Micro Focus UFT One Reviews

QTP is a functional and regression automation tool originally developed and marketed by Mercury Interactive which HP acquired in 2006. In 2012, HP released UFT (Unified Functional Testing) version 11.5, which combined QuickTest Professional and HP Service Test into a single software package along with newly designed IDE (Integrated Development Environment).

Before UFT, QTP and Service Test were two separate downloads. So essentially, UFT has bundled QTP and Service Test into one package along with several other add-ins. It is also important to note that on February 28, 2015 End of Support Life for QTP 11 was reached which meant that a company had to upgrade to UFT to get technical support and access to patches, documentation, etc.

For clarity, I have pasted screenshots of QTP (Figure 1) and UFT (Figure 2) below.

Figure 1 – QTP 11.xx

Figure 2 – UFT 12.xx

Note, UFT came out with a feature called InsightObject that has the ability to identify any object by taking an image of the object. Furthermore, by using the GetVisibleText the user has the ability to get the text off of the InsightObject even though it is essentially an image.

The InsightObject feature is so helpful that I thought it was worthy to dedicate a special section with screenshots along with an explanation of how the InsightObject feature works as shown below.

InsightObject Select learn mode feature shown above

After selecting the object that you want to add to the Object Repository, notice how the perimeter surrounds it.

How the InsightObject appears after being added to the Object Repository.

UFT is on top of the AUT (Application Under Test). Notice the small image in the code of UFT that represents lower left image with text "70 microns."

The actual VBScript Code is pasted below. Note how after the code was executed the text "70 microns" was extracted from image as shown from Print Log.

Browser("Space Images | Circumstellar").InsightObject("InsightObject70_microns").Hover
strGetVisibleText = trim(Browser("Space Images | Circumstellar").InsightObject("InsightObject70_microns").GetVisibleText())

print "strGetVisibleText = " & strGetVisibleText

Print Log

strGetVisibleText = 70 microns

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Review for UFT 14.00 added here.

In January 2017, HPE released UFT 14.00. The previous version was UFT 12.54, and HPE omitted using number 13 as a version. The most probable reason for not using version 13 is that the number 13 is still perceived by some as a superstitious number.

New Name Changes in UFT 14.00

The new UFT brand includes UFT Ultimate, UFT Enterprise, and UFT Pro (formerly LeanFT). The following are the new License names and the associated products included with them.

• UFT Ultimate – includes UFT, UFT Pro (i.e. LeanFT), Sprinter, BPT (Business Process Testing), and Mobile Center (functional testing only).
• UFT Enterprise – includes UFT, UFT Pro (i.e. LeanFT), and Sprinter.
• UFT Pro (i.e. LeanFT) – includes UFT Pro only.

Test Combinations Generator

When developing automated test scripts, getting data can be time consuming because almost every company uses data indigenous to its propriety systems. Furthermore, to develop an effective automated script, you need data for both positive test cases, and just as importantly, data that will throw an exception or error (i.e. negative path) so you can build exception handling into your script to prevent it from stopping unexpectedly. The Test Combinations Generator makes this task significantly easier by utilizing a Regular Expression to generate the type of data you want including the specified format. For example, you can now quickly generate dates, URLs, passwords, confirmation numbers, shipping numbers, etc., that would be time consuming to do manually. The data created for a positive test case is labeled “HAPPY PATH” and the data for a negative test case is labeled “ERROR PATH.” Also, this feature can be used to help the whole QA team because you can generate data for the manual testers as well which helps free-up their time that they otherwise would be using to get data. My key take-away of the Test Combinations Generator is that it lowers Opportunity Costs for the whole QA team. By this I mean that the time and cost previously used to generate data is now minimized, so the QA team now has more time to focus on testing versus having to generate data.

Significant Changes

In my opinion UFT Pro is the tool that has the most significant enhancements. With the rising popularity of Selenium, HPE did a good job of making changes and came out with UFT Pro for Selenium. This tool includes a Java Library that extends the WebDriver API and also has additional locators and utilities. UFT Pro also has an Object Identification Center that helps speed up the time to develop a test.

Another significant change is that UFT Pro (i.e. LeanFT) is now supported on a Mac OS and Linux, in addition to Windows. Furthermore, it supports the latest versions of Firefox and Chrome, which was expected.

New changes for UFT 14.03

Screenshot of UFT 14.03 IDE (Integrated Development Environment)

New Object Spy functionality allows UFT's Object Spy to compare two objects.

Suppose we want to compare properties of "MARS" and "EARTH."

