On the Importance of Supporting Multiple Stakeholders Points of View for the Testing of Interactive Systems

International audienceTesting is the activity meant to demonstrate that systems are fit for purpose and to detect their defects. On interactive systems, checking the fitness for purpose requires proper knowledge of the users’ activities and profiles as well as of the context of use. Moreover, defects may be present in software, in-put/output device hardware or in the way interaction techniques are handled. Comprehensively testing interactive systems thus requires a large set of skills provided by usability experts, software engineers, human-factor specialists, etc. So far, these stakeholders conduct testing activities using processes from their respective areas of expertise that do not take advantage of others stakeholders’ expertise effectively. This paper discusses the contribution of each stakeholders in current testing activities and highlights that a common view of the interactive system under test can serve as a mediating tool for each stakeholder to share in-formation and identify/execute more relevant test suites