An Industrial Case-Study on GUI Testing With RPA

Abstract

Automating regression tests can bring many benefits, such as increased testing frequency and improved bug-finding capabilities, leading to an overall positive impact on software quality. However, transitioning manual testing into automated testing is not possible without effort. In this work, we attempted to transition a manual test suite into an automated graphical user interface-based regression test suite using a Robotic Process Automation framework. The study reports on the efforts needed to implement the test suite and test case maintenance efforts. Furthermore, the study reports on bug-finding capabilities and discusses the feasibility of applying Robotic Process Automation for automated graphical user interface-based regression testing more broadly. Due to challenges related to current testing practices within the organization, only a small subset of the manual test cases could be successfully transitioned. The results indicate that the implementation and maintenance efforts patterns are similar to those of previous studies from the literature - even similar benefits and challenges could be observed. These findings suggest that Robotic Process Automation is feasible for graphical user interface-based regression testing, but further (long-term) investigations are needed in this area.