HP Sprinter - Improving Quality without Automated Testing
Part 1: Testing Evolution Series
I'm talking about the coming of age of exploratory testing as a true solution and not just another concept posted on Wikipedia. Yes, I'm talking about HP Sprinter, the first big step in empowering the manual tester in an environment that struggles with the cost of automated testing on a daily basis.
Don't get me wrong. Automation is the key to the future of any type of system or non-system testing, including functional, regression, unit, load, security, etc. However, we still need documented test cases and new functional testing to bridge the gap in today's high-paced, understaffed application testing groups. This is why I have a special place in the testing hall of fame for Sprinter.
Sprinter is not just another testing tool, but as the new standard for documenting detailed test cases, cross-platform testing, test execution notation, data injection, and most of all, a solution for speedy defect resolution and eradication.
Sprinter documents every action you take within the application and writes the action on the test report (See Fig 1) and automatically take a snapshot of the form or page right after the action was taken. By taking that highly document execution report and converting it into a precise test case within ALM will save your tester time and allow you to use less qualified resources to execute test cases with little or no training on the application under test. In some cases, I have used this method to train people on entering a defect in ALM. By far, this feature alone is a game changer for managers that are trying to distribute the work load across a diverse IT group or reallocate more experience staff for other key projects.
The high level of detail that a user can automatically deliver when writing defects from Sprinter with a single click of a button can convey more information to development tea
Other features that caught my eye you may not be aware of, such as the ability for users to create repeatable macros, which allows testers to bypass steps that have become repetitious and time consuming, or the ability to have Sprinter auto check the attributes of items (i.e. color or size) on web page or forms that maybe overlooked during normal manual testing.
Some Other websites:
In this Testing Evolution Series, I will address in detail all the items listed in fig. 2 and give a solution that addresses real-world issues. I'll touch on other tools like HP Unified Functional Testing (which includes QTP…) as well as different testing methodologies, such as exploratory testing.
For my presentation on HP Sprinter from HP Discover Las Vegas 2012, please click here.
