Axini develops tools for model based testing (MBT) and model based software engineering (MBSE). Model based testing is a software testing approach in which test cases are automatically generated and executed from a model, a formal specification of the system under test. This approach allows for a high degree of test automation and more thorough testing.
Classical model based testing theory is focused primarily on testing reactive systems: communicating systems with discrete input and output messages. Testing GUI applications, such as web, desktop and mobile applications, differs from testing reactive systems in various ways. For example, a GUI rarely responds with a discrete message. Instead, the tester will need to observe the GUI for changes in the shown content.
We are interested in applying our model based testing approach to testing GUI applications. For this, we need to investigate which concepts are used/needed for testing such applications and how they relate with the classical model based testing theory.
We expect that GUI testing can be expressed in generic interactions: e.g. observing, clicking, typing. If this is the case, it should be possible to develop a generic adapter that can be used to test many different applications.
This research can take place in the context of the Autolink project: https://autolink.testar.org/. This is a research project in collaboration with several universities (Open University, University of Utrecht and Universitat Politècnica de València).
Possible research questions
There are several puzzles and research questions that students can work on.
What concepts are needed for testing GUI applications? How do the concepts of testing GUI applications fit within the classical MBT theory?
What does model based testing of GUI applications look like in practice?
Is it possible to define a generic adapter for GUI interactions? This adapter should support technologies such as Web based GUIs, QT based GUIs, Mosaic based GUIs, Windows GUIs etc.
The Testar tool (https://testar.org) has functionality to automatically learn GUI models by automatically interacting with the GUI. We would like to extend this functionality and make it available for more GUI technologies.
Recent work
Recent work at Axini on this topic:
- Weronika Szybińska (2025) investigated techniques and tools to test Android applications in an energy efficient manner.
- Małgorzata Janeczko (2023) and Yannick van der Vleuten (2023) investigated two complementary techniques for model based testing of web applications.