2 The Challenge

Software testing environments are radically more complex than software development environments. Interconnected systems to test, network entities, databases, and filesystems present challenges to testers that developers can, for the most part, mock out and essentially ignore. Software testers need more tools, and more complex tools, than do software developers.

On the other hand, software development tools are much more highly evolved than software testing tools. There is no Eclipse, or IntelliJ, or even Visual Studio aimed at testing. Testers struggle and scratch to find tools appropriate to their test environments and appropriate to their Systems Under Test (SUTs).

Every test environment is different. Finding appropriate test tools is challenging. And when a tester has identified a set of useful tools, introducing them to the test environment and integrating them with the test environment is a challenge.

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