What is QTP?

Introduction to QTP

QTP, can be expanded as Quick Test Professional, an automation testing tool used for automating the software application testing process, especially for functional and regression testing. QTP was first developed by Mercury Interactives, which was later acquired by HP and was renamed as Unified Functional Testing (UFT). It is famous for uncomplicated automated test script creation, screen recording options for object identification, scripts can be edited when and as required depending on the changes or new requirements, low maintenance efforts, and it has an option for test report generation as well.

Understanding QTP

As stated earlier, QTP is a functional and regression testing tool. Regression testing is important as some new changes in software should not affect the existing functionality of the software. Functional testing is having the same importance as regression testing. Ultimately user concerns about functionality, therefore product should be delivered with the proper testing phase. These testing procedures have their own time and energy requirements. Now, Quick Test Professional comes into the picture, it tries to solve problems faced by testers. It saves time and energy which is wasted by doing the same steps repeatedly. It helps testers to perform testing with minimal efforts. In the case of QTP, once the test script is written, there is no need for monitoring also.

How does QTP make Working so Easy?

The major distinguishing factor of QTP is its User Interface functionality. It comes with a so-called Integrated Development Environment (IDE) which provides User Interface to allow generating scripts easily. QTP IDE allows developing complex automation scripts by using an icon-based style. This option is known as Record and Playback and is supported by default in QTP. This feature also allows non-technical users to develop scripts.

It allows supplying multiple sets of data to the application using various data tables and external sources. It allows user interface viewing results in the Result Viewer option. These all functionalities make working with QTP very easy.

What can you do with QTP?

It allows the generation of scripts without writing them line by line.. The feature record and playback makes it very easy. When tester launches QTP and performs some operations, QTP generates lines of code for each step performed by tester. Now, when tester wants to perform the same steps as done previously, he just uses the playback feature. The script performs the same steps as required.

Although It is mainly used for UI based test case automation, it can also be used to automate some Non-UI based test cases such as database testing, file system operations or web service testing.

Working with QTP

QTP allows the performing of testing by the User Interface way. It works by the way; it identifies the objects on the screen and related operations such as mouse click or keyboard input. Stores them in memory and generates script. For the user i.e. Tester has to only perform manual testing process once and record this in QTP. Exception handling is also supported by QTP so that the test will continue to run in unexpected failure scenarios. It works only on the Windows environment and is known as UFT in the market today.

Advantages of QTP

• The main advantage is no need to write a script manually, i.e. Record and Playback feature.
• It supports around all major technologies including Web, Net, Java, Oracle apps, SAP, Siebel, Terminal Emulators (Unix, Mainframes), Power Builder, Visual Age, Flex (By Adobe)
• It has an active screen record that allows Testers to identify objects.
• It has a very good Object identification mechanism.
• So, It allows to edit the scripts and enhance them.
• For analysis, Test reporting is also possible through QTP.
• It has inbuilt IDE
• It is easy to maintain.

Required Skills

The most basic requirement for learning is the understanding of software testing. One must have basic knowledge of Testing and related concepts. Secondly, QTP uses VB Script as its scripting language. So, knowing VB Script will be an added advantage.

Why Should We Use QTP?

Testing and Automated Testing are big requirements in software development. Automated testing saves time plus QTP allows us to generate automated test cases without writing code directly, which ultimately saves a lot more time. Again, as It allows us to generate scripts by using User Interface with additional features, it becomes very easy to generate scripts.

Scope

For Testers, It is a very important tool. It is still used in the IT industry today. It is easy to use and has stable support from the vendor, therefore these professionals are always in demand. Remember UFT is the latest known version of QTP.

Why do we Need QTP?

It is best suited for Testers and is used to generate automated test scripts. If planned properly, Automation with QTP, we can save considerable energy and time invested as compared to manual testing.

Who is the Right Audience for Learning QTP Technology?

Anyone with a basic understanding of the software development lifecycle or anyone familiar with Software engineering is qualified to learn the QTP technology.

How this Technology will Help you in Career Growth?

For Testers, it will be definitely an added advantage as a skill. Software Testing professionals with QTP as a skill will have considerable demand.

Conclusion

So, It is the most popular regression and functional testing tool. It allows generating test scripts by using the user interface. It supports only the windows environment. It is not an open source tool, one has to buy a license for using it. QTP is a hot skill for testers and is used by many in the market today.

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