A Graphical User Interface (GUI) Testing Methodology

Software testing in general and graphical user interface (GUI) testing in particular is one of the major challenges in the lifecycle of any software system. GUI testing is inherently more difficult than the traditional and command-line interface testing. Some of the factors that make GUI testing different from the traditional software testing and significantly more difficult are: a large number of objects, different look and feel of objects, many parameters associated with each object, progressive disclosure, complex inputs from multiple sources, and graphical outputs. The existing testing techniques for the creation and management of test suites need to be adapted/enhanced for GUIs, and new testing techniques are desired to make the creation and management of test suites more efficient and effective. In this article, a methodology is proposed to create test suites for a GUI. The proposed methodology organizes the testing activity into various levels. The tests created at a particular level can be reused at higher levels. This methodology extends the notion of modularity and reusability to the testing phase. The organization and management of the created test suites resembles closely to the structure of the GUI under test.