Testing the GUI

This section will talk about the automated testing of a GUI. This is not strictly related to business/IT alignment but automated testing is so important for quality that it would have been a shame to not at least talk about it and show some examples in a book that strives to increase the overall quality of software architecture and make it reach industrial standards.

Automatic end-to-end tests of the GUI

One of the most well-known ways to test a GUI is to pilot its web interface with tools such as Selenium. Though performance is not the strong suit of such tests, they have the great advantage of being as close as possible to what a human would do in reality, as the “driver” really clicks on buttons and links, types text in the designated areas, and generally manipulates the application as would be the case in regular human use (but it’s done much quicker, as there is no typing delay).

In order to unify what is going to be used in all the...