Now we can use the Spy Comparison Tool to get properties of both objects and compare at the same time as shown below.

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On September 1, 2017 the HPE testing tools officially became Micro Focus. It is too early to see how the transition to Micro Focus will change things. I am keeping an optimistic view that Micro Focus will continue to invest in R&D and place a priority on customer support. I believe a lot of long-time customers would like to see things run like they were back in the Mercury Interactive days, which was one of the most innovative software companies of its time. If Micro Focus develops the right strategy, they could become the dominant player in the software testing market.

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Author’s comments added 6/07/2016: Here are some interesting actual business cases at companies I worked at where automation (i.e. QTP/UFT) has been used to add productivity other than in a QA capacity.

1)   QTP/UFT can be used to send large volumes of emails to intended customers along with attachments. At a previous company we actually used QTP to automate this process that took an Excel input file with a field for Customer Name, email address, the text verbiage for the body of the email, and an indicator for which specific documents to attach and send using Outlook. We placed the documents in specific directories to be uploaded depending on the indicator in the input file. This automated process was very efficient and time-saving by sending out a large volume of emails with respective attachments with minimal problems. Eventhough at the time QTP was being used, UFT has the same functionality to execute the same process.

2)   At a previous health care company where I worked, when one of the clinical legacy systems was being decommissioned in place of a newer system, we were able to use an automated script to take the data from the legacy system and enter it into the respective fields of the newer system through the GUI (Graphical User Interface). This entailed downloading the data from the legacy system and importing the data into 12 separate Excel input files and running on multiple computers. This is an example of an unconventional but cost effective use of a QA automation tool.

3)   At a mortgage company that I worked at where previously a person or persons would have had to manually enter data into several fields while navigating through several screens, we were very successful in fully automating this process including logic and the specific values to enter into specific fields based on the conditions. For example, if one pre-populated field had a certain code, the script would use logic to programmatically enter the corresponding data into other fields. This saved the company time and resources by not having to hire people to enter the data manually. This one automated process saved the department sixty hours per week or 3,000 man hours per year.

Author’s comments added 12/26/2016: I originally wrote this product review for UFT 12.02. I updated this product review for UFT 12.54 to make the product review current along with the updated versions of technologies UFT 12.54 is compatible with.

Author's comments: This review has been updated to include UFT 14.03

If your concerns go beyond automating tests to providing evidence that specific tests were executed, what the test pass/fail status was, the user who executed it, the date/time of execution, UFT is top notch at providing test results because it has built in reporting features as well as allowing for customized output files showing exactly where a test step failed along with the timestamp. This is especially important for providing evidence that healthcare, insurance, defense, financial services, and mortgage companies might need, especially to furnish proof to auditors. UFT has at least one distinct advantage over Open Source tools. That is since UFT is an Enterprise tool, you do not have to download anything from the Internet which is good for Security reasons. Most Open Source tools that I am aware of require some form of download from the Internet which results in being less secure.

UFT has improved our organization because when we have regularly occurring releases of an application, we can have any QA team member execute a set of tests (i.e. regression suite) stored in ALM/Quality Center, let the tests run unattended and then examine the results after test completion. We are also able to determine if any of the Web page links are broken by using an instance of MSXML2.XmlHttp. We have a script that does this by retrieving all the links on a page and then reporting the Status for each link. For example, if the Status returned is 404 we know that the link is broken.

With certainty, the best feature of UFT is its compatibility with so many products, tools and technologies. It is a challenge currently to find a single tool on the market besides UFT that will successfully work for so many projects and environments. For example, UFT supports GUI testing of Oracle, PeopleSoft, PowerBuilder, SAP (v7.20), Siebel, Stingray, Terminal Emulator, Putty, and Windows Objects (particularly Dialog Boxes). Furthermore, UFT has the built-in functionality to import Excel input files.

For Web browsers, UFT 12.54 supports IE9, IE10, IE11, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome (versions 31.0 to 54.9), Firefox (versions 27.0 to 49.0). Besides GUI testing, UFT supports database testing and API testing (Docker, WSDL, and SOAP).

For the first time ever, HP started to expand the testing capabilities of UFT (QTP) beyond Windows beginning with UFT 12.00. A UFT user can now run tests on Web applications on a Safari browser that is running on a remote Mac computer.

Sometimes it appears that UFT takes a while to open and sometimes will run slower than expected. Also, UFT uses a lot of memory. On this note, if you are running UFT on a virtual server I would add more RAM memory than the minimum requirements especially when using multiple add-ins. HP is pretty good about coming out with new patches to fix known issues and it pays for the user to check for new patches and updates on a regular basis.

