Explain the check points in QTP? In how many ways we can add check points to an application using QTP?

Check points in quick test professional have always proved to be an efficient tool. In this article, we discuss exclusively about the check points in quick test professional and the ways in which the check points can be added to an application with the help of quick test professional. 

What is Check Point? How it is added to an application?

- Check point can be thought of as a point to confirm or verify whether the application under test or AUT is working properly or not. 

- This is verified by making comparisons between the current value of some property and the expected value of the same property decided earlier. 

- Whenever a check point is added by the user, an equivalent check point is added by the quick test professional to the present row in the key word view as well as a “check check point” statement is added to the expert view. 

- The name of the test object also serves as a name for the check point that has been added to it. 

- The check points can be added via an active screen by placing the cursor on the desired location and clicking the insert standard check point option. 

Types of Check Points

It is on the basis of this expected value that the check points have been classified in to various types as described below:

1. Page check point: 

- This check point is the check point that is created exclusively for a web page. - This check point keeps a count of all the images and links present on that particular web page. 

- Another purpose for which page check point is used for checking the time taken by the web page to load fully i.e., the load time.

2. Bitmap check point: 

- This check point is the check point that helps in checking of the bitmap of either a full web page or an image. 

- Two images are provided to this check point, one the actual image and the other one expected image. 

- These two images are compared pixel by pixel by the bit map check point.

3. Image check point: 

- This check point is used for keeping a check on certain properties belonging to a web page such as the source file location of the image. 

- However, being a image check point, it cannot check pixels of an image like a bitmap check point does.

4. Text check point: 

- This check point is the check point that is employed in checking the expected text in a web application or web page. 

- This text may belong to a specific region of the text displayed or application under test.

5. Accessibility check point: 

- This check point verifies whether or not the accessibility standard of the application under test matches with the accessibility guidelines laid down by the W3C or world wide web consortium for information systems and technology which are web based.

6. Data base check point: 

- This check point performs the task of generating a query while the recording is in progress. 

- The values stored in the data base serve as expected values. 

- This query is executed during the run time to obtain the actual value which is then compared with the expected value.

7. Table check point: 

This check point is the one that is used for checking various table properties such as cell width, row width and so on.

8. XML check point: 

This check point is the one that is used to verify the following:

a)     XML schema

b)     XML data etc.

What is Accessibility Checkpoint in QTP?

Quick test professional has got a variety of check points to offer which are an ultimate help in the determination of the efficiency measure of the software system or application i.e., it functions correctly as expected. 

The check points accomplish this task by making comparisons between the value defined by the user that is the expected value and the current value of a particular property of the software system or application.

Quick test professional itself adds a check point statement in the expert view and a check point in the current row in key word view as well whenever a check point is added by the user.

The name of the test object to which the check point is added forms the default name for the added check point. However this default name of the check point can be changed as needed. 

Following are the check points provided by the quick test professional:

1. Image check point
2. Standard check point
3. Table check point
4. Bit map check point
5. Accessibility check point
6. Page check point
7. Text check point
8. XML check point
9. Data base check point

Our focus is on the accessibility check point in this article. 

Accessibility Check Point

- With the help of accessibility check point, the areas of a web site or web page or web application that do pertain to the standards and web content accessibility guidelines of the W3C or world wide web consortium can be recognized. 

- In fact accessibility check points are an extended support for the web add – ins environment. 

- With the accessibility check point, it can be verified whether the software system or application is in compliance with the World Wide Web consortium. 

- World Wide Web consortium or W3C lays down the instructions as well as guide lines for information systems and technology based on web. 

- These guidelines maintain a certain standard for accessing the web and this is what that is checked by the accessibility check points. 

- The settings of an accessibility check point can be configured according to the user’s needs. 

- These accessibility guidelines have been stated by a part of the World Wide Web consortium called the web accessibility initiative. 

- If the some parts your application software or system does not matches with the accessibility standard defined by the World Wide Web consortium and need special attention to improve them, they are caught by the accessibility check points. 

