Model based testing of GUI applications

Classical model based testing theory is focused primarily on testing reactive systems: communicating systems with discrete input and output messages. Testing GUI applications, such as web, desktop and mobile applications, differs from testing reactive systems in various ways. For example, a GUI rarely responds with a discrete message. Instead, the tester will need to observe the GUI for changes in the shown content.

We are interested in applying our model based testing approach to testing GUI applications. For this, we need to investigate which concepts are used/needed for testing such applications and how they relate with the classical model based testing theory.

We expect that GUI testing can be expressed in generic interactions: e.g. observing, clicking, typing. If this is the case, it should be possible to develop a generic adapter that can be used to test many different applications.

This research can take place in the context of the Autolink project (https://autolink.testar.org/), a research project in collaboration with several universities (Open University, University of Utrecht and Universitat Politècnica de València).