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Author's Comments 9/29/2022: This review is an older review and I have since written a newer product review on 9/28/2022 about UFT One 15.0.1 that reflects the newer features of UFT and should be considered a replacement for this review.

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In my 10 plus years of hands-on experience using QTP (QuickTest Professional) and UFT (Unified Functional Testing), I have observed that there has been a lot of confusion among the testing community on what the difference is between the two tools. Therefore, I thought it would be beneficial to clarify what distinguishes UFT from QTP because it is important for the reader to know.

When considering UFT for your organization, I would first evaluate how large your QA department is and if you will have a business need to automate your functional and regression tests. HPE recently extended the demo license period from 30 days to 60 days which was a very wise and popular decision to give potential customers more time to install it and try it for free. Even if your company has a salesperson come in and demo UFT, I would highly encourage at least one of your developers or automation engineers to download and install it to explore for themselves the functionality and features included during the demo trial period. If your IT Organization can afford it, I would encourage the company to buy both ALM/Quality Center and UFT. The reason being that UFT is very compatible with ALM/Quality Center in several ways. First, the user is able to store the test results in ALM/Quality Center. Second, ALM/QC has a built in scheduler that can launch a suite of regression tests initiated by the user scheduling a particular date/time to run.

If your company is going to invest in UFT, I would encourage the company to do their due diligence in making sure that they hire an Automation Engineer well experienced with the HP tools. This person must be very good at writing VBScript and knowing all of the advanced tips and tricks in getting UFT scripts developed so they will run without stopping unexpectedly. The QA Automation Engineer must be able to write functions from scratch and know the difference between passing a parameter by Value and by Reference.

I would also encourage the company to use a Citrix Server for UFT to be installed on. The reason for this is that it is much easier to maintain the Citrix environment with respect to patches, Browser versions, etc., versus every user having to make sure their laptop or PC is up to date with patches. Also, Citrix can have multiple sessions and be accessed remotely.

We primarily use the solution as a front end for testing for our customers, to automate installations, for behavior testing, and for various types of API testing. We mostly use the technology on our websites, and sometimes on older technologies, such as for Oracle Forms applications.

One of the ways the product has improved our organization is that we are able to quickly get detailed information about the behavior of our applications, and we can provide this information to our customers through screenshots and additional information so that they can also easily check the reason for the defect or bug. We can work together without our customers needing special knowledge of programming. This is very important.

UFT allows us to install our applications much more easily, without our customers having to do anything. They don’t even need to click on anything. We can use UFT One to install via scripts. This eases the installation process.

The solution has allowed us to reduce test execution time. If we use it in continuous integration or in headless mode, it improves performance. Between the normal run mode with debugging, and the fast mode in Jenkins, it can reduce it by about 30 percent. That's a lot.

We can run the solution on virtual machines. This greatly affects our ability to control machine configuration and allocate appropriate resources for testing. We wouldn't be able to conduct tests or to carry out work without this solution. This is both very helpful and useful and we consider this a necessity.

The most valuable features include

• the simplicity with which the product can be maintained
• the ability to reuse its components 
• the record and play 
• AI

We haven't been using the AI feature for very long. 

These features allow us to provide good functionality to all our customers without the overhead of maintenance costs, while at the same time allowing us to work with many customers with varying capabilities on different projects. With only a few technicians we can help a lot of customers.

Running the solution on virtual machines allows us to run tests in parallel. It reduces a lot of the time it takes to test or to do certain kinds of work. We are dealing with customers who give an API to their customers and they're using our tools in the background. As a result we must use it to scale the load for these tests. This is a very important and useful feature.

There is a lot of room for improvement when it comes to friction-free continuous testing across the software life cycle, as a local installation is required to run UFT. Most of the time, administrative rights are required which necessitate much trouble to integrate it seamlessly. When integrated, it works fine, but to maintain it in CI, special systems and privileges must be utilized. This is challenging for us.

In addition, UFT One has a Jenkins plugin that provides us the connection we need to Micro Focus so that we can obtain our UFT test cases. The problem is that the plugin does not come with exception handling, meaning that if we enter the wrong credentials we don’t know why it does not work. This can lead to the Jenkins server crashing.

Another issue is that we can't address the UFT output to the Jenkins console. This means that when carrying out our tests in a continuous integration server, we cannot know what the UFT tested, step-by-step.

The usability can also be improved. When we receive new versions of UFT, some of the icons are altered so that things are not recognizable to us or to the customer.

