No matter which Test Tools you end up choosing, you’ll inevitably come across the Micro Focus suite. They’re the industry standard and with good reason. Micro Focus makes the test tools that all others are compared against.
Think Photoshop, Microsoft Office or Google. Sure, there are alternatives, but these are the most important tools in their space. The benchmarks. You can’t judge another search engine without comparing it to Google.
It’s important to note that vendors often compare themselves to the wrong MF tool or version. Whether it’s a cock-up or a conspiracy, it is something to listen out for. A typical example is JMeter v LoadRunner Professional. In reality, JMeter should be compared to LoadRunner Cloud.
The Micro Focus Tools You Need to Know
| Tool | Purpose | Notes |
| ALM / Quality Center | Test Management | Provides a unified platform for managing and automating processes, activities and assets for building, testing, delivering and maintaining applications. |
| Octane | Test Management | Modern testing platform that’s tuned for high-velocity Lean and Agile teams. Also includes Waterfall support of course, for the Wagile among you. |
| UFT One | Automation | Automate functional and regression testing for the widest range of applications and technologies. Plus, you can use UFT One for Robotic Process Automation. |
| UFT Mobile | Automation | Built for testing mobile and tablet devices, UFT Mobile provides an end-to-end quality lab of real devices and emulators to help you build a memorable app experience on mobiles and tablets. |
| LoadRunner Cloud | Performance | Simple, smart, scalable and avoids the need for expensive hardware for Load Generators. LoadRunner Cloud is suited for Agile, DevOps and Waterfall approaches to web and mobile performance testing, plus SAP, Oracle and Citrix. |
| LoadRunner Professional | Performance | The daddy of all performance testing tools.Lets you check the performance of the widest range of applications supported by any tool, and identify and resolve issues before applications go live. |
Mercury Interactive -> HP -> Micro Focus
The Micro Focus tools weren’t the very first test tools on the block, but they weren’t far off. You may be thinking, who? They started life back in the 90s, and were know as the HP test tools, or even further back, the Mercury Interactive Test Tools.
Why are Micro Focus Held in Such High Regard?
The Micro Focus suite sets the benchmark for test tools. They lead the way in functionality, they have a tool or feature for everything you’ll need. Not only this, but they offer the greatest protocol and application support – Essentially Micro Focus tools are able to test a wider range of solutions than any other. They’ve also been around so long that there’s no shortage of skilled practitioners to maximise their value.
What About Micro Focus’s Competitors?
Of course, there are so many competitors in the market. A lot of niche players and smaller vendors – Tricentis or JMeter for example. They will often make a compelling case, particularly for smaller and less important projects. I’ll look at these in future blogs.
The fact is though, you need to know about the Micro Focus suite before looking at any alternatives.
