Performances Testing vs Performance Engineering: The Real Difference

Performance of the software or the finished output is a universal quality which is often affected by each aspect of its code, means for execution as well as its design. It has been found out that half of the executives in majority of the IT concerns face performance issues with respect to 20 % of the projects that they are handling. Ensuring sound performance of the software applications is crucial for the growth of the IT firms and more so in the mobile devices. The success also depends on the user experience to a considerable extent as many times poor performance leads to frustration and dissatisfaction amongst the clients.

Adoption of mobile technology is the latest as well as the phenomenon in the history that demonstrates the fastest technology adoption curve. The mobile application market is expected to experience a tremendous growth within the next few years. Sound performance of the application that are deployed to the mobile devices becomes highly significant as poor performance often hampers the revenue levels, brand image and lead to decline in customer loyalty.

To achieve sound performance standards with respect to the software applications, performance engineering and performance testing both are crucial and needs to be undertaken. Both of these need to be optimized and used appropriately to drive great performance standards.

Performance Engineering

Performance engineering in case of Software Development with respect to mobile platforms has been observed to be one of the fastest growing areas in Software Engineering. Through performance engineering, the connection between recognition of a business and success of the application when the same is applied to mobile based software is now largely becoming apparent.

Performance engineering encompass a set of roles, activities, skills, tools, practices and deliverables that are applied at each and every phase of the SDLC that leads to ensuring that a solution is going to be designed, implemented, and finally operationally supported for meeting the non-functional requirements in case of performance like latency, throughput or even memory usage.

With the connection between the success of the application and that of the business gradually gaining recognition especially in terms of the mobile devices, performance engineering has adopted a perfective and preventive role within the SDLC.

• It is invasive and involves people from different units of an organization but chiefly within the IT company.
• It helps in increasing the business revenue by means of ensuring that the system is able to process transactions in the required timeframe.
• It helps in eliminating late deployment of the system and system rework owing to issues related to performance
• It also helps in elimination of avoidable efforts with respect to system tuning.
• Performance Engineering helps in avoiding unnecessary as well as additional acquisition costs of hardware.
• Helps in the reduction of increased costs with respect to software maintenance owing to performance related problems in case of production.

Performance Testing

In case of software engineering, performance testing is an in general and non functional testing that is carried out in order to determine the performance of a system with respect to stability and responsiveness in face of a specified workload. Often this type of testing helps in the investigation of measure, validation or verification of other attributes of a system that establishes the quality of the same like reliability, scalability and usage of resources.

• It serves a number of purposes like demonstrating of the system that fulfils performance criteria.
• It can also be employed for comparing the performance of two systems for finding out the one that performs better. It can also measure the part of a system or the specific workload that are the basic causes accounting for bad or poor performance of a system.

Performance Testing consists of a number of testing like Stress testing, Load Testing , Spike Testing, Soak Testing, Isolation testing and Configuration testing.

Performance engineering does not merely encompass the supporting infrastructure and the software itself but more than that. Due to its macro approach, it has evolved into an altogether separate discipline in case of a number of the organizations. Its adherence to the non functional requirements also gets validated post the deployment of the same through monitoring of the production systems. On the other hand, being a subset of Performance Engineering, Performance Testing is a practice that strives for establishing sound performance into the design, implementation and architecture of the system.

Benefits of Using Selenium Testing Tools over QTP

QTP

QTP is a functional testing tool having the feature for storing screenshot of every page navigated at the time of execution. Therefore, it can be used as an evidence for completion of testing, and also you can refer the screenshots of earlier executions if there is any requirement to refer them. Test report can be written automatically to a customized report page that will confirm accuracy of the report and also it can enhance the report’s look and feel.

Advantages of Using QTP

• User friendliness and a little effort for script creation.
• Advanced solution for regression test and functional test automation.
• Meets the requirements of both non-technical and technical users.
• Easy configuration and many inbuilt functionalities by default.
• Automation scripts are performed within specific interval of time by means of task scheduler or crone job.
• Easily integrated with test administration tools such as QC.
• Outstanding object identification process or mechanism.

