Interview with QTP Experts: Part 2

In continuation with our series of interview with QTP experts, today we have Tarun Lalwani. Tarun is a veteran at SQAforums and has authored many articles and tools to help the QTP community. He blogs at knowledgeinbox.com

LearnQTP: If you could introduce one new feature in the next version of QTP, what would it be?

Tarun: There are lots of feature I can think of which are currently missing in QTP. But the most important one in my opinion is to be able debug libraries loaded at run-time. Currently lot of time gets wasted in debugging scripts and complex frameworks are all based on loading stuff at run-time.

LearnQTP: What is the toughest QTP challenge that you have faced?

Tarun: There have been lots of challenges that I have faced in QTP. When I started using QTP the community was not huge and there was a lot of stuff to be learned and taught. Every day, every query, every project has brought new challenges, new solutions and new learning for me. I doubt I can mark any one of them as the toughest one.

LearnQTP: Let’s say you are interviewing someone for a position of QTP test lead, and you can only ask 5 questions  to gauge the candidate’s knowledge. What are the 5 questions you would ask?

Tarun: 5 questions are bit too less for me to judge a candidate. But I would mostly split my questions in different categories. Here are the questions that I would mostly ask and the objective behind my questions

1. From which version of QTP did you start using the tool? Which is the latest one? What new features were introduced between the successive versions?

This question would help me judge how closely a candidate follows the new upgrades and their analyses on the same. Though it is pretty much easy for any non-deserving candidate to just remember and answer the query, but we can grill down on the features discussed

2. How does QTP identify objects? What is Object Repository (OR)? Types of Object Repository? How to load OR at run-time? Why, When & How of Descriptive Programming (DP)? You prefer DP or OR, why? What all add-ins have you worked with? How to work with custom controls? What are libraries? How to load the libraries at run-time? How to debug code in QTP?

This question would help me judge how well the candidate understands working of QTP. It is not only important for a person to know the practical stuff but also to know the theory behind that. There are many QTP programmers who know how to do things but don’t know why it is done that way

3. What projects have you worked on? Have you already lead a Team on Automation? Challenges faced in the project? What solutions were implemented? What solutions could not be implemented? How many times you have contacted HP Support and for what kind of issues? Do you refer to any blog or forum regularly? Have you ever helped others on any forum? Presenting a new application to the candidate and asking on what would be the path forward to propose and implement Automation of the application

Since the candidate is applying for a Test Lead role it is important for us to know whether he can do projects in an approached manner or not. Also presenting a new hypothetical application case which can present problems like Test Data dynamics, Application versioning, Parallel release etc… will help judge his/her solution making capabilities.

4. What is difference between VBScript and QTP? Can we run QTP code in VBScript? Can we run VBScript code in QTP? Can we use any other scripting language in QTP? Which programming or scripting language other than VBScript would you have preferred for QTP coding and why? A practical problem on VBscript which tests candidates knowledge of various methods of VBScript

This question helps judge understanding of the candidate on VBScript. It is utmost important for one to understand difference between Plain VBScript and QTP, being able to do so makes it easier to resolve issues while doing Automation

5. You think you have made it?

It is very important for one to be able to self access himself/herself. Everyone in this world makes mistakes, but if one can catch and rectify it early that always helps. Nobody is perfect in this world, but only those who know what they lack and where they need to improve come out to be true champions.

LearnQTP: Which feature of QTP was your most recent discovery?

Tarun: The feature that I found out recently was to be able to change variables value from the Watch tab itself. I used to do this from the command tab earlier. More information can be found at this link.

LearnQTP: How significant is QTP certification to you when you’re screening candidates for a QTP tester position?

Tarun: I am not QTP certified and I never plan to be one. It does not matter to me if the candidate I am interviewing is certified or not.

LearnQTP: Please give a message for beginners in QTP.

Tarun: Read & learn & implement as much as you can. No one becomes an expert in a day. It takes years of hard work to be the best in your field. Here is how I did it – When I started learning QTP I didn’t had the tool with me, I just used to read the help file at home and before I started working on the tool I knew every single feature of the same. The usual approach of learning is to start playing with the tool and learn while solving issues, but having knowledge of various features available on hand before starting with tool helps a lot. With over 11100+ replies on SQAForum I have only asked 10 questions on the forum. If you have any question, first search for the answer yourself before asking anyone. I spend days of effort to search solutions to my queries and queries other people ask. That to me has been the key to success.

Again, you can catch up with the full series of interviews here.