GUI schmooey

I answered a few questions this week about automating GUI tests. One question was about recommendations for GUI automation tools for non-coders, and the other was about how much time to spend on the GUI in an MVC (model-view-controller) application.

The answers were easy. In the first case, I said that they weren’t going to get ROI from the effort, and they should just test the GUI manually. In the second case, I suggested that they do all of the automation ignoring the view/GUI, and test the GUI manually.

I could expand an entire post on why I gave those answers, but it doesn’t matter. I’m going to go out on a limb and make the following statement.

For 95% of all software applications, automating the GUI is a waste of time.

For the record, I typed 99% above first, then chickened out. I may change my mind again. The point is that I think testers, in general, spend too much time trying to automate GUIs. I’m not against automation – just write automation starting at a level below(*) the GUI and move down from there. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t test the GUI at all – I just don’t see why you wouldn’t want to test it manually, and get people knowledgeable in user experience to help. I just think that in most cases we are wasting our time when we try to automate GUIs, and wonder if anyone has the guts to stop.

 

* What I beam by a “level below the GUI” is automation that works with IAccessible or an object model rather than interacting with UI elements directly.