Disadvantages of QTP

In current economic crisis, software companies are planning for efficient productivity as well as cost reduction. QTP is losing its market owing to the following limitations:

• Runs in Windows environments only.
• Unable to test with all types and versions of browser.
• Restricted to smaller testing teams or organizations.
• High licensing as well as add-inns costs.
• Slow in execution as compared with open source tools.

Selenium

Selenium Testing has four variants that can be used in combination or in isolation to create a full automation suite for your web applications.

1. Recording or Creating as well as enhancing scripts – Selenium IDE
2. Cross browser testing – Selenium Web Driver (API)
3. Executing scripts – Selenium Remote Control (RC)
4. Cross platform testing – Selenium Grid

Advantages of Using Selenium:-

• Powerful and simple document object model (DOM) level testing can be used for constant combination with agile projects.
• Has great flexibility and extensibility, with its tight integration with the browser unmatched by proprietary tools that are available.
• Supports different browsers, for instance, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera or Safari on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
• NET, JAVA, Perl, Ruby, PHP and other Object Oriented Programming languages.
• Offers the option of using various IDEs such as Netbeans, Eclipse, Visual Studio etc. depending on the selection of development language.

Disadvantages of Selenium

• Doesn’t support uploading files from local machine
• Doesn’t support the windows application
• Supports only application based on browsers
• Offers only one-sided support for dialog boxes
• Selenium being an open source has no official technical support

Comparison

There are many comparisons between the features of Selenium and QTP. Selenium only supports web applications. QTP supports client server applications only (e.g. built in TCL or TK and PowerBuilder). For Selenium it is portable and open source where as for QTP it is costly and licensed. The price of ten user license is around 60L. From the standpoint of UI object storage and management, For Selenium it is managed applying UI-Element user properties and extension. For QTP, it is a set of dynamically loaded libraries stored in the Java archive file.

Conclusion

Applying Selenium as the Functional Test Automation Tool can help you reduce the cost brought upon yourself for licensing using QTP. In the initial stages, the efforts required to script for Selenium raised by about 15% than QTP. Once all the solutions are ready the efforts of automation using QTP and Selenium were almost the same.

However, to conclude, we can say that Selenium is more beneficial than QTP so far as flexibility and costs are concerned. In addition, it allows you to run tests parallel, where as in QTP you are only allowed to run tests in sequence.

How to move from traditional testing to agile

Agile testing is the order of the day and many testers are switching from traditional Agile testing practice. In this context, it is needed to say that, business requirements for Agile testing practice are different from that of their traditional counterparts. Agile methods are considered healthier by modern testers. Also, the test cases that are prepared for agile testing are quite different from the traditional testing.

Why you need to shift from traditional to agile testing?

One of the advantages of agile testing is that it focuses on automation. In this regard, Agile testing practice includes automated acceptance tests. It also creates regression test plans as part of the continuous integration associated with software development.

It is evident that traditional testers are very much dependent on documents. On the contrary agile testers do not use too many documents. Neither do they had to write lengthy test cases. In short, it can be said that agile testers work is very much reduced in agile testing methodology. Agile testers need to be communicative and they require gathering information pertaining to their tasks through verbal, virtual or written communication.

Enterprises discover the various challenges associated with traditional testing. These incorporate delay in writing test cases which causes a corresponding delay in software development. Often defects are found later and then making changes in the design and development of software becomes a bit complicated.

Traditional testing practice is quite rigid and so an alteration in business requirements affect previously developed test cases. Also, there are risks associated with the communication process involved in the traditional practice. Most importantly, product quality is adversely affected if the product is scheduled to be delivered within a fixed release date.

