A short rant on naming conventions

So today I am having to run automated scripts manually - part of the triage process - and I thought I had  come to grips with all major vague statements which make up the automated suite. That was until I encountered the instruction to "[click] lnk2". 

Whatever is being created, whether it is declaring variables, reusable test scripts, or naming objects for an automation library, remember that in a year from now someone else will be picking it up and trying to work out what on earth you were on about. The key - I am not going to preach my own flavour of conventions here - just think about it. Be proactive. Have a structure. Go back and update names which were fit for purpose but are now a bit rubbish. Otherwise you will end up with a bigger pile of rubbish. Just do it.

QTP tests are not running from QC - Failed (!)

This is a rushed post as I collate my thoughts around why my tests are not running 2 1/2 days before a release.

So I've recently set the remote agent to restart after 10 runs, in hope of reducing the likelihood of QTP crashing mid-run. 

My problem: suddenly every tenth test I run from QC crashes.

Hmm. 

Change remote agent restart value to 1

Now every test fails. 

Logs

With medium level logging I see: 

"Error...CRemoteAgent:get_value Pier is NULL", and

"Error...SetDisplayKeywordView : Automation is null"

I tried restarting the machine

Firstly, I've tried updating Remote Agent settings (all values aside from the restart testing tool after x). Problem persists.

I've given up and set QTP to restart after every 0 tests. My tests are now running. I will have to carry on investigating when I am not 2.5 days out from a major release. If you've seen this / know how to fix please post a reply.

Notes on my environment

Windows XP

QC ALM 11 (mid-tier license, from memory)

QTP 11.00.0.0 Build 1018