Quite a lot of people ask the same question. How to learn QTP? Is it easy to learn or tough? I had same questions popping up in my mind 6 years back. Those who had joined as freshers will be new to project, process, technology and domain. Everyone will be eager to learn, but they are not aware how to start, they will require expert opinion.
Here in this article, I have explored ways to learn Quick Test Pro easily in 10 steps. By following these 10 steps you won’t become an expert in QTP, but I assure you will become an Automation Engineer.
If you already appeared in QTP 5 Day program and learnt the concepts, the steps 5 to 7 are quite easy. Here you go…
1. Learn about Basics of Software Testing & Automation Testing.
Before jump into Automation Testing, you should know what Software Testing is and what Automation Testing is? Software Testing is nothing but testing a piece of code whether it’s meeting user’s requirements. Not just testing, it means validating software. There are different types of testing.
2. Learn about Automation Feasibility Analysis.
Widely tools will be used for Regression Testing. Regression Testing is a type of testing where the application’s functionality changes for every release or after defect fix. Testing that checks whether the change in code affects the other modules/functionalities after defect fix/code drop.
Automation Feasibility Analysis plays an important role in any automation project. It results whether the application is right candidate to automate or not.
3. Learn the basics VB Script and Excel Macros in case you aware much about, then go for beyond basics and advanced.
Before get into QTP, it will be good to know about VB Script and Excel Macros. You get to know about some simple functions, Syntax and Logics.
4. Know about the product background
Learn about QTP versions, Plug-ins available etc. Have a quick navigation all the menus in QTP. Now you got a machine loaded with QTP whatever the version, no problem. Just go to Help->About QTP, and have a look about QTP. If you have an Internet Connection, just goggle/wiki ‘QTP’ to know more about it.
Navigate through each menu and learn the IDE and options available in QTP. Large white space called work area where you need to code. You could see Active Screen, Information pane, Keyword View, Expert View et al.
5. Learn “How QTP recognizes objects?” more about Object Repository and OR Manager.
To learn how QTP recognizes objects, go to Tools->Object Spy and learn the objects and its properties. QTP uses Object Reference Model to identify objects in the screen.
Open Object Repository Manager to edit the properties of objects, use Regular Expressions, Merging Object Repositories et al.
6. Record some actions and Playback the scripts, work on Data Parameterization, Import and Export Sheets, Output Values, Actions, Synchronization points and Step Generators on recorded scripts and on Results Analysis.
After learning the Object Reference Model and about objects, click on Record button and to do some actions on ‘Flight Reservation’ application or any other applications. Click on Stop button to stop recording actions. After recording you could see code snippets of the action you performed. Click on Run to execute the script.
This is the very basic level to learn QTP. Once you familiar with Record, Stop, Run, save tests, you can start learning Data Parameterization [To check the functionalities with various sets of data], Output Values [output of one action is input of another action], Synchronization Points [where you are instructing QTP to wait for all the objects gets loaded in the application],
Step Generators [where you can add steps/code according to your need by clicking on a button without manual effort], Actions is nothing but the series of instructions. You can create ‘n’ number of actions in a test.
Results Analysis is important task in an automation project, to sign-off the release; we need to produce results for each run. You can customize the results according to your requirement, whether you require in HTML, Excel sheets, Charts, graphs et al.
7. Learn basics on Descriptive Programming and Library files.
Descriptive Programming and using Library files is an advance level in QTP. When QTP doesn’t recognize objects or without dealing objects in Object Repository we can use DP to recognize object and perform actions on that. Library files are external sources where you could store all the functions and call wherever you need.
8. Test Automation Frameworks
The main advantage of test automation framework is low maintenance cost. Learn about Test Automation Framework and it types.
9. Practice with Applications
Once you are done with the above 8 steps, take a real time application on any platforms. Try to automate the application based on above concepts. Make sure you have done with the Automation Feasibility Analysis. Refer Help Manual for any queries on syntaxes, methods, QTP settings et al.
10. Go online and access QTP Forums.
Follow the above nine steps strictly and Go online, attend Quizzes on QTP, try to answer the questions on QTP and Automation in online forums like SQA Forums, QAInsights Forums etc.
Happy Learning!