These disadvantages associated with traditional testing are removed with agile testing. Unlike traditional, agile allows the testers to get rid of any ambiguity at the correct moment. Moreover, it enables early detection of technical or testing challenges, dependencies and roadblocks. If there are any changes then the same are considered healthy so far as software development is concerned and are included to develop efficient systems. If you are shunning the concept of traditional testing and embracing agile counterpart, then you can observe, that effective team collaboration helps team members to work together and attain a common objective. Most importantly in agile testing, quality matters the most and acceptance criteria is decided long before the developer embarks upon the process of software development.

Steps needed to move from traditional to agile testing

So if you are looking to move from traditional testing to agile, then you can expect the software products that are developed to be released as per the schedules. Unlike the traditional one, where product release is delayed, postponed primarily because there are changes suggested in the specified requirements even at the time of product release. Moreover, requirement study and subsequent writing of test plans becomes a lengthy process for the testers. Conversion to an agile environment for testing purposes require testers to act promptly, implying rapid feedback, thereby allowing the testing and developing team to proceed forward. In agile testing procedure information shared by the testers is meaningful and easily comprehended by the participating professionals. Overall, it can be stated that it is grossly beneficial to the business as a whole.

Benefits of Agile Testing

Apparently it sounds bizarre to even conceive that requirement definition, testing and product delivery can be accomplished within a month. But with agile testing, the time for testing is very much reduced. So a transition from traditional testing to agile testing implies the use of automation. It reduces significantly manual labor so far as testing is concerned. It can therefore be said without any obfuscation that agile testing enhances the efficiency and productivity in IT enterprises.

How Selenium Testing Scripts Can Be Performed on Different Browsers?

Many, almost every software application, at present, are written as web-based app which can run in an internet browser. The efficiency of testing these apps differs greatly among organizations and companies. In the period of highly responsive and interactive software procedures, where many companies are relying on Agile methodology, test automation is becoming a necessity for software projects. Test automation indicates using a software tool to perform repeatable tests against the app to be tested.

To ease the task powerful automation tools are coming up in the market like Selenium, as most of the softwares developed today are Agile adopted and browser based. There has been a massive progress in the features of Selenium that focuses on easy- to- use, competent GUIs and can meet the requirements of most app testers by 90% or more. Selenium holds the top position in the software market with these features:

• Powerful and simple DOM (Document Object Model) level testing, can be employed for nonstop integration with Agile projects
• Supports numerous browsers like Fire Fox, Safari, Internet Explorer, or Opera on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows
• Great flexibility and extensibility, tight integration with browser, unmatched by on hand proprietary tools
• Wires OOP (Object Oriented Programming) languages such as Ruby, JAVA, PHP, .NET, Perl, etc.

Components of Selenium  

There are 4 variations of Selenium, which can be combined or used individually to develop a complete automation suite for web apps. These are:

• Selenium IDE –Enhancing , creating or recording scripts
• Selenium Remote Control (RC)– implementing scripts
• Selenium Web Driver (API) – multiple browser testing
• Selenium Grid – Cross platform testing

Choosing the right tool

Several people start with Selenium IDE. If if you have no prior experience with scripting or programming language, it is better to use Selenium IDE to familiarize with Selenium commands. By making use of IDE, you can perform simple tests swiftly, sometimes within few seconds.

However, to use Selenium effectively, you will be required to build and run tests by using Selenium 1 or Selenium 2 by combining one supported programming language. So, it is solely on you to decide which one to pick.

While writing, the Selenium developers are setting up on the Selenium WebDriver API. For backward compatibility, Selenium 1 is used. Still, both have weaknesses and strengths which can be figured out at the time of testing.

