One of the most important parts of the software development process is the process of software testing. Testing refers to the process of repetitively executing portions of a computer program to ensure that the program is functioning correctly and to identify errors within the executing program code. Testing is often performed by a human user of the computer. However, because the testing process can be very repetitive, and therefore stressful on humans, automated testing programs have been developed that simulate human user input to a computer program. In particular, scripts can be generated for use with an automated testing program that simulate user input to the program to be tested in a particular order. For instance, a script may contain instructions for entering keystrokes, mouse movement and selection, and other types of user input commands. In order to thoroughly test a computer program, such scripts can be executed repetitively by the automated testing program on the program to be tested.
Traditionally, an automated testing program must be run directly on the computer system that is executing the software that is being tested. This, however, greatly hinders the software testing process because the user performing the testing must be in close proximity to the system being tested. This may be extremely inconvenient when it is necessary to test the software components of a computer system that is located across the country or even the world.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments of the present invention have been made.