There are two main operational settings for the Test Tool software: (1) use as classroom test automation software; and (2) use as an aid for students taking graduate or undergraduate level software engineering classes.

The Test Tool software has specific operational settings. A question bank is a database that holds questions from various courses. It is placed on a server computer, and its access is restricted to instructors and administrators. This question bank is accessed when an instructor uses the Test Generator module of Test Tool to generate a test. Test Generator can be run from any computer that has access to the computer where the question bank is stored.

To run the Test Taker module of Test Tool, the generated test is placed on a server to which client computers are connected. Students can use these client computers to take a test. The software is installed typically in a computer laboratory. The client computers run the Test Taker module, and it accesses questions from the generated test. The questions are displayed to the student who takes a test using Test Taker. The students' responses to these questions are stored on temporary databases while the test is in progress. Once a student submits his or her test, or when the test time is up, the answer database of the student is locked, and it is then transferred to a location where an instructor or a grader have access to grade those tests.

The submitted tests are saved in the same domain used for saving the question bank. These tests can be opened by an instructor or a grader for grading. The tests can be graded automatically or manually, and the graded tests are placed on a public repository. The students can retrieve their graded tests by supplying their student ID and password. The sample tests, if provided by the instructor, can be accessed by any student without user authentication, and it can be accessed from any computer connected to the college intranet or the Internet.

Test Tool can also be used as a study aid, and the software has been designed to fit the curriculum used by Dr. Gene Fisher in an undergraduate or a graduate software engineering course at the California Polytechnic State University , San Luis Obispo . These courses are two-quarter sequences that cover the standard concepts and methodologies of software engineering, with emphasis on the practical application of formal methods. For the most part, the concepts covered in the above-mentioned courses and that implemented in the Test Tool are mainstream software engineering. Other instructors who teach a software engineering class also may find this tool and its development artifacts useful as course samples.