Another issue is that the application requires slow work. If you go too fast while debugging, the Step Over button may easily change to the Stop button.

The Git integration is also a point when it comes to continuous integration. There are aspects that are not recognized by Git. We cannot do a side by side comparison of changes, such as comparing the QSL side and the object repository side.

When they updated UFT from version 14 to 15, they changed the data table structure of UFT, such as the first data line turning into the column name. This is a problem as our customers may have different versions of UFT. An example would be if we wish to change the data table of version 15 but a customer has version 14, it can be problematic. This destroys the tests.

Another question we have is why everything is in read mode during the execution. With other IDEs, like Visual Studio, you can change the variables while you execute or debug something, and this is not possible in UFT. It's only in read mode, so you can’t play with variables or objects.

Also on our list is the fact that UFT  allows you to work on 11 or 12 tests. If you want to change something with search and replace, you can only change it in the 11 or 12 tests that are open in the solution. But what if we have a 13th test case that is not included in the solution? We then need to open that test after we have already searched and replaced. That's a little bit inconvenient because other IDEs give you the opportunity to make those changes everywhere, in every script, not only the 11 or 12.

We have already addressed some of these issues with technical support, but not all of them have been handled. For example, we brought up the issue of the icons changing with every version some years ago and nothing has happened. It gets worse and worse from version to version.

We also have menus and instructions for our customers, but because all the screenshots become outdated with the next version, we have to do maintenance on them all the time. And it’s not because of new functionality. Most of the time, only the icon style and the design is changing and sometimes it’s the positioning that changes and we are not able to reconfigure it. We end up having to do a lot of work without any need for it.

The old VBS language can be a nuisance. It could be easier to use and it could be better integrated in continuous integration pipelines. And it could always be faster.

Micro Focus UFT One has been available for around two years. We have been using it since inception.

The stability is very good, except for the example I mentioned regarding the data table. Most of the time you can switch to the next version without any problems. The old features and behaviors are, in terms of the code base, the same. It’s just that you have to find the icons, asking yourself “Where is my feature?” But the stability is very good.

We use the product as often as we can. Between 50 to 100 people are using the solution. We are constantly looking for additional customers and projects so we have ongoing plans to increase usage.

The overall scalability is very good and utilizing the licensing server allows us to scale the solution as we need. One area which can be improved involves the running of instances on a single machine. 

Overall, if you are able to reproduce an issue, their technical support can help you. But sometimes it can  be very hard to find a technician with a high level of technical background and knowledge of the product, so that they can understand the situation, the problem, and the behavior. This can be a challenge. Sometimes we have had to escalate to get a technician with the necessary background and knowledge.

We utilized QuickTest Pro (known now as Micro Focus Unified Functional Testing) for between eight and 10 years.

We found the initial setup to be very easy. It is very robust and leaves no room for making errors. The availability of config files for setting up all the installations from a single master configuration is nearly perfect. The customer would have no problem simply opening the machine and using it.

As for deployment, the time can vary. Sometimes there are only minor changes and sometimes there are a lot more changes. Including tests, and to be sure it’s working in all cases, it should take no more than one business day.

It’s the same for upgrades. Micro Focus support has advised us that, in case of an error or a problem with upgrades, they cannot be sure whether that problem would exist on a clean installation. So we always uninstall the entire product and install it on a clean system.

We use one or two people for deployment and maintenance, in the role of test automation engineers.

Even without being able to provide exact figures, this product has given our company a return on its investment.

If you use it all the time and for different use cases then it is a good price. If you only use it one time a day for half an hour then it is pricey.

The ability of the solution to cover multiple enterprise apps, technologies, and environments is very important to us and it forms part of our company policy. It is a point we had to validate before going with this solution. The reason for this is that we must meet the technical needs of our customers, many of whom lack a technical background.

UFT One provides cross-browser and desktop application support, although the cross platform support, which is not good, is not so important to us at the moment. These capabilities are important to us because our customers are using different kinds of technologies, some that are newer, some that are very old, and all kinds that are in between. To provide a good solution, the cross-browser and cross-platform functionalities are very helpful and necessary.

UFT One gives us integration capabilities with the API and GUI components, which is very important to us since we must occasionally alternate between the two. We can use the API to make calls through scripts, so we don’t have to use the GUI for UFT One. That’s why it’s important for us to have the REST API.

