Difference between software testing tools and techniques?

Answer 1

Software testing techniques are approaches you take towards running a test case. For example at the highest level you may take a black box approach or a white box approach to testing a piece of software. Where with a black box approach you don't understand the internals of the software you are testing but you do know what range of inputs the software can accept and from that you can deduce the expected results. With a white box approach you have a much better understanding of how the software works (perhaps you've been involved in a code review with the developers) and you can create your tests based on exercising the code knowing that the software should do x, y and z with the inputs.

Software testing tools however would be employed to help you achieve the approaches you plan to take with testing a piece of software. So taking the black box testing approach discussed above you may use a test data generation tool to help you create the inputs for your black box testing technique. Another example would be using a data comparison test tool to compare expected results with actual results once the tests have been exercised.

So in conclusion a test technique describes the approach you might take to test a piece of software, where as a software testing tool would be a method you employ to help you achieve the aims of the software test.