Silk Test Interview Question 73: Silktest vs QTP comparasion?

I'm always surprised to read in the requirement for Automation Test Engineer something like "5+ years test automation experience, including contributing to automation framework development and developing and maintaining Seque SilkTest or HP / Mercury QTP test suites". For me it means that hiring company does not have any test automation tools at all and you will be the very first test automation engineer to hire. In the same time I consider this QA interview questions "describe advantages and disadvantages of HP QTP vs SilkTest" as perfectly valid software engineer interview question.

Let's take a look on both test automation tool and compare QTP vs Silktest without any comparison tables.

HP QTP and Silktest have one major drawback in common there is no a single HP QTP book or SilkTest book published yet except tutorials you get in the box. It means in case you want to advance your career as test automation engineer you have to take an expensive courses.

HP QTP fits more for less technical tester who will just try to do a basic record-and-playback. The Quality Assurance Engineer with object oriented programming experience should select SilkTest as tool in case s/he wants to treat automated testing as real development project.

Borland SilkTest works with 4Test scripting language and Java programming language with a help of Silk4j Eclipse Plugin, while HP QTP works with a scripting language implemented on top of VBScript. In both cases you need to have someone familiar with language. Consider to take a look on Selenium, because Selenium allow to code test scripts in Java, .Net, Perl, Python, Ruby and PHP.

Most critical part in selection test automation tool is what type of application you want to test. SQA Engineer should evaluate HP QTP, Silktest and probably Selenium against testing requirement and then make a decision.

Update
A few QTP books have been released recently on market, for detailed review look at review Best Books for QTP

SilkTest Jobs

In the past few months, everyone has noticed a major shakeout in tech industry. Many Bay Area technology companies announced major layoffs or even have shut their doors. As result, salaries and hourly rates are going down. I just noticed on Bay Area Craigslist this open SilkTest contractor position. Don't you think that $40 per hour is very low for QA Tester with the knowledge of SilkTest, Python, Perl, VBScript and C++?

Location: Santa Clara
Duration: 4.5 month
Rate: $40/hr

Solid software company is looking for a QA Tester with solid SilkTest experience.

Must have:
- Authoring, implementing, and maintaining automation test libraries and scripts using SilkTest - Automation experience
- Ability to work with QA engineers to convert manual test procedures into automated systems
- Scripting experience (Python, Perl, VBScript)
- Programming with C++ is ideal

Silktest jobs

Looks like job market for Silktest QA engineer shrank dramatically in the last few year. Based on this two years old post open position for test automation tool specialist, there was 184 open SilkTest position on Dice.com, and 17 Silktest jobs on sfbay.craigslist.org. Right now these jobs search engines offer just 54 and 4 Silk Test jobs respectively. Where did all the jobs go? One may think that most of these jobs were outsourced to भारत गणराज्य, but how about 104 results for Selenium jobs on dice.com and 23 open Selenium position in sfbay.craigslist.org. It seems despite Borland's efforts to revive SilkTest, more and more companies are looking for free open source test automation tool like Selenium. Perhaps Borland should start slashing SilkTest price ?

SilkTest Question 71: Does SilkTest support Chrome browser?

Today Google officially released a test version of its Internet browser called Chrome. It is definitely exceptionally early to expect that Borland would provide support for Chrome browsers in SilkTest in the nearby future. Keep in mind that Internet Explorer is still commands more than 75 percent of the world browser market. In mean time, download Chrome browser and became proverbial with new kid on the search-engine world. If you really believe that your company would expect quality assurance team to test application in Chrome browser, look at Selenium open source test automation tool. Not long ago, the creator of Selenium Jason Randolph Huggins was hired by Google, and I expect that support for Chrome browser would appear in Selenium much faster then in SilkTest. So download Chrome browser on your machine and take pleasure in more cross browser testing.

SilkTest Question 70: How to compare PDF document with SilkTest

Even in SilkTest 2008 SP1, there is no support for PDF documents, however, seasoned SQA Engineer can easily figure out how retrieve contents of a PDF document by using Desktop.TypeKeys("") and Desktop.TypeKeys("") to copy the contents to the clipboard and use the clipboard class to work with the contents of the document by saving the contents to a text file for further analysis. The above method is limited to only text and does not retrieve images on PDF documents.

SilkTest Question 69: SilkTest vs Winrunner comparison?

This SilkTest interview question was very popular not long ago among interviewers and in most cases looked like: explain the major differences between SilkTest and Winrunner, compare Silk Test and Winrunner. This question was reasonable for companies trying to hire Quality Assurance Engineers and implement software automation tools. If you expect I would provide detailed comparison of Winrunner and SilkTest or you have to compare these automation tools by technologies, supported environments during interview, you are completely wrong. My answer on this interview question would be - HP WinRunner become a legacy tool not long ago and it does not make sense to compare SilkTest vs Winrunner any more.

Borland SilkTest 2008 SP1 is available for download

Borland SilkTest 2008 SP1 is officially available. 470 MB of SilkTest 2008 downloads are available for all Silk Test 2008 customers:

The new features are

• Silk4J Eclipse Plugin - Silk4J enables Quality Assurance Engineers to create functional tests using the Java programming language. Silk4J plugin requires Eclipse 3.3;
• Java SWT/RCP Support for the SilkTest Open Agent - Quality Assurance Engineers can create projects or scripts for Java SWT and Eclipse applications that use the next generation Open Agent;
• Java SWT Sample Applications - SilkTest 2008 SP1 includes a Java SWT 3.2 and 3.3 sample application, which use the SilkTest Open Agent.
• Enabling Extensions for the Open Agent Using the Command Line - QA Engineers can specify a command line pattern that Silk Test 2008 SP1 uses to enable extensions for the Open Agent.

