OpenText (formerly Micro Focus, HP, and Mercury) test tools have long been a cornerstone for quality assurance professionals. While many have heard of certain products, like LoadRunner, UFT or Quality Center, few people know the full extent of the suite and the nuances of each tool.
After all, they’ve been around for about thirty years, have been subject to multiple evolutions, and new tools have been regularly added to the suite. Now, under the new ownership of OpenText, the evolution continues, and the tools have also been renamed.
So, this all begs a few questions…
- What are the current OpenText test tools?
- What do they do?
- Why did they change names?
I’ve written this guide to help seasoned testers, and newcomers navigate the OpenText test tools suite. It provides an easily digestible summary of the main groups and a breakdown of each tool.
What Are The Tools For?
First, though, it’s worth mentioning why the tools exist—what are they for?
As you’ll see, the tools fulfil various roles within software delivery projects. However, they all serve to increase software quality and reduce testing timelines.
They’ve been honed through years of customer use, countless development hours, and probably approaching a billion dollars in investment. This is why they are held up as the benchmark by which all other test tools are measured.
In fact, other tool vendors hold them in such high regard that they regularly spend a significant proportion of their marketing budget bashing these tools. There is a reason for that.
A Brief History of The Tools
Once upon a time, Mercury Interactive created a suite of software testing tools to improve software development and testing processes.
These were arguably the first institutional-grade testing solutions, and many of the world’s largest companies deployed them to improve various aspects of the software development lifecycle and help deliver high-quality software projects.
Micro Focus (via HP) later acquired and enhanced these tools, and they’ve since become part of the OpenText family. OpenText has a turnover of nearly $6 billion and is one of the largest software companies in the world.
OpenText Test Tool Families
OpenText test tools can be divided into several product families, each catering to a different area in the software development lifecycle:
- Test and Quality Management
- Functional Testing
- Performance Testing
- Additional Tools
Let’s explore each of these families and their constituent tools.
Test and Quality Management
This family of tools helps you manage your entire software development lifecycle, including requirements, testing, and releases.
OpenText Application Quality Management
Previous names: ALM/Quality Center, Quality Center Enterprise, Quality Center Team Edition
This tool helps you manage your software testing efforts and is focused on traditional (e.g., waterfall) development methodologies. It includes modules for requirements management, test management, test execution, and defect tracking. Quality Center allows your teams to create, execute and track their testing efforts, plan and manage test resources, and report and track defects.
Key Features Include:
- Requirements and test management
- Test execution
- Defect tracking
- Sophisticated one-click reporting and powerful dashboards
Learn more about OpenText Application Quality Management.
OpenText Software Delivery Management Quality
Previous name: ALM Octane/ValueEdge Quality
Helps you improve the software quality of your Agile, DevOps and waterfall programs and projects. It includes specific modules for agile development and easy integration into DevOps pipelines. Octane allows your teams to streamline the development and delivery of software with a complete view of quality across your entire SDLC.
Key Features Include:
- Agile project management
- DevOps integration
- Real-time collaboration between teams
- AI-powered insights
Learn more about OpenText Software Delivery Management.
OpenText Core Software Delivery Platform
Previous name: ValueEdge
OpenText Core Software Delivery Platform maximises business value, increases productivity, and enables predictable software delivery processes. It is a cloud-based, AI-driven, end-to-end solution that enables IT and software projects to visualize, track and manage value delivery across the digital product lifecycle. Individual modules can be purchased separately and integrate to existing solutions you currently use.
The platform works seamlessly with existing software landscapes, allowing organisations to adopt it at their own pace with a modular approach. It ensures continuous quality throughout the development lifecycle.
Key Features Include:
- End-to-end value stream management
- Cloud architecture for rapid deployment and seamless scalability
- Intelligent, advanced analytics with real-time, actionable insights
- Over 100 pre-built commercial and open-source integrations
- AI-powered features, including Smart Assistant and automated codeless tests
Learn more about OpenText Core Software Delivery Platform.
Functional Testing
The OpenText Functional Testing family, formerly known as the UFT suite (Unified Functional Testing), includes tools for functional and regression testing of software applications.
OpenText Functional Testing for Developers
Previous name: UFT Developer
OpenText Functional Testing for Developers allows you to create tests in your favourite IDEs and to write robust and reusable test automation scripts using JavaScript, Java, or C#. It provides fast feedback from your test execution with a lightweight but detailed results report.
It is also compatible with Selenium and helps reduce the complexity and enhance the stability of your Selenium automated tests. OpenText Functional Testing for Developers extends Selenium’s functionality by helping you create robust and reusable tests within minutes.
Key Features Include:
- IDE-based script development
- Allows shift-left functional and regression testing
- Supports multiple technologies and open-source automation scripts
Learn more about OpenText Functional Testing for Developers.
OpenText Functional Testing
Previous name: UFT One
This incredible test automation tool allows your teams to easily automate functional and regression testing of web, mobile, and API applications. It supports major enterprise applications, including SAP, Oracle, and others. It also includes OpenText Functional Testing for Developers.
