Existing software analysis methods for performance and coverage are typically tied to the source code of software applications. In this work, we extend these methods to the Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) of applications, motivated by the desire to bring the user perspective into focus of software quality assurance and testing at the GUI level. We present and discuss various profiling procedures, their advantages and disadvantages, the arising challenges and the identified solutions. The identification and classification of the GUI components recorded during the monitoring process posed particular problems. The monitoring and collection of data could be well implemented, while detailed improvements in the evaluation of results are still necessary.

The use of profilers is a common approach for locating bottlenecks in software performance. Existing profilers typically generalize memory consumption and CPU usage. This work is dedicated to profiling-based identification of performance problems for specific moments of program execution. By combining conventional profiling with monitoring of user actions (e.g. mouse and keyboard inputs), a more fine-grained analysis of program behavior is possible. The calculation of coverage levels for GUI tests will also be available. The current state of this work describes a proposed solution. Realization of a prototype implementing the approach is currently ongoing.