We can run the solution on virtual machines. This greatly affects our ability to control machine configuration and allocate appropriate resources for testing. We wouldn't be able to conduct tests or to carry out work without this solution. This is both very helpful and useful and we consider this a necessity. We have 100 percent usage of UFT on virtual machines -- All our instances are running on them. This allows us to help the customer access his application under test. The customer can configure the system with permissions and the like. All these points are, in some cases, not possible on hardware in our company, because of political restrictions, security reasons, et cetera.

The solution has allowed us to reduce test execution time. If we use it in continuous integration or in headless mode, it improves performance. Between the normal run mode with debugging, and the fast mode in Jenkins, it can reduce it by about 30 percent. That's a lot.

Overall, it's really easy. Try it out. There is nothing one can do wrong.

One advantage of Micro Focus UFT is that it is more compatible with SAP, Desktop ECC SAP, than S/4HANA. I believe we were still using customer technology such as Salesforce and SAP, but once Salesforce went cloud-based. We began using UFT primarily for SAP applications. SAP ECC, as well. Regardless of which desktop is installed, UFT is still quite powerful.

Micro Focus UFT One integrates well with SAP ECC, but not with the S/4HANA.

I believe there are a few problem statements, but the one that comes to mind first is that execution on SAP systems is time-consuming. It takes time. We spend a lot of time executing the scripts. 

For us, for example, the execution is time-consuming, in SAP, I have a regression suite for SAP, it would be close to 300 business scenarios, where every scenario, will have a minimum of 20 to 30 pieces. I'm referring to a business scenario, not a test scenario or a test suit.

I would have 300 business scenarios, but I just want to click a button and have it execute in an external common feed result. That kind of comfort that I have never felt here. Every script we have to run, as well as any manual intervention. Someone has to be present. We have a lot of challenges ahead of us.

The second issue is test data management, which is a little cumbersome for this tool, and the third is that Microsoft only works with certain SAP modules.

It performs well, but it doesn't work as well on the web GUI as it does on Tosca, Selenium HQ, or Worksoft. Micro Focus, in my opinion, lacks more SAP versions.

Another issue is anywhere SAP has this overnight batch scripting that needs to stay where I have to run certain parts of the script for today, then wait until tomorrow for the batch jobs to run, and then execute the same script from where it left off. Those kinds of scenarios are extremely difficult to replicate in UFT.

I am not sure if they have a vision of how they want to position the leads in the market, because if you look at Tosca, Tosca is one of the automation tools that have a strategy, and it recently updated its strategy with SAP. They are positioning them as a type of continuous testing automation tool. And if you notice Worksoft, particularly the one tool for your enterprise application, your Worksoft is positioning. I am not sure if Micro Focus UFT has a solid strategy in place. They must differentiate themselves so that people recognize Micro Focus UFT for that reason.

Because when we first started 10 years ago, I thought QTP would be the tool for SAP automation, but I no longer believe that. There are so many competitors in the same landscape.

They must understand their UFT position in the market and position themselves accordingly. It is relatively easy for people to go to UFT when necessary. Even if the client, prefers Worksoft or Tosca, quick list automation tools. I am not sure if Micro Focus UFT has done anything differently over the years to keep their market share, or if they even agree on a strategy.

I have been working with Micro Focus UFT One for approximately nine years.

The stability of Micro Focus UFT One is very good and compatible with SAP ECC, which is a component of it.

In my opinion, and based on my implementation knowledge. In our environment, it is very stable when working with my SAP legacy application, but now with SAPS/4HANA, which is hosted in the cloud. Micro Focus has a long way to go for those systems, in my opinion.

Because of SAP, I would rate the stability a five out of ten.

In terms of scalability, on a scale of one to ten, with ten being the best, I would rate it a five, because we couldn't use Micro Focus across the technology. It was good within SAP, but scalability comes with its own set of complications. I don't think it is as adaptable as it could be compared to my other tools, which have a good number of reusable components.

I can quote license numbers because my customer has enough licenses, but what we consume is much lower because we only use it for one part of the enterprise because Micro Focus is not worth the time. I couldn't use it as a single entry tool strategy for my team's automation tools.

I would say we have enough licenses. We have 100 licenses dealing with the customer. However, I am consuming hundreds of licenses from the automation.

We raised SAP cases with the SAP team whenever we encountered a problem. But I am not sure how well the new tools work off the task of raising new cases with them to resolve. I don't believe we raise much with Micro Focus.

We have not contacted technical support with MicroFocus. 

We went through our client. Worksoft is a software tool that my customer purchased. Worksoft is also a vendor for my customer. However, we continue to raise technical use cases and technical cases with Worksoft in order to resolve our optimization technical issues. But, from what I recall, we don't do anything similar with Micro Focus.