Key Features Include:
- Cross-platform functional testing
- API testing
- DevOps integration
- Vast application support
Learn more about OpenText Functional Testing.
OpenText Functional Testing Lab for Mobile and Web
Previous name: UFT Mobile/UFT Digital Lab
This tool allows your teams to test mobile applications across multiple devices and platforms. Previously known as Mobile Center, UFT Mobile is the easiest way to determine how your app will function and perform on different combinations of devices, operating systems, and versions.
You can connect your own mobile devices and tablets, use emulation, or access devices in the cloud to test your app on real mobile devices.
Key Features Include:
- Mobile application testing
- Real-device testing
- Integration with CI/CD tools
Learn more about OpenText Functional Testing Lab for Mobile and Web.
Performance Testing
The Performance Testing family, previously known as the LoadRunner family, helps you analyse, understand, and improve your applications’ performance.
OpenText Performance Engineering for Developers
Previous name: LoadRunner Developer
This free, lightweight, and flexible performance test tool is perfect for developers. It lets you shift performance testing left to spot and fix performance issues early. Developers can execute up to 50 concurrent users directly from their IDE and via various languages.
Key Features Include:
- IDE Driven
- Record & replay
- Supports open-source scripts
- Multi-protocol support
- Free!
Learn more about OpenText Performance Engineering for Developers.
OpenText Core Performance Engineering
Previous name: LoadRunner Cloud
This tool allows your teams to run load tests quickly and efficiently. It includes cloud-based infrastructure, so you don’t need to worry about installing and configuring load generators.
It allows you to purchase Virtual Users (available for the licence duration) and Virtual User Hours (VUHs) when you need to scale your performance test capacity and volumes quickly and easily.
Key Features Include:
- Load testing from the cloud
- Flexible scaling from low numbers to 5 million concurrent users
- No infrastructure setup
- Real-time results
- Suitable for hybrid/remote working
Learn more about OpenText Core Performance Engineering.
OpenText Professional Performance Engineering
Previous name: LoadRunner Professional
This tool allows your teams to load test the broadest range of applications and protocols of any performance test tool. You can use it to simulate user activity on a server, network, or object and test and analyse its performance under different load types.
Key Features Include:
- Advanced correlation
- Multi-step transactions
- Real-browser testing
- Application Performance Monitoring
Learn more about OpenText Professional Performance Engineering.
OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering
Previous name: LoadRunner Enterprise/Performance Center
This enterprise-level tool allows your teams to run large-scale load tests and monitor performance in real time. It can be considered the big brother of OpenText Professional Performance Engineering, with the additional capability to share software licences and load generators globally.
Key Features Include:
- Advanced collaboration with distributed teams
- Integration with DevOps tools
- Comprehensive analysis
- Global testing scale
Learn more about OpenText Enterprise Performance Engineering.
Additional Tools
OpenText Service Virtualization
OpenText Service Virtualization (aka mocking services) allows your teams to simulate the behaviour of dependent systems and services and test integrations earlier. It also allows you to start testing before your end-to-end landscape is complete and test when the whole test environment is unavailable.
Learn more about OpenText Service Virtualization.
Summary of New Product Names
| Previous Name | New Name |
| ALM Octane | OpenText™ Software Delivery Management |
| ALM/Quality Center Quality Center Enterprise Quality Center Team Edition | OpenText™ Application Quality Management OpenText™ Core Application Quality Management |
| ValueEdge | OpenText™ Core Software Delivery Platform |
| UFT One | OpenText™ Functional Testing OpenText™ Core Functional Testing |
| UFT Developer | OpenText™ Functional Testing for Developers OpenText™ Core Functional Testing for Developers |
| UFT Digital Lab | OpenText™ Functional Testing Lab for Mobile and Web |
| LoadRunner Cloud | OpenText™ Core Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Cloud) |
| LoadRunner Professional | OpenText™ Professional Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Professional) |
| LoadRunner Enterprise | OpenText™ Enterprise Performance Engineering (LoadRunner Enterprise) OpenText™ Core Enterprise Performance Engineering |
| LoadRunner Developer | OpenText™ Performance Engineering for Developers (LoadRunner Developer) |
Why OpenText Are Rebranding
OpenText are changing the product names to more accurately describe product functionality. I like to think of it as the Ronseal effect – it does what it says on the tin. In their own words,
“We are rebranding to better reflect our evolving values, product offerings, and to ensure we provide a fresh, modern experience for our customers. This strategic shift includes the rebranding of our products with descriptive names, and the retirement of product sub-brands, to enhance clarity and accessibility to customers. The goal is to use commonly understood terms that clearly convey our differentiation, facilitate add-on sales, and strengthen our identity as a cloud-focused company. Our new naming approach uses industry-standard terms, linking them directly to the OpenText brand and better illustrates how our solutions deliver value against our customers’ pain points.”
