Attacking GUI Test Automation Maintaince Headaches

GUI-centric automation scripting is a major cause of the high costs and failed test automation efforts. These scripts may work fine for one release, but quickly break down when the GUI changes, triggering huge maintenance efforts resulting in ultimate failure. Based on the successes at CISCO, Jeff Feldstein discusses the ways they have mitigated these problems with: back-end testing without the GUI; using appropriate manual testing; simulating browsers with HTTP proxy software; and many more tricks-of-the-trade.