Organizing Graphical User Interface tests from behavior-driven development as videos to obtain stakeholders' feedback

Abstract

Demonstrating software early and responding to feedback is crucial in agile development. However, it is difficult for stakeholders who are not on-site customers but end users, marketing people, or designers, and so forth to give feedback in an agile development environment. Successful graphical user interface (GUI) test executions can be documented and then demonstrated for feedback. In our new concept, GUI tests from behavior-driven development (BDD) are recorded, augmented, and demonstrated as videos. A GUI test is divided into several GUI unit tests, which are specified in Gherkin, a semi-structured natural language. For each GUI unit test, a video is generated during test execution. Test steps specified in Gherkin are traced and highlighted in the video. Stakeholders review these generated videos and provide feedback, for example, on misunderstandings of requirements or on inconsistencies. To evaluate the impact of videos in identifying inconsistencies, we asked 22 participants to identify inconsistencies between (1) given requirements in regular sentences and (2) demonstrated behaviors from videos with Gherkin specifications or from Gherkin specifications alone. Our results show that participants tend to identify more inconsistencies from demonstrated behaviors, which are not in accordance with given requirements. They tend to recognize inconsistencies more easily through videos than through Gherkin specifications alone. The types of inconsistency are threefold: The mentioned feature can be incorrectly implemented, not implemented, or an unspecified new feature. We use a fictitious example showing how this feedback helps a product owner and her team manage requirements. We conclude that GUI test videos can help stakeholders give feedback more effectively. By obtaining early feedback, inconsistencies can be resolved, thus contributing to higher stakeholder satisfaction.