To help developers do better manual and exploratory testing, Seapine Software has released Defect Scribe, a standalone product from its QA Wizard unit.

Defect Scribe, sold as a subscription-based service, records what happens when a running application is put through a scripted set of test cases, grabs a screenshot when a defect is found, and then packages it into a defect report, according to Paula Rome, director of product management at Seapine.

“A common complaint among developers is that they can’t reproduce bugs,” she said. Defect Scribe, she explained, “turns clicks into something you can scan.”

The reports built by Defect Scribe are quite sophisticated, said Rome, and include UI descriptions and controls in use when a defect was found. These UI elements are automatically highlighted in Defect Scribe. The reports can be loaded into Seapine’s TestTrack, or an API can be used to send the report to other defect-tracking tools so the problem can be remediated, she said.

“We rely on a tight integration between products,” Rome said.

Defect Scribe, she said, also helps developers save time, because writing up issue reports can consume a lot of it. It also increases a developer’s productivity, because writing bug reports is low on the priority list of what organizations want from their developers, she said.