I have hands-on experience with Micro Focus. I have, implementation knowledge of LoadRunner on Worksoft. And I did a proof of concept for that kind of model for one of my projects. That is my experience with these tools.

Micro Focus UFT is a good product in my opinion. I can say it's a stable system and it's a legacy. We have been using it for a long time. You can see that the resource pool that I would get if I worked for UFT is quite good. In this regard, I believe Micro Focus UFT would be my first choice for SAP implementation; however, they are not as up-to-date with industry demands as the other providers.

I believe it was satisfactory. But the only challenge we had was whether there was support or not. The installation within the technology was fine, but if I wanted to use it across multiple technologies in an end-to-end integrative scenario, it was a little lacking. Unlike other tools.

They provide customized packages for each technology, just like other Windows, but we don't see that type of library with the UFT. They do have one, but I don't think it's very advanced.

The client has a large number of licenses, which they obtained along with their SAP. The SAP licenses include Application LifeCycle Management. And this has been with our client for at least 12 to 15 years.

I believe it should be three and a half to four out of five. The price is reasonable. They are inexpensive.

The clients we work with are partners with MicroFocus.

I would rate Micro Focus UFT One a five out of ten.

UFT (erstwhile QTP) is a widely popular test automation tool. During my initial days, I used UFT extensively to automate test cases. Now, with the latest version of Micro Focus UFT One, there are added features that address the new-age testing requirements. In my current position as Practice Head of Test Automation competency at a Tier 1 company, we propose various befitting tools to our existing or new customers. Whenever we work on a particular solution or requirement, we propose automation tools to support the entire environment to support end-to-end automation. If my customer is looking for an automation solution, they will typically ask, "Can you provide a solution to automate my end-to-end scenario?" Every proposal or potential requirement is a new business case for us.

In some of our recent customer requirements, we have proposed the Micro Focus UFT One tool. The primary reason behind this is that a customer may have different systems, for e.g., a mainframe system, which is a legacy technology, their current web applications, like AngularJS or ReactJS, could include SAP ERP. In such an ecosystem, UFT One is the right fit to automate end-to-end systems.

Scripting is a basic feature of UFT One. Some tools may use programming languages like Java, Python, or Ruby; but UFT One uses a very basic, simple programming language called VBScript. The advantage of VBScript for a manual tester is if he/she has a basic knowledge of automation, and loops/conditions, then he can easily understand whatever script is created in UFT One, using VBScript. The point is that VBScript is very easy to understand with minimal knowledge. It can easily be modified as per requirement. UFT One all the technologies including a legacy to modern technologies.

For one of our customers, we proposed integration between UFT One and Azure DevOps (ADO). We were able to easily establish that integration, which means the solution's integration capability with third-party tools is s. With some tools, you may need additional effort to communicate with source code management (SCM) tools, whereas UFT One connects easily. There is a keyword view available in UFT One. Using that keyword view, you can see all the statements in proper order.

UFT One has its own feature called Test Combinations Generator to prepare test data. If I have data in an Excel file, then it is very easy to create an object in either Notepad, file system object, or database object. We can easily retrace the data.

Particularly, I like the Help feature in UFT One. For example, if you are navigating a particular window, where there are different options. One wouldn’t know the purpose of every option, but there is no need to search because that window contains a Help button. If you click on that Help button, it directly navigates to the respective help needed.

UFT One supports AI features to automate web and mobile applications. For example, suppose, if earlier there was a button in the left corner, which now has moved to the right corner. In such a situation, we would need to update the script. However, with AI, there is no need to update the script. Within the screen, if that particular button is placed anywhere on the screen, then we can easily handle it and the script will not fail. The integration part is very easy for mobile automation, as well.

We can also automate PDF and forms, using UFT One. For example, one of our customers prepared a lot of macros in an Excel file and created their own custom options in the toolbar. Their requirement was to automate the Excel file, but not read the data, so we had to handle the different icons in the Excel file. Therefore, it generated the pivot table, selecting different options in the pivot table and validating some third-party applications.

UFT One can automate different technologies like SAP, Oracle, SFDC, Microsoft products, Mobile applications, and many more technologies.

From a sales pitch perspective, everyone is now looking for script less automation, whether they are using the feature or not. So, if UFT One is made as a script less tool entirely, that would be very good.

UFT also has a recording feature. They could make the recording feature window bigger for whatever activities that I am recording. It would improve the user experience if they could create a separate floating panel (or have it automatically show on the side) once the recording starts.

