Testing usability of a software program

• US 20070083854A1
• Filed: 10/11/2005
• Published: 04/12/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 10/11/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Mayer-Ullmann, Dietrich, Held, Theo, Weber-Schaefer, Ute
• Granted Patent: US 7,673,287 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/124
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3696 Methods or tools to render software testable
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/73 Program documentation

Abstract

Usability of a software program can be tested by generating a first electronic record of input events that a user executes with at least one input device during a test session. The operations comprise applying the generated first electronic record to a predictive model to generate a prediction for performing the predefined task. Usability of a software program can be tested by registering input events that a user executes with at least one input device during a test session in which the user performs a predefined task of a software program. The operations comprise generating a first electronic record associated with the test session. The first electronic record includes at least one characteristic of the registered input events and a prediction for performing the predefined task. The prediction is generated by applying the registered input events to a predictive model.

Claims

1. A computer program product tangibly embodied in an information carrier, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform operations for testing usability of a software program, the operations comprising:

generating a first electronic record of input events that a user executes with at least one input device, the first electronic record being generated during a test session in which the user performs a predefined task of a software program; and

applying the generated first electronic record to a predictive model to generate a prediction for performing the predefined task.

2. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the predictive model is a GOMS model.

3. The computer program product of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise generating a second electronic record associated with the test session, the second electronic record including the prediction and at least one characteristic of the executed input events.

4. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the prediction is a predicted time for performing the predefined task, and wherein the characteristic is an actual time the user takes to perform the predefined task.

5. The computer program product of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise deducting irrelevant time from the actual time.

6. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the prediction is a predicted number of input events for performing the predefined task and wherein the characteristic is an actual number of the executed input events.

7. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the predefined task is performed under guidance of a graphical user interface based on coding, and wherein the operations further comprise analyzing the coding to determine the characteristic.

8. The computer program product of claim 3, wherein the user executes at least a sequence of the input events by continuously depressing a key on the input device, and wherein the sequence is regarded as a single input event in determining the characteristic.

9. A method for testing usability of a software program, the method comprising:

registering input events that a user executes with at least one input device during a test session in which the user performs a predefined task of a software program; and

generating a first electronic record associated with the test session, the first electronic record including at least one characteristic of the registered input events and a prediction for performing the predefined task generated by applying the registered input events to a predictive model.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the prediction is a predicted time for performing the predefined task, and wherein the characteristic is an actual time the user takes to perform the predefined task.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising deducting irrelevant time from the actual time.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the prediction is a predicted number of input events for performing the predefined task and wherein the characteristic is an actual number of the registered input events.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising receiving at least a sequence of the input events from a continuous key press and regarding the sequence as a single input event in determining the characteristic.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein the predefined task is performed under guidance of a graphical user interface based on coding, and wherein the method further comprises analyzing the coding to determine the characteristic.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein analyzing the coding comprises detecting elements, markup tags and class attributes that are included in the coding.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein a first element, a first markup tag and a first class attribute correspond to a user-selectable button in the software program, and wherein the first element, the first markup tag and the first class attribute correspond to a user-selectable link in another version of the software program.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein analyzing the coding comprises assigning unique names to all possible input events associated with the software program.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein assigning the unique names comprises recording the unique names in a configuration file during a calibration session.

19. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

generating a second electronic record of the input events during the test session; and

applying the generated second electronic record to the predictive model to generate the prediction.

20. A computer program product tangibly embodied in an information carrier, the computer program product including instructions that, when executed, cause a processor to perform operations for testing usability of a software program, the operations comprising:

registering input events that a user executes with at least one input device during a test session in which the user performs a predefined task of a software program; and

generating a first electronic record associated with the test session, the first electronic record including at least one characteristic of the registered input events and a prediction for performing the predefined task generated by applying the registered input events to a predictive model.