- In fact, an accessibility check point does not determine whether the software system or application meets all the accessibility guidelines.

- It catches only the faulty areas of that particular application under test or AUT that need to be brought up to that standard. 

- The identification of the improper areas of the software system or application using accessibility check points is quite quick, easy and also reliable. 

- Furthermore, automatic accessibility check points are also available that you add to every page on your web site or test. 

- Also individual pages or frames can have their own set of individual accessibility check points. 

- The accessibility check points are highly customizable and can be configured according to the requirements of the tests. 

- For configuring, an accessibility check point the options are available under web option of the tools menu. 

- Check and un-check the items that you want or don’t want in your that particular accessibility check point and finalize by clicking OK. 

- The tool in the web environment has to be kept in recording mode. 

- Accessibility check points can be added automatically while the recording is in progress and can be accessed while edit very easily. 

What are the different quality attributes in software architecture?

Software is of no use without good quality. Incorporating high quality in software is very difficult. The term “quality” is itself very hard to be defined. We can only measure quality using certain attributes. These attributes are called software quality attributes.

WHAT IS THE IDEA BEHIND QUALITY ATTRIBUTES?
1. Quality attributes of a software system or application define its behavior.
2. The quality attributes give a certain idea of how much suitable is the software for a purpose or environment.
3. It is an essential component of software architecture.
4. Identification of quality attributes is necessary as it helps the system to be built according to the intended behavior.

Certain scenarios are used to measure the quality attributes.
1. The scenarios are very helpful in helping the program developer to make decisions that are qualitative in nature and related to the program behavior.
2. Writing good scenario statements is very important in identification of quality attributes.
3. Although the scenarios help in the identification of attributes, they don’t provide an effective way to achieve those attributes that has to be figured out separately.

Architectural methodologies come to help at this point.
1. There are several architectural methods possible to achieve a particular quality attribute.
2. The software architect should select the right method and use it according to the needs of the software.
3. He should justify the selection of a method and provide documentation on it.

Over the years, some basic quality attributes have been identified and recorded in a list. The quality attributes have been classified in to 4 categories:

1.Run-time system qualities
These attributes are measured when the software is in execution mode.
- Functionality is the ability via which the system completes the assigned task.
- Performance is the collective measure of resource utilization, the response time, and the through put of the system.
- Security is the ability of the system to protect itself from unauthorized access and modifications.
- Availability is the time period for which the system is available to use.
- Inter-operability is the ability of a system to run in cooperation with another system.
- Usability includes other attributes like affect, control, help, and efficiency.

2.Non runtime system quality attributes
These attributes cannot be measured when the software is in execution mode.
- Portability is the ability of a system to perform well in varying environments.
- Modifiability is the adaptive ability of a system by virtue of which it is able to adapt to the changes.
- Integratibility is the ability of the components of the system to work in coordination with each other.
- Reusability is the measure of extent to which the existing features can be used in new software.
- Testability is the measure of the extent to which the software can be tested.

3.Business quality attributes
These attributes affect the other quality attributes.
- Marketability is the value of the system in the market.
- Cost is the money value of the software.
- Schedule is the expected utilization of the system.
- Appropriateness

4.Architecture quality attributes
These are specific attributes concerning the software architecture.
- Correctness is said to account for over all satisfaction of the system requirements.
- Conceptual integrity is the ability of the components of a system to integrate with each other.

5.Domain specific quality attributes
These are specific attributes concerning the business domain.
- Calibrability is the ability of a software system by virtue of which it recalibrates itself according to a specific range of work.
- Sensitivity is the measure of response of the software system to the measuring of a quality attribute.

The software architecture is greatly influenced by the quality attributes of a system. A measure taken in favor of one quality attribute often goes against another.

Introduction to Debugging? What strategies include debugging?

When the software testing is successfully done, the next step is debugging. Debugging is the process of removing the error that has been uncovered during the testing process. Debugging process starts with the execution of a test case. The results that are attained are assessed and the actual and expected values are compared. Debugging is the process that matches symptom with the cause.

