Generating combinatorial test cases using Simplified Swarm Optimization (SSO) algorithm for automated GUI functional testing

Abstract

Graphical User Interface (GUI) is the outer skin of programs that facilitate the interaction between the user and different type of computing devices. It is been used in different aspects ranging from normal computers, mobile device, to even very small device nowadays like watches. This interaction uses different tools and programming objects like images, text, buttons, checkboxes, etc. With this emergence of different types of GUIs, they become an essential component to be tested (if available in the software) to ensure that the software meets the required quality by the user. In contrast to non-functional testing, function testing of GUI insures a proper interaction between the user and the application interface without dealing with the coding internals. In this paper, a strategy for GUI functional testing using Simplified Swarm Optimization (SSO) is proposed. The SSO is used to generate an optimized test suite with the help of Event-Interaction Graph (EIG). The proposed strategy also manages and repairs the test suites by deleting the unnecessary event sequences that are not applicable. The proposed generation algorithm based on SSO has proved its effectiveness by evaluating it against other algorithms. In addition, the strategy is applied on a standard case study and proved its applicability in reality.