TestOptimal - A Model-Based Testing Automation Tool For Web Applications

I subscribe to a MBT user group hosted by Yahoo Groups and have recently seen several posts about a MBT tool called TestOptimal. We plan to download the 30-day demo version and try it out on some web development test projects. The tool looks promising and, based on the information at their website, seems to match what I would expect from an MBT tool: modeling tools, state diagram generation, generation of test sequences, test execution and reporting. Based on my initial review, I would recommend anyone just getting into MBT to at least try out the 30-day demo version to get a feel for what it takes to create models. The sample state diagram they provide leads me to believe that you can make your models as simple or complex as you like.

What I find particularly interesting and enlightening is the way they describe their test sequencers. I'm presently working on my own test sequencers and am happy to see an actual MBT product (versus the many books on MBT) define a useful set of test sequencers. The four they offer are: Random, Greedy, Optimal and mCase. The mCase sequencer is their unique way of grouping states and transitions to fit target test scenarios. With mCase, you can group non-consecutive states and transitions to fit real-world scenarios, and TestOptimal wil find the shortest test sequence to traverse them. I'd have to see this to believe it, but it does sound like a great way to re-purpose your test sequences into targeted test scenarios.

I will provide a more thorough review of the product by next month. The info provided at the TestOptimal website is adequate and covers the main areas of MBT. I'm a little concerned about the company behind TestOptimal in that the website contains typos - the "l" in "Model" is missing on the title of each page (5/19/2009 This has been fixed on their website - RTV). But that may just indicate that they are spending their resources on the technical versus marketing side of things. I still think it's worth an evaluation and I'll let you know what I think about the product next month.