In debugging process, there is a possibility of two outcomes:
- cause is found and corrected.
- cause is not found

Debugging sounds difficult and here are some reasons why it is so:
- The cause and symptom may be located remotely.
- Sometimes when some other error is corrected, the symptom disappear.
- Human error can cause a symptom.
- Timing problem can cause a symptom.
- Non errors can cause symptoms.
- Symptoms can be intermittent.
- There is a possibility that causes are distributed across different tasks running on different processors.

Debugging strategy includes finding and correcting the cause of software error by the use of three strategies:
- Brute force uses the philosophy of let the computer find the error. Memory dumps are taken, run-time traces are invoked and program is loaded with output statements.
- Backtracking is the process which starts at the site where symptom is uncovered, source code is traced backward until cause is found.
- In cause elimination, cause hypothesis is devised and data is used to prove or disprove the hypothesis. On the other hand, list of possible causes is developed and tests are conducted to eliminate each.

Define Unit Test Case, Integration Test Case, System Test case

UNIT TEST CASES(UTC)
The unit test cases are very specific to a particular unit. The basic functionality of the unit is to be understood based on the requirements and the design documents. Generally, design document will provide a lot of information about the functionality of a unit. The design document has to be referred before a unit test case is written because it provides the actual functionality of how the system must behave, for given inputs.

INTEGRATION TEST CASES
Before designing the integration test cases the testers should go through the integration test plan. It will give complete idea of how to write integration test cases. The main aim of integration test cases is that it tests the multiple modules together. By executing these test cases the user can find out the errors in the interfaces between the modules.
The tester has to execute unit and integration test cases after coding.

SYSTEM TEST CASES
the system test cases meant to test the system as per the requirements; end to end. This is basically to make sure that the application works as per the software requirement specification. In system test cases, the testers are supposed to act as an end user. so, system test cases normally do concentrate on the functionality of the system, inputs are fed through the system and each and every check is performed using the system itself. Normally, the verifications are done by checking the database tables directly or running programs manually are not encouraged in the system test.
The system test must focus on functional groups, rather than identifying the program units. When it comes to system testing, it is assumed that the interfaces
between the modules are working fine.
Ideally the test cases are nothing but a union of the functionalities tested in the unit testing and the integration testing. Instead of testing the system inputs and outputs through database or external programs, everything is tested through the system itself. In system testing, the tester will mimic as an end user and hence checks the application through its output.
Sometimes, some of the integration and unit test cases are repeated in system testing also especially when the units are tested with test stubs before and not actually tested with other real modules, during system testing those cases will be performed again with real modules.

What are Test Case Documents and what is the general format of test cases?

The test cases will have a generic format as below:
- Test Case ID : The test case id must be unique across the application.
- Test case description : The test case description should be very brief.
- Test Prerequisite : The test pre-requisite clearly describes what should be present in the system, before the test executes.
- Test Inputs : The test input is nothing but the test data that is prepared to be fed to the system.
- Test Steps : The test steps are the step-by-step instructions on how to carry out the test.
- Expected Results : The expected results are the ones that say what the system must give as output or how the system must react based on the test steps.
- Actual results : The actual results are the ones that say outputs of the action for the given inputs or how the system reacts for the given inputs.
- Pass/Fail : If the expected and actual results are same then test id Pass otherwise Fail.

The test cases are classified into positive and negative test cases.Positive test cases are designed to prove that the system accepts the valid inputs and then process them correctly. Suitable techniques to design the positive test cases are specification derived tests. The negative test cases are designed to prove that the system rejects invalid inputs and does not process them. Suitable techniques to design the negative test cases are error guessing, boundary value analysis, internal boundary value testing and state transition testing. The test cases details must be very clearly specified, so that a new person can go through the test cases step by step and is able to execute it.
In an online shopping application, at the user interface level, the client request the web server to display the product details by giving email id and username. The web server processes the request and will give the response. For this application, we design the unit, integration and system test cases.