We have been using the solution for 13 to 14 years. I started by using an older version of UFT One, Quick Test Professional (QTP) 6.5. 

UFT One is 100 percent stable. There have been no crashes of any kind.

It is easily scalable. It supports increases in automation as well as integrates with third-party tools, like ALM Octane and Jenkins.

Micro Focus technical support is prompt. They will try to get you a proper solution to your inquiry.

It is very easy to install and configuration is not required.

Deployment time takes three to four minutes, though it depends on the RAM and performance of the processor. However, if you install MS Office, that will definitely take some time.

Our customers are always looking to reduce their efforts. This solution will give you such an advantage.

Depending on the landscape and stability of the customer application, they should see ROI (or the breakeven point) within six to nine iterations.

The license is important. If the license is up and running when you open it, there won't be any issues.

Compared to other tools in the market, UFT One is very cheap. The recent Covid pandemic situation also hit customer budgets significantly, so Micro Focus offered some discounted prices, which is definitely competitive.

There are a lot of tools available in the market, however, the primary advantageous feature identified in UFT One is simple: It supports legacy to modern technologies. This is why I propose UFT One.

Everybody is aware of mainframe systems because of Y2K. This solution supports a lot of terminal emulators that communicate and connect to mainframe systems. That is one of its key advantages. Some automation tools provide only a fewer number of terminal emulators, but UFT One supports a lot of terminal emulators to communicate with mainframes.

If someone is new to test automation, we will typically propose UFT One.

Micro Focus recently started offering UFT One as a PaaS, which has been helpful for our customers.

I would rate this solution as a nine (out of 10).

I personally have experience with UFT One, yet only with the GUI part. I'm not familiar with the AP part. There are projects which work with UFT One and also with the AP part as well.

It's not a capture-and-replay. We don't use this only for getting something into the editor. There are possibilities to materialize the scripts.

We use the object repository, which is really great. And so is the way objects are organized in UFT and the way you can use modules by yourself - not the actions, rather, the self-scripted modules in the function library. That's the main benefit for us.

It's simple to set up. 

Last year, we had a discussion with Micro Focus, and they said they have plans to switch from DBS to Python - or at least to offer Python as an additional programming language for building automation scripts. Then, there was no progress in these plans. That's our main concern with UFT. PBS, as the programming language, is pretty old-fashioned, and a lot of things would be much easier with Python.

We had problems with the last version of the solution. There seems to be something wrong with the loading of external data into the internal data sheets. We loaded Excel sheets dynamically during test execution and stored them into the built-in data sheets of UFT, and it seems that sometimes you cannot reuse already existing internal sheets for storing new data in it from outside, from external Excel sheets. We used it a lot, and we didn't have any problems with that in the previous version. This is a new issue, and we tried to isolate this problem, and then we wanted to discuss it with Micro Focus directly. We have yet to contact them.

The solution is expensive. 

We've worked with the solution across several releases. We've used it for about ten years or so. 

The licensing is scalable. That said, the product itself is the product and we really build large test sets with hundreds and thousands of test scripts. So we didn't have any problem scaling the test sets, so to speak. Just not the product itself. I don't know how to scale the product itself.

There are a few alternatives when you want to automate tests for non-web applications. For example, Java applications or PowerBuilder applications, or .NET applications. UFT One is really, really good. When you only have to automate tests for web applications, then Selenium is maybe the better solution since it is much cheaper. It costs nothing as far as I know. You have to learn some programming language, however. You need to use Python or Java or something else in conjunction with Selenium. Maybe the first hurdle is a little bit steeper than using UFT. Then, when you can build some framework around Selenium, then maybe when I would have the personal choice, I would choose Selenium - only for web applications. While we know that there are some alternatives to UFT for non-web applications, we know there are not that many. Tosca is one of the big players. However, we don't know it. We only know that it exists, and most people who use it say it's really good.

The initial setup is pretty easy.

When I installed it on my virtual machine, it was less than an hour, and then it's up and running. We are well trained in such things, so maybe for one who is really new, this will take two or three hours to set up. I don't know. That said, it's not a major concern.

The pricing could definitely be lower. I don't know the prices by heart. I'm not the one who discussed this with Micro Focus. I've heard several times that this is really expensive and we also have problems exactly for that reason. For example, for a user interface test to Selenium. At least when the SUT, the system under test, is web-based. There's not only the buying price. It's also the maintenance price. 

I'm an end-user.

Currently, there is a 2022 version. For a couple of reasons, we've switched back to the 2021 release. We thought that we found an error in some strange special scenarios.

