A method for operating a data processing system to control a device under test and to collect data from that device. The user is provided with a first display (12) having a list of elementary tasks from which a user selects one or more elementary tasks using a pointing device. The task list includes first and second tasks. The invention also provides a second display (14) from which the user can edit parameters in the tasks and the user can order the selected tasks to provide a current test definition. The user causes the system to execute a test based on the current test definition by selecting a graphical display element. The data processing system then executes each of the tasks in order in the current test definition and stores any data received from the device under test as a result thereof in a data set. The data set is displayed in a third display (16).
