We are looking for a way to automate windows forms for acceptance testing. Our requirements are:
Basically, something like Selenium, but for windows forms.
The Vermont HighTest: http://www.vtsoft.com/vcsproducts/index.html
The 30 day trial looked pretty good!
Never used it but Borland SilkTest seems to be another meeting your requirements.
Must be usable by non-developers
Any not-web test automation tool will need either dev`s well-known ide (Eclipse etc.) or test tool ide. SilkTest, TestComplete etc. will also make u to write some code.
U can separate work between devs and testers using tool for creating "executable requirements" like "Fitnesse" or Concordion
For what it's worth, I've been testing for 15 years, and to this day have never seen ROI on tests created in this fashion. Automated testing, is obviously a good thing, but if you are just taking test cases that should be manual test cases and having minimum wage workers "automate" them, you will almost always end up with a mass of unmaintainable fragile tests that save no time in the end and get thrown out quickly.
The FitNesse suggestion from paiNie above is a great suggestion.
Posting this on behalf of my wife :)
We were using a tool from Compuware called TestPartner to create the test scripts for testing a WinForms client-server application. For managing and controlling the scripts execution we were using Compuware QA Director.
TestPartner uses VBA which is quite easy to understand and to use. Some non-developers could even know it because they write Excel macros. It has good record-and-replay functionality and is very good with objects recognition. So you could use it for both simple scripts created by your business users and to create a framework of advanced scripts by your developers and test engineers.
Basically, something like Selenium, but for windows forms.
You could try AutoIt. It's free and has a community site where you could find already created solutions.
However I'm generally concerned about your goal. Acceptance criteria are informal. Have you got already ideas how would you be translating informal stuff to technical requirements?
Ranorex might be interesting for you. You can capture/replay your UI tests, edit your actions and generate C#, VB.NET and IronPython code if you want.
Full support for Winforms, WPF, Silverlight and 3rd party controls.
Check the perfect solution. TestComplete is a great tool for record and play and creating your own scripts using VB, C#, C++ or anything else you want. It beats Silk, Compuware, Mercury hands down. It has very low price per license. You can get 5 license for price of 1 license in Compuware and silk, and 1/4 license for price Mercury.
We use TestComplete for automating our Windows forms test cases. It is a pretty good product overall.
The main issue you will run into is that while most of these products will meet all of your requirements, you are going to run into a lot of maintenance issues, especially having non-developers recording the tests.
Although it may seem like a good idea to quickly record all of your tests then have them run from the recordings, you will have a much better ROI by actually treating your automated tests like regular development. Recordings will leave you with a lot of duplicated code, which is very difficult to maintain. By properly designing the tests and breaking out reusable code you will end up with much more stable tests and you will be able to get your results much quicker.