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Examining maintenance cost of automated GUI tests : An empirical study of how test script design affects the maintenance of automated visual GUI tests / En empirisk undersökning av hur testskriptdesign påverkar underhåll av automatiserade visuella grafiska användargränssnittstester

GUI testing is expensive to perform manually. Software systems involving a heterogeneous set of components exclude the applicability of specific GUI testing techniques. Visual GUI Testing (VGT) is a test automation technique that combines image recognition with scripts. It applies to almost any GUI driven application. VGT is proven to be cost-effective in comparison with manual testing. Still, it is expensive to maintain. This study investigates if test script design by following specific guidelines positively affects maintenance costs. A case study was conducted to identify best practices for VGT w.r.t. maintenance time. Four VGT versions were developed for each manual test case. These consisted of two design versions, with/without guidelines, for the two VGT-tools EyeAutomate and Sikuli. Data was collected using time measurements, observations, and interviews. Results highlighted differences in initial development time and maintenance time between the two design versions. In total, 44 observations were collected. 17 were related to the design versions, 17 to the VGT-tools, and 10 to VGT in general, initial development, and the system under test. The interviews collected the perceptions of VGT in general, maintenance of the different VGT versions, and guidelines. In conclusion, the combination of the guidelines did not have a positive effect on maintenance in terms of costs and experience. However, some of the individual guidelines did. A rationale why the guidelines did not give the desired result was identified. Future research is necessary to investigate other combinations of guidelines, such as those identified as beneficial.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-171783
Date January 2020
CreatorsPetersén, Elin
PublisherLinköpings universitet, Programvara och system
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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