Event-Oriented, Model-Based GUI Testing and Reliability Assessment-Approach and Case Study

Abstract

It is widely accepted that graphical user interfaces (GUIs) highly affect-positive or negative-the quality and reliability of human-machine systems. However, quantitative assessment of the reliability of GUIs is a relatively young research field. Based on probability theory and statistics, the existing software reliability models describe the behavior of software failures and attempt to predict the reliability of the system under consideration (SUC). They operate on particular assumptions about the probability distribution of the cumulative number of failures, the observed failure data, and the form of the failure intensity function, etc. Bad news is that there is no single, universal model that can be used in all cases. To select an appropriate model, or a set of models, the failure data should be considered and analyzed carefully. We expect that the methods used for modeling and testing a GUI also affect its reliability. Consequently, the quality of the reliability assessment process, and, ultimately, the reliability of the GUI depend on the approaches used for modeling and testing the SUC. This chapter critically reviews existing software reliability models and attempts to gain experimental insight into this problem. Two different event-based GUI testing frameworks are chosen as examples. A case study drawn from a large commercial web-based system is used to carry out the experiments; results are analyzed and discussed to come to recommendations for practical usage of the approach.