QuickTest Pro automated testing

Question

I have three easy questions.

Does anybody use QuickTest Pro for automated testing?

Any other automated testing applications that you recommend?

Is automated testing a good idea?

Thanks

Answer 1

I was head of an automation team that used QTP and I hated it. The record/playback functionality was horrible, it would routinely get confused resulting in weird test results. Record could only be used in order to build up the object database and even then had to result to all sorts of hacks in order to get it to work somewhat reliably.

QTP/QC is based on ActiveX/COM and can only be scripted with VBScript which is another bag of flaming dog poo. There are all these hacks and tricks we had to do in order to get any sort of extensibility. We were doing things like run a test that dynamicly adds the QTP test to the test suite, edit the input parameters, change the object repository so that it matches the enviroment, save the test, spawn a scheduler instance in order to run the test. Once the test is done copy all the results to the parent test and then remove the QTP test from the test set. In the end we ended up publishing custom COM components which the VBScript called into and used QTP/Quality Center as a half-assed reporting engine that didn't really offer enough flexibility to get the type of reports we really needed.

Another problem with Mercury/HP is that they outsourced all of their tech support to India and didn't train them. It was common to spend 2 weeks in lower level support purgatory before you could speak to anyone with any technical knowledge about the APIs only to be told that yes it's a bug but no we won't fix it.

I sorry about the strong language but I found the whole episode traumatizing and will never work on a project or for a team that uses QTP/QC ever again.

Answer 2

There are several threads on SO concerning test automation:

• Which is better for web testing? Record-Play automation or coding?
• User Interface Testing
• Automated testing of GUI

I've never used Quick Test Pro, but I've been on several projects that have used different automated test tools; Silk Test, Rational Robot, WinRunner. The most successful of these efforts was the one that used Rational Robot with the RRAFS framework to isolate application changes from the test scripts. We also use the STAF framework for automating and managing our test infrastructure.

Automated testing is a good technique for testing facets of an application, but it doesn't replace human testers. Like all tools, you can use it or you can abuse it. As long as what you're testing is stable, repetitive, has predictable or computable results, and you test it often enough, then the cost of automating will eventually pay for itself.