The usage of contextual information to develop data test vectors

In real-time systems/hybrid systems the quality of the controlling software represents one of the major aspects. Many of these systems allow interaction with the users by a graphical interface having inputs to select or type in. Even where the software does not control an industrial plant, machinery, a car or robot, it is possible to control financial transactions, personal details or electronic patient information. Large amount of financial, time, human resources are allocated toward testing the software. The paper proposes a method to use contextual data from the GUI of applications to create test cases for functional testing. The objective is to enhance the automation in testing by reducing the time allocated to generate the controllable input values. The DOM architecture for Web and .NET resource file for Windows OS applications will be considered as starting points in the development of the method. The discussion remains if the tester inspection is needed in order to choose between the diversity of test cases automatically generated or the tests will be all executed without exception. It will be taken in consideration the required system resources to repeatedly run all the tests in regression testing. In case of applying this method to several user interfaces, by saving the properties extracted and the generated test cases and results, statistical data regarding effective templates to use would emerge.