Hi, let me try to answer some of your questions.
1. What part of the software development life-cycle does the tool impact, i.e. from requirements to verification, or only testing/verification?
It works for testing and verification. For requirements management you could use HP Quality Center.
2. Can it be used to verify only software systems or also software/hardware systems (e.g. instruments)?
Not sure how t answer this, but if you can use an emulator for your hardware, maybe you could test the functionality with QTP
3. Does it support traceability between test procedures and requirements, design and/or units of code?
You need to use a different set of tools to achieve this other than QTP, those are HP Quality Center, Borland's Caliber RM, and Borland's StarTeam for source control.
4. Does it support unit testing?
You mean at code level? QTP is for functional testing, for unit testing (usually done by developers) use JUNIT or NUNIT.
5. Does it support component level testing?
Not sure if my idea of component testing is what you mean, can you please explain.
6. Does it support system level testing?
Same here, can you explain what you mean by system level testing.
7. Does it integrate with a defect management tool, e.g. TestTrack?
Yes, you can integrate with HP Quality Center's Defect Management Module
8. Does it integrate with a configuration management tool. e.g. Perforce, Subversion?
Could work like this: Requirement modified in Caliber -> Exported to QC -> Test Cases related to requiement need review.
9. How are test procedures defined, e.g. as scripts in a custom language or a standard language?
QTP uses Visual Basic Script.
10. Can test procedures be automatically generated?
From QC you can generate a script for you to fill in the lines of code needed to automate the script.
11. Can the test procedures be run automatically?
Yes, from QC you can run a set of QTP scripts and have the test results uploaded to QC for later review.
12. How does it capture evidence of running the test procedure - is it good enough the biomedical/regulated projects?
If your script test every single aspect of the requirement you want to test, you can trust on the test results provided by QTP
13. What, if any training is available?
Yes, training is available. http://h10076.www1.hp.com/education/hpsw/
14. What does the training cost?
I think it was around $3500
15. How easy is it to use the tool? How easy is it to be proficient with the tool?
Easy to use, if you have experience with automated testing tools, you will learn quickly.
16. What does the tool cost? What is the maintenance cost of the tool?
Not sure what the cost is.
17. What support infrastructure is required, if any, e.g. databases, web servers?
QTP is a stand alone client tool that runs on Windows OS.
18. What types of technologies can it test - does it support managed (.NET) and unmanaged (non .NET) code? GUI's, e.g. Windows WinForms, WPF? Does it a support non-GUI applications?
It can test on Java, JSPs, .NET ASPX, .NET WinForms, Visual Basic Forms, Terminal Emulators apps, Oracle, Webservices, Siebel, Peoplesoft, and others.
19. What types of metrics and reports on metrics can it produce, e.g. number of tests written over time, number of passing tests written over time, code coverage, etc.?
You can run reports from QC.
1. What part of the software development life-cycle does the tool impact, i.e. from requirements to verification, or only testing/verification?
It works for testing and verification. For requirements management you could use HP Quality Center.
2. Can it be used to verify only software systems or also software/hardware systems (e.g. instruments)?
Not sure how t answer this, but if you can use an emulator for your hardware, maybe you could test the functionality with QTP
3. Does it support traceability between test procedures and requirements, design and/or units of code?
You need to use a different set of tools to achieve this other than QTP, those are HP Quality Center, Borland's Caliber RM, and Borland's StarTeam for source control.
4. Does it support unit testing?
You mean at code level? QTP is for functional testing, for unit testing (usually done by developers) use JUNIT or NUNIT.
5. Does it support component level testing?
Not sure if my idea of component testing is what you mean, can you please explain.
6. Does it support system level testing?
Same here, can you explain what you mean by system level testing.
7. Does it integrate with a defect management tool, e.g. TestTrack?
Yes, you can integrate with HP Quality Center's Defect Management Module
8. Does it integrate with a configuration management tool. e.g. Perforce, Subversion?
Could work like this: Requirement modified in Caliber -> Exported to QC -> Test Cases related to requiement need review.
9. How are test procedures defined, e.g. as scripts in a custom language or a standard language?
QTP uses Visual Basic Script.
10. Can test procedures be automatically generated?
From QC you can generate a script for you to fill in the lines of code needed to automate the script.
11. Can the test procedures be run automatically?
Yes, from QC you can run a set of QTP scripts and have the test results uploaded to QC for later review.
12. How does it capture evidence of running the test procedure - is it good enough the biomedical/regulated projects?
If your script test every single aspect of the requirement you want to test, you can trust on the test results provided by QTP
13. What, if any training is available?
Yes, training is available. http://h10076.www1.hp.com/education/hpsw/
14. What does the training cost?
I think it was around $3500
15. How easy is it to use the tool? How easy is it to be proficient with the tool?
Easy to use, if you have experience with automated testing tools, you will learn quickly.
16. What does the tool cost? What is the maintenance cost of the tool?
Not sure what the cost is.
17. What support infrastructure is required, if any, e.g. databases, web servers?
QTP is a stand alone client tool that runs on Windows OS.
18. What types of technologies can it test - does it support managed (.NET) and unmanaged (non .NET) code? GUI's, e.g. Windows WinForms, WPF? Does it a support non-GUI applications?
It can test on Java, JSPs, .NET ASPX, .NET WinForms, Visual Basic Forms, Terminal Emulators apps, Oracle, Webservices, Siebel, Peoplesoft, and others.
19. What types of metrics and reports on metrics can it produce, e.g. number of tests written over time, number of passing tests written over time, code coverage, etc.?
You can run reports from QC.
