1. A method of web-interface mediated testing of a software application comprising: (a) selecting a test case for execution on a host machine using a web-interface provided by an application server, wherein said test case comprises one or more test steps; (b) selecting the host machine on which to run said test case using said web-interface provided by said application server, said host machine comprising an automation tool and a whole or partial copy of the computer readable code of the software being tested; (c) encoding a test case file comprising the one or more test steps of said selected test case and the name of an automation tool GUI environment file; (d) transmitting said test case file from said application server to said selected host machine; (e) receiving said test case file and decoding the contents thereof; wherein said decoding comprises generating a test script by parsing test step syntax recognized by said automation tool from said test case file and receiving a copy of the automation tool GUI environment file; (f) loading said test script, said automation tool GUI environment file, and said whole or partial copy of the computer readable code of the software being tested into said automation tool and executing said loaded test script using said automation tool thereby testing a software application.