Quick Test Professional (QTP) is an automated functional testing tool to test both web and desktop applications and is based on VB scripting language. Considering the effectiveness the tool brings, it is one of the most widely used automation testing tools in the testing industry. Let's analyze the significance of the QTP testing tool and process for testing an application.

The Significance of QTP Test Automation Tool

QTP offers various plug-ins to integrate with different technologies. It is most often used for web-based applications for clients and servers. It captures user events like mouse clicks, etc. Developing tests in VB scripting language require little coding knowledge for software testing professionals to develop and run test cases. Mostly, the QTP tool is used for the UI-based test cases and automates non-UI test cases such as file operations, database testing, etc.

The QTP tool evaluates actual and anticipated outcomes and shares the results in an execution summary. It permits testers to add checkpoints to make sure that the application's test results are as expected. The QTP testing tool environment provides hassle-free navigation from validation to report generation. In QTP, there is no Integrated Development Environment (IDE). Instead, the tester can create an independent environment for test cases.

By default, the QTP test automation tool is integrated with the quality center which makes it easy for testers to schedule and monitor test cases. Because QTP is an HP Enterprise product, it offers strong community support for testers to get issues resolved and learn more about the tool. Though it is known for its efficiency, the only concern is with commercial automation testing. The cost and maintenance are considerably high. Commercial test automation and Open source tools have have many reasons why QTP is preferred, but it purely depends on the business use case. Commercial and open source automation test tools each have defined purposes, implications and abilities.  

Benefits of QTP Test Automation Tool

• Code can be reused
• Test data handling is efficient
• Test code maintenance is simple
• Like any other automation testing tool, QTP saves software testing time by automating the process of generating scripts using UI
• Test results are logged into a separate files, making it easy to understand
• With QTP, even if the test script fails, the Unified Functional Testing process won't stop the execution process. The framework still reports the errors and moves to execute the next test case

7 Step Process to Perform QTP Testing

1. Create Test Plan

Before starting the testing process, develop a detailed description of the test case, including the exact test steps to follow, input data, and all items to be verified. The information should include both data validations and existence.

2. Record a Session

In this phase, execute test steps one by one on the Application Under Test (AUT). AUT objects should be in the Object Repository and are used to identify objects in the runtime. QTP automatically records corresponding VB Script statements for each step performed.

3. Enhance the Test Process

• Tests can be validated by defining checkpoints within your tests, which permits you to search for a specific value of a page or object. It's easier and faster to add checkpoints during the recording process
• To broaden the scope of the test, replace fixed values with parameters and check the application performance with different data inputs
• Add logic, conditional statements and loops to your test to perform advanced checks to your test case

4. Debug Your Test Process

Whenever changes are made to a script, testers should execute the script to check if the test case is working properly in all cases.

5. Run the Test on New Application Versions

In this phase, run the test to check the behavior of your application in all its versions. After the test is created, we can perform different types of runs.

6. Analyze the Results

After running the test, review the summary and detailed reports in the Results Viewer. If images of your application are captured during the run, they can be viewed in the Screen Recorder tab of the Results Viewer.

7. Report Defects

Any incidents identified should be reported. If Quality Center is used, defects can be automatically raised for failed tests in QTP.

About Author

Sneha works as a Test Engineer at V-Soft consulting and has a Software Testing career for 4 years. As a test engineer, she gained testing knowledge in testing Web & Mobile Apps (Android & iOS), GUI, Functional, Integration, System, Ad-hoc, Usability, Database, Smoke Regression and Retesting. Also, she is very proficient knowledge in Agile methodology and AI domains.