Activities to be performed during testing

• Collect the working flows from clients
• Preparing for test and Selenium framework plan
• Assign talented resources and offer sufficient training to the new resources
• Setting up for software installation and test environment
• Create test scripts with Selenium IDE by using XPath method
• Use Eclipse to convert scripts
• Perform every test in Selenium RC using Eclipse as IDE by Batch Scheduling
• Use WebDriver to run multiple scripts
• Perform all the tests for each build and multiple builds, every day
• Reuse test scripts with fewer modifications like revising scripts for every build
• For speedy actions, generate HTML reports and share it with the team

Areas to be focused while testing

While performing the test, few areas need extensive concentration. These are:

• Selenium tests as a segment of each build
• Depending on build release, execute acceptance tests in regression test suite
• Find bugs in the earlier stages and address the risk of removing bugs in the cycle, later
• Test the existence of static UI elements
• Focus on every navigation links to missing pages or broken links
• Test the functions of input page that comprise of several input fields, check boxes and buttons. Some of these are Account Setting, User Profile, etc.
• Test dynamic elements with different HTML Ids
• Execute test in multiple browsers like IE, Chrome, Firefor, etc.
• Test dynamically varying UI elements like RSS feeds, animation, etc. without having to reload the web page.

It is recommended that those who are new to selenium, and are developing a new test suite from the scrape, it is a good choice to go with Selenium 2, because this variation of Selenium will be supported in the upcoming years.

Application quality is not dependent just on automation: Find out other factors

The success of any software application depends on the quality of the application and is in turn an important factor for the success of the IT organization. Customer satisfaction is an important factor for the success of any company and in case of IT concerns it is achieved through providing the clients with high quality of software applications. There are a large number of factors or aspects that determine the quality and performance of the software application apart from test automation.

Flexibility and Extensibility:

Flexibility may be defined as the ability of any software application of adding, modifying or removing any functionality from the system without damaging the same. Extensibility on the other hand is the ability of a software application in terms of adding more functionality without causing any damage to the system. This can also be thought of similar to a subset of flexibility. The changes in the functionality often occur in accordance to the varying requirements. It may also be seen as an obligation in case the development process ranks as one of the iterative methods. With Change being an inevitable element in the development of software, this makes it to rank as one of the most important properties with respect to the quality of the software application.

Maintainability and Readability:

Maintainability focuses on the modifications regarding error corrections as well as minor ones related to the functions and not the major extensibilities of functions. These modifications are able to be supported with valuable interface definitions, documentations, as well as self documenting codes and may be the code documentations. The relationship between maintainability and documentation is directly proportional. With the documentation being more useful and correct, maintainability also gets enhanced.

Performance and Efficiency:

Performance is generally measured in terms of the time that the software takes to response. This response time of the software needs to be within the acceptable intervals i.e. within a maximum of few seconds.

The response time of the software must not increase with an increase in the transaction count. With the resources being expensive, efficiency of the software needs to be supported with effective allocation of resources.

Scalability:

It has been observed that the response of a scalable system to the user actions is within an acceptable amount of time, even if load increases.

Scalability is of two types Vertical and horizontal. Vertical scalability occurs when more hardware requires to be added for handling effectively a rate of increased user transaction. This should not lead to any changes in the architecture while adding this.

Horizontal Scalability may be expressed as the ability of running a software application on a number of machines that are increasing consistently leading to multiple processing. An ideal scalable system needs to suit both these methods.

Security:

Security is an important attribute of software development as well as its quality. Security is highly significant in terms of mobile based or web or that usually have millions of users and provides the option of remote access to the system.

A security policy needs to be constructed and applied effectively without leaving any points of entry. Constructing a security policy often requires including techniques of authentication and authorization protections against network attacks, data encryptions and more. An effective policy must be aimed at constructing security leaks or else the entire application may collapse within a day not withstanding a single attack resulting in a considerable loss to the developing organization.

Availability, Robustness and Fault Tolerance:

For a software application to be robust enough, it needs to hold on to its availability and not lose it even in the most disastrous situations. This makes it to continue running even if some of the components in the application to fall off or break down.

A robust software application should recover itself, even if the entire application crashes, making sound use of the data and backup hardware powered with approaches of fault tolerance. Always there must be another plan a B or even C, D plans.

Reliability:

Reliability is another factor that determines the quality of the software. It can also be explained in terms of integrity as well as consistency of the software application even while running under conditions of high load. This makes it is relevant to availability as well as scalability as an unreliable system is not scalable.

