First things first...

I would like to start this blog with a very simple question: who tests the testing tool? This question sounds just like the "who came first, the chicken or the egg?" question. If you are like me and work in Information Technology (IT) area, you know that all types of software require extensive testing, sometimes requiring the aid of a testing tool to help you test faster and cover more and more testing scenarios. That's when QTP comes in hand.

Software testing has increasingly received more and more importance overtime in IT world, as the software development companies evolve their systems to godzila-size scales. And one of the questions that emerges from this long continuum development cycles is "does this new version/build/release maintain ALL the previous functionalities in place? haven't we brake something that was correctly work before?".

Here is where Regression Testing enters the scene. This type of test serves to help development teams (analysts, developers, testers included) to make sure that working features keep working as expected in the next to-be-released system versions, because the focus is to test already-in-place functions (not the new ones).

I personally work on one of these software development companies, particularly in software testing automation area, and I was hired mainly due to my previous 2 years experience working with QTP on a global technology company. Back at that time, I had the chance to work with versions 8.2 and 9.1. Now the challenge was to face QTP 10.0 and - since last week - 11.0 plus latest critical patches.

And for the past two years, I've been struggling with QTP. Seriously, everyday is like a battle against this tool. Bugs, crashes and lack of useful features mine this software's usability on a daily basis. So I thought "why not build a blog and post all the shit problems we face on the internet and let other people (aka automators) know and share their experiences? maybe - if I'm EXTREMELY lucky - HP will take the blame and fix these issues once and for all?" Sound like good reasons, right? Well, they do to me and here I am.

But, back to my main question, who tests the testing tool?

Sometimes I feel like no one gives a shit penny for this tool at HP and I will show why. Or probably, this is one of those projects no one ever dares to touch and prays to stay as far as possible from it. And that's what I will mainly cover in this blog - all the problems my team faces when using QTP with a good amount of humor. And to be fairly honest, I probably know more about QTP itself than any HP developer does.

Hope you enjoy reading it and have some fun, just like I do reporting these issues. :)
Feel free to leave your comments and - mainly - share your personal frustrations with this tool.