SilkTest question 68: Online Advanced Training with SilkTest

I want to repost comment to SilkTest Question 58: SilkTest training from Borland It looks like I did the right decision when decided to take on site Silk Test training course.

My experience with Borland's instructor led online training.

This "instructor led" online version of the Advanced Training with SilkTest at $1500 is a total rip-off. I am considering contacting the credit card company to dispute the charges based on "breach of contract" and false advertisement.

The online class materials resemble a tutorial that should have been included as part of the SilkTest installation. Do not let the term "instructor led" fool you. You are pretty much on your own. Questions on the question board are left unanswered. If they are answered, most of the time the instructor does not understand your questions or does not know how to answer them. What is the most aggravating experience is to ask the instructor a question on something you read from the online help or class material and to have the instructor copy verbatim as an answer, the very exact paragraph you had a question on. This practice is done without the slightest attempt at expounding on the material. Isn't that what instructor led should be all about - to expound on the material?

The instructor does answer emails, albeit not always in a timely manner. The answers however, are always terse, incomplete and never, ever do they clarify your questions.

Exercises that are required to be submitted to the best of my knowledge are not reviewed.

No recorded WebEx sessions are available.

In summary, you are much better off paying the extra $300 and attending a physical class being taught by a full-time instructor. This option is not always available however, either due to your location or the fact that Borland cancels the classes due to not having enough students. Unfortunately, the instructors for the online version just seem to pop in and out whenever they have the time and do not appear to take the class seriously.

Borland SilkTest 2008 is available for download

From the news

Austin, Texas - Apr 07, 2008 : Borland Software Corporation (NASDAQ: BORL, www.borland.com), today announced the availability of its Borland Silk 2008 product line.

Now SQA Engineers can download free Borland SilkTest 2008 (30-day trial version). The Silk Test 2008 release includes the following new features and enhancements:

• New SilkTest Open Agent
• SilkTest Default Agent
• Adobe Flex Support
• Adobe Flex Sample Applications
• Animated Run Mode (Slow-Motion)
• TrueLog Generation Can Be Turned Off or On Using the Run Testcase Dialog
• Use ANSI Calls Available from the Agent Options Dialog
• DOM Extensions Dialog Includes List Item Option
• IBM JRE Support

Most awaited by many Quality Assurance Engineers features like usage Java as development language or use of Eclipse Interface as IDE will be available later with the release of SilkTest 2008 R2. Borland sets the price for SilkTest 2008 starting at $4,500 per user and depends from type of license.

Borland SilkTest 2008 Release Notes

Let's imagine that Borland SilkTest 2008 has been released and available for download, so we are going through the first few lines of release notes for Borland Silk Test 2008:

What's New
This section lists significant enhancements and changes that were made for the SilkTest 2008 release

Integration in development process
SilkTest 2008 introduces Eclipse plug-in to allow test development to be done within the Eclipse IDE.

Multi-language support
SilkTest 2008 implements the ability of using 4Test, Java or Python as coding language.

Flex Support
Silk Test 2008 now supports the following technologies Adobe Flex 2.x and 3.0

I hope you understood it were the imaginable release notes, but I still anticipate Borland has very strong commitment to Silk Test and that we will see all features described above and other great things coming over the next months.

SilkTest Question 62: When can I download Flex extension for SilkTest?

Unfortunately even the most recent version of SilkTest 2006 RC2 has no support for Adobe Flex. If you would like to automate testing of applications based on Adobe Flex, take a look for Flex plug-in for HP QTP 9.5 (QuickTest Pro).

UPDATE: In April of 2008, Borland introduced built-in support for testing Adobe Flex application with the release of SilkTest 2008.

SilkTest Question 41: What is the latest version of Silktest?

In the preparation for interviewing, I like to review the resume of potential QA Tester candidate to verify time line of using correct version of SilkTest tool and if I see something like "Automated regression testing of new builds utilizing Segue SilkTest" dated between 2000-2002, I would definitely ask about version of automated test tool you were using back then. So I would recommend updating as soon as possible your QA resume with published below short version of Silktest releases.

• June, 2012 - Borland SilkTest 13
• November, 2011 - Micro Focus SilkTest 2011
• May, 2011 - Micro Focus SilkTest 2010 R2 WS 2
• December, 2010 - Micro Focus SilkTest 2010 R2
• July, 2010 - Micro Focus SilkTest 2010
• August 12, 2009 - SilkTest 2009
• July, 2008 - SilkTest 2008 SP1
• April, 2008 - SilkTest 2008
• September, 2007 - SilkTest 2006 R2 Service Pack 2
  
• June, 2007 - SilkTest 2006 Release 2 Service Pack 1
  
• January, 2007 - Silk Test 2006 R2
  
• September, 2006 - SilkTest 2006
• May, 2006 - SilkTest 8.0
• September, 2005 - SilkTest 7.6
• June, 2005 - SilkTest 7.5
• October, 2004 - SilkTest 7.1
• November 2003, - SilkTest 6.5
• November 2002, - SilkTest 6.0
• September 1999, - SilkTest 5.0.1
• November 1996, - QA partner 4.0 as part of QualityWorks client/server testing suite

What is the latest version of QuickTest Professional?