It's extremely useful for us with a little bit of potential to become better here and there. I would give the product an overall rating of eight out of ten.

I am currently providing services for a client in the insurance domain that uses Guidewire applications. Micro Focus UFT One has a plugin that allows us to automate applications, whereas Selenium can only be used to automate web applications. With the Micro Focus UFT One plugin, we can automate any application. We use Micro Focus UFT One script to create policies for the manual team in order to reduce the manual effort required. Once we have the new development, we run the regression suites. To save time and effort, we run these scripts in the evening or night, using multiple machines. This, in turn, provides the manual team with the test data they need.

Micro Focus UFT One is a great tool and can be used in a variety of ways. The solution can be used for object identification and for objects that are not unique, descriptive programming can be used without the use of an object repository. The latest version of Micro Focus UFT One also allows for Selenium scripts to be run. The solution is simple and requires little coding knowledge. In comparison to Selenium, we don't need to know Java or be proficient in Java. This web scripting is much easier as most features such as data tables and reports are already built in. Whereas Selenium requires the user to write their own code.

In the past, we used Internet Explorer to run our scripts and when it was decommissioned we switched over to Google Chrome but we had some compatibility issues in the beginning. The issues were corrected with Chrome but I would like both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge to be compatible with the solution.

We used to have difficulty with some of the Guidewire application objects because they would often change, requiring us to write many lines of code for a single object. Object identification has room for improvement, to make it more efficient.

I have been using the solution for over ten years.

I give the stability a nine out of ten.

Currently, there are three of us on this project. However, I believe that many users are using multiple applications, such as Oracle, SAP, and Guidewire, as well as some specific applications. Micro Focus UFT One is being used in comparison to Tricentis Tosca, due to the cost of licensing Tricentis Tosca. Many people in my organization are using Micro Focus UFT One.

I give the scalability a nine out of ten.

Since the decommissioning of our Internet Explorer browser last June, our scripts have not been running in Chrome. We have raised a ticket and reached out to Micro Focus for assistance. The support team told us that there is a Chrome browser version that is compatible with Micro Focus UFT One. Additionally, every month Micro Focus will hold a one-hour session with a partner of the week to answer any questions we have regarding Micro Focus UFT One or our projects. The Micro Focus technical team will be available to provide answers to our organization.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward and I give it a nine out of ten.

I attended training for Selenium and Tricentis Tosca. Selenium was more difficult because it lacked certain built-in features, unlike Micro Focus UFT One. Many people have said that the Tricentis Tosca license cost is high so, even though the tool is good, the cost must be taken into consideration. As a result of this, I recommended Micro Focus UFT One over Tricentis Tosca and Worksoft Certify to my client last year.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

I recommend Micro Focus UFT One to others.

We use Micro Focus UFT Developer because we had a desktop-based application. To automate it, we used UFT for the automation framework and to run tests, including the regression test, smoke test, and integration test. We use the data from the UFT framework.

We had 10 users. That's where the license challenge comes into the picture because we couldn't afford that many licenses, so we had to reduce the team. We don't have plans to increase the number of users because we have been using UFT One for the past three months.

The solution is deployed on-premises.

UFT is very strongly built. It's widely used, so there's a lot of support.

They need to reduce the licensing cost. There's pushback from customers because of the cost.

The tool also takes a lot of memory. It's really heavy on the CPU. If I need to run the virtual machine, I cannot go beyond 8GB RAM. 

I have used this solution for four years.

The solution is stable.

Technical support is good. I didn't work with Micro Focus directly. I used Stack Overflow and another blog. People who have used Micro Focus technical support have told me that it's good.

We're currently using UFT One.

Deployment was quick. We're not on the cloud and all, so everything was done manually. We haven't faced any challenges in deployment.

Deployment was completed in-house.

We have reduced 20% of our total efforts. A lot of automation has been put into place.

The licensing cost is high. There are no additional costs to the standard license.

It's a yearly subscription.

The current proof of concept is for Tosca.

I would rate this solution as eight out of ten. 

I would recommend this solution to those who want to use it.

For desktop-based applications, the automation is good. They offer wide support if you're stuck with anything. There are a lot of support groups like Stack Overflow and other community groups where you can find the resolution for a technical issue. There's a lot of support because it's an older tool. 

It's pretty comprehensive and easy to learn. The industry is full of open source and cheaper options because everything is moving to the cloud. For instance, Tosca poses a challenge to HP. Micro Focus should reduce the license cost. Otherwise, they will be very much cornered in the market.