GUI Testing in Practice: An Interview-Based Study of Approaches and Challenges in the Brazilian Software Industry

Software testing is an important activity in the software development cycle, which seeks to ensure the quality of software created. When software does not meet its users' implicit and explicit needs, one can say that it lacks quality. The lack of quality in software can generate several problems for the software development project, such as friction between supplier and clients/users, financial losses, legal problems due to breach of contracts, and even risk to the life of its users in critical contexts. Along these lines, different levels of testing have been developed to ensure quality in different aspects of the software. A popular approach is functional interface testing, which evaluates software by executing events on the software screen, such as filling in a text field or clicking in a button. GUI (Graphical User Interface) functional testing can be executed either manually, with the tester interacting directly with the software, or automatically, by running the software through a programmed script. In recent years, one can find several solutions and techniques proposed to deal with GUI testing in the literature. However, they usually do not analyze how industry professionals perform this type of testing, leaving a gap in the area. Therefore, this study investigates how testers perform interface testing on their projects. Then, we conducted a semi-structured interview with 20 testing professionals. The results indicated that testers who only perform manual GUI tests do not create automated GUI tests due to the context of the project in which they work, their professional preferences and also for educational reasons, such as difficulty in programming. In addition, distinct limitations were observed for manual and automated GUI tests that negatively impact the activities performed by professionals, such as difficulties related to the company's culture and technical problems related to the software under test. The combined results provide a general overview of GUI testing available in the Brazilian software industry.