Efficiency as a term in software testing is, in the research community, a term that is not so well defined. In the industry, and specifically the test tool industry, it has become a sales pitch without meaning. GUI testing in its manual form is a time consuming task, which can be thought of as repetitive and tedious by testers. Using human testers to perform a task, where focus is hard to keep, often ends in defects going unnoticed. The purpose of this thesis is to collect knowledge on the area efficiency in software testing, but focusing more on efficiency in GUI testing in order to keep the scope focused. Part of the purpose is also to test the hypothesis that automated GUI testing is more efficient than traditional, manual GUI testing. In order to reach the purpose, the choice fell to use case study research as the main research method. Through the case study, a theoretical study was performed to gain knowledge on the subject. To gain data used for an analysis in the case study, the choice fell on using a semi-experimental research approach where one automated GUI testing technique called Capture & Replay was tested against a more traditional approach towards GUI testing. The results obtained throughout the case study gives a definition on efficiency in software testing, as well as three measurements on efficiency, those being defect detection, repeatability of test cases, and time spent with human interaction. The result also includes the findings from the semi-experimental research approach where the testing tools Squish, and TestComplete, where used beside a manual testing approach. The main conclusion deducted in this work is that an automated approach towards GUI testing can become more efficient than a manual approach, in the long run. This is when efficiency is determined on the points of defect detection, repeatability, and time.

Testning är en viktig del av utveckling av webbapplikationer. Det är möjligt att effektivisera testprocessen genom att automatisera delar av den. Trots detta finns det företag som testar helt manuellt. Syftet med denna uppsats är att visa under vilka villkor det kan finnas värde i att automatisera testning av webbapplikationer samt att identifiera orsaker till varför vissa företaginte redan gör det. Uppsatsen grundar sig i en beskrivande fallstudie där intervjuer, enkäter och observationer har genererat data. Uppsatsen bidrar med kunskap om automatiserad testning och beskriver de faktorer som kan påverka företags beslut om att automatisera. / Testing is an important part of the development of web applications. It is possible to improve theefficiency of the testing process by automating parts of it. Despite this, there are companies thatonly conduct manual testing. The purpose of this paper is to show under what circumstances theremay be value in automating the testing of web applications and to identify reasons why some companies are not already doing so. The essay is based on a descriptive case study where interviews, questionnaires and observations have generated data. The paper contributes with knowledge of automated testing and describe the factors that may affect the company's decision toautomate.