Sep 25 2007
User interface tests are a bit tricky – it is easy to get carried away and waste quite a lot of time, without getting any real benefits. However, if planned properly, automated UI tests can have a great effect on the project. Here are a few tips on how to make the most of automated user-interface tests. Continue Reading »
May 20 2007
Web user interfaces have traditionally been hard to integrate into an automated test process. Selenium+FitNesse combination, with just a bit of coding, solves this task incredibly well.
Selenium is a free browser automation and testing library, written by folks at ThoughtWorks. It can simulate text input, mouse events and execute various tests on page content. It’s written in JavaScript, and is compatible with all major browsers and platforms.
FitNesse is an open-source test and collaboration server, based on the Framework for integrated tests (FIT), and supports testing Java, .Net, Python and even some other code. I think that it is a good choice for the second side of the web UI testing coin, because it enables tests to be written almost like in English language. As the UI is very close to clients’ eyes, tests can and should be written so that clients can verify them (and if you are really lucky, even help with writing and maintaining the tests). Continue Reading »
Jan 31 2007
A friend of mine has a problem - his team worked for months on a big system with great success, marvellous technical achievements and a very elegant architecture. However, the users don’t share his enthusiasm. They don’t appreciate the architecture, flexibility and openness to change. Somehow, they seem ‘blinded by the user interface‘. Although the statement is completely correct, it’s hardly something that developers should be moaning about - on the end, ‘user interface‘ is called like that because it is exactly what users see. Instead of complaining how users only see ‘the stupid UI‘, we can embrace that fact and improve their feelings about our software.
Developers tend to over-emphasise functional aspects, underlying structure and technical achievements. But users are blind to that - they only see what the software does, not how. Most users are only concerned about how the software will help them get their regular job done, and how pleasant it will be to work with. For them, the underlying structure, service layers and database optimisations exist somewhere over the rainbow… Continue Reading »
