DWine Insight

Learning QTP.

Who's that??? Well, I believe I need to elaborate for novices who don't know what the core topic is all about. QTP stands for Quick Test Professional. It is an automated tool used in the vertical of Software Testing or Software Quality Assurance. I have been trying to master this tool for the past week-10 days. Hhmmmm...not a really tough tool to master unlike other tools. It is a very user friendly and easy to use tool for the ever growing software testing services in India. Not to mention but for the cost of the tool which is very high, cannot allow evry one and every organization to use QTP. As always, the IT industry has it's own tips & tricks to use a trial software as a full fledged software. Hope you understand what I mean ;)

I started off with a hesitation towards learning it. Since I am a core manual tester, I've never showed any inclination towards automation of software testing. But times change and one has to be well prepared for the changes in the industry, includes me. To top this, IT industry is one such industry that has the thirst of the depth of the Mariana Trench. Just to mention in context, more and more of Software Testing services are now off shored to India which is a pioneer in off shore work targets. Keeping this trend in view, recently a new term has been coined worldwide, 'Bangalored.' See the meaning of this term as provided by Wikipedia & World Wide Words.

I have initially installed an old version (8.2) which was lying in my system for long without usage. Later I was offered a newer version (9.0) by a collesgue of mine who was generous enough to lend me a copy of it. After installation, I followed the tips & tricks as instructed. Now, the full version works perfectly. Since there is none in my team to teach me the skills of the trade, I started learning through the help file. Let me tell you, the help file is very good, elaborating the functionalities very well enough for a beginner to understand. I skid thru the help file very easily. The main functionalities of QTP are:

Recording Tests
Running Tests
Analyzing Tests
Checkpoints
Parameterization
Output Values
Regular Expressions
Multiple Actions



Right now, I am running through the last chapter Multiple Actions. All this while, I have been following the exhaustive help files. Now that I'm sort of OK-OK with it, I am looking forward to work in a live project using QTP. Let me see how it goes !!!Believe me, the best way to learn is to start experimenting yourselves rather than somebody else teaching you. This way, the things we learn tend to stay longer on the hard disk...errr..I mean in the brain. Interesting enough, QTP has succeeded in nailing my interest deep into it, otherwise which I always look for something new leaving the old behind. A very bad habit...I have also found a good number of blogs and online content relating to QTP. Here are a few to list:

QTP Forum by by Job News
QTP by Sachin Dhall
Software Quality Testing by my friend Debasis Pradhan. Worth reading.
Software Testing Zone by the same kid.

I have found this PPT on the net that describes the basic fundamentals and a few advanced topics of QTP. While the descriptions in this PPT refer to v8.0, minor changes should be accomodated to suit v9.x.


For those who are looking forward to learning QTP, the available online reousrces make this task pretty much easier. And not to mention the ease of using this tool, QTP undoubtedly is slowly 'phasing out' its predecessor WinRunner and will stand as the favorite of millions of software testers worldwide.

Happy Testing !!!!