Functional/ Regression Testing Tools

In functional testing, the functionality of the software is tested without taking into consideration the source code and implementation details. For example. consider the standard calculator software. To test the functionality, some calculations will be done and check out whether the results are correct. If the expected results are same as the displayed results, the calculator software is working fine. While you are testing the software, you need to give test cases in such a way that all the buttons of the GUI are checked.
When the software is still in development phase, the software is not likely to work perfectly, and for some test cases you may get wrong results. During the course of development, you should check the software many times using the test cases. Doing it manually will take a lot of time, the functionality/regression testing tools are of immense use in such conditions.
Using these tools, GUI operations can be recorded. While running the tool, invoke the application and give all the test cases as input. Automatically, the testing tool will record your inputs like keystrokes and mouse clicks and then the tool will create a script. The script can be run subsequently and hence you are saved botheration of manually giving these inputs again and again.
testing tools provide a beautiful mechanism through data driven testing. In data driven testing, the username and password are considered as variables, the values that these variables can take can be obtained from a database and the testing is carried out. Data driven testing is one of the most important features of these testing tools. As a test engineer, the job is to create the test script with the variable names and then you can run the test in unattended mode.
While testing in unattended mode, suppose for an application, the user has to first login, then update a database table and then logout. You created test cases for all the three functions. If the software fails at login stage itself, should you continue or stop testing. The testing tools provide you an option either to continue or stop testing. The application can be made to recover automatically to a specified state.
The following tools used are Mercury Interactive's WinRunner, Segue Software's SilkTest, IBM Rational SQA Robot.