Testability

A software product must facilitate establishment of an acceptance criteria and support the evaluation or assessment of its performance. This characteristic needs to be built-in at the time of designing the application. This would help in determining if the application is easily testable. A complex design results in poor testability.

Usability

A software application must be usable in the sense that it becomes convenient as well as practicable to use. This feature of the software application is affected by the interface of human-computer. The Graphical User Interface or GUI as it is commonly known as is the software component that is mostly impacted by this

API Readiness – Gallop and SmartBear Joint Webinar

Business organizations are demanding excellence in software and digital media to capture market. In order to   deliver greater efficiencies in reduced time lines, software developers are integrating APIs at staggering speed from public, private and partner resources. APIs help interacting with the software world, saving time and resources the reason why developers relay upon APIs. With the rise of disruptive technologies and adoption of digital technologies in the systems of engagement, quality issues in the use of APIs are getting amplified resulting in loss of brand credibility and trust. IT teams need pragmatic processes, tools and techniques to test & fix bugs in APIs to deliver higher quality. For early risk mitigation, developers need to prioritize the importance of testing APIs for their security, integrity and vulnerabilities.

If already working with APIs one can understand the importance of APIs and testing APIs. If not it must be surprising, What APIs are and how harmful it can be to use APIs without testing.

Starting with what are APIs?

In the simplest terms, APIs are sets of requirements that govern how one application can talk to another. It’s a software-to-software interface. The user is unaware of the interaction between different software which happens at the background before a task is completed. For example: if a user want to book a ticket online for a movie from the website, the website sends the user credit card credentials to a remote application for verifying the information and a movie ticket is issued only after the payment is confirmed. It is called seamless integration where the user doesn’t know what goes on in the background.

How do they work?

An API is a set of functions, procedures, and other points of access which an operating system, an application, a library etc., is made available to programmers in to allow it to interact with other software. APIs and Web services are not visible to Web site surfers and software users. They run silently in the background, providing a way for applications to work with each other to get the user the information or functionality needs. For example:    The icons to share articles on Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Reddit. These are links which help to do the service of posting or tweeting without leaving the webpage. The user need not leave the current webpage to do the posting. It makes it easier that one need not develop applications from scratch. It saves time and resources.

API readiness

Testing APIs to track how the API handles problems helps to fix discrepancies.   API testing helps to identify whether the API crashes or handles the problem? When it crashes to how much level is the crash? Shipping software with API failures leads to loss of customers and brand credibility. Ensuring API readiness through testing ensures quality and integrity of the software making it trustworthy software from a reliable branded company.

A real time cost benefit analysis of offshoretesting vs. QA staffing

A real time cost benefit analysis of offshoretesting vs. QA staffing

A software development process is incomplete without testing. After a software product is developed, it is the task of the testers to find out if the product meets the performance and practical requirements. If not, then it is the task of the developers to rework on the project until or unless the performance requirements are met. It is a practice that every responsible and credible IT service provider needs to provide to their clients as based on the quality of products delivered, payments are dispatched from the end users.

Cost Cutting Techniques by Testing Using QA Staffing

If a company has its own testing facility then it becomes simple to conduct testing but at the same time becomes a bit cost effective. Efficient QA staffing or hiring testers on a full-time or contract basis for testing purposes help resolves issues pertaining to handling such IT process.

IT Companies look for profits and that can be attained if cost cutting measures are adopted in the testing procedure. Following cost cutting measures can be attained by hiring testers by an IT firm.

• In this context, it needs to be said that both money and time is saved if the defects in the software are identified early.
• Also once a flaw is detected in the software during the testing process, money is saved if the time taken to rectify the software is less.
• Better customer service helps in comprehending the user requirements and this is a good thing from the testing perspective.
• If the end users demand modification or enhancement in the software, it is necessary for the service provider to respond accordingly.
• For an IT company to deliver quality and efficient services, it becomes easy to identify the lacunas associated with the company’s developers and programmers.

Cost Cutting using Offshore Testing Services

All the above steps do contribute to cut costs so far as software testing is