the application. Prior to this feature, testers edited their scripts by modifying the test script code.

Object Map

The Rational Functional Tester Object Map is the underlying technology used by Rational Functional Tester to find and act against the objects within an application. The Object Map is automatically created by the test recorder when tests are created and contains a list of properties used to identify objects during playback.

ScriptAssure

During playback, Rational Functional Tester uses the Object Map to find and act against the application interface. However, during development it is often the case that objects change between the time the script was recorded and when a script was executed. ScriptAssure technology enables Rational Functional Tester to ignore discrepancies between object definitions captured during recording and playback to ensure that test script execution runs uninterrupted. ScriptAssure sensitivity, which determines how big an object map discrepancy is acceptable, is set by the user.

Data Driven Testing

It is common for a single functional regression test to be executed multiple times with different data. To facilitate this, the test recorder can automatically parametrize data entry values, and store the data in a spreadsheet like data pool. This enables tester to add additional test data cases to the test data pool without having to modify any test code. This strategy increases test coverage and the value of a given functional test.

Object Proxy Mechanism

In order for Rational Functional Tester to interact with a given object in an application it must be able to understand that object's interfaces. This is typically not a problem for standard objects such as edit fields, buttons and listboxes. However, in some cases, application developers create their own custom objects to meet a certain application requirement. In those cases, developers can create an object proxy where they can identify in code the interfaces to a custom object. This mechanism is a Software Development Kit (SDK) interface that allows users to program in Java or .NET to add functional testing support for Java and .NET custom controls.

Release history

The following is a release history of the product initially released as RobotJ, and today known as IBM Rational Functional Tester
  • RobotJ 1.0 Released Summer 2002. Initial release. Part of Rational Test Studio 2002.05.02 release.
  • XDE Tester 1.0 Released in Summer, 2003. Renamed as part of Rational XDE (eXtended Development Environment), in line with Rational Test Studio version 2003.06.00.
  • IBM Rational Functional Tester for Java and Web. Released 2004. Renamed after IBM
    IBM
    International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

     acquisition of Rational Software
    Rational Software
    Rational Machines was founded by Paul Levy and Mike Devlin in 1981 to provide tools to expand the use of modern software engineering practices, particularly explicit modular architecture and iterative development...

    .
  • v6.0 Released September, 2005. Renamed to IBM Rational Functional Tester. Internally known as Atlantic Release.
  • v6.1 Released January, 2005. Renamed to IBM Rational Functional Tester. Internally known as Atlantic Release.
  • v6.1.1 Released March, 2005. Internally known as Atlantic Release.
  • v6.1.2 Released December, 2005.
  • v7.0 Released December, 2006. Internally known as Caspian Release.
  • v7.0.1 Released December, 2007.
  • v7.0.2 Released April, 2008.
  • v8.0 Released October, 2008.
  • v8.1 Released July, 2009.
  • v8.1.1 Released February, 2010.
  • v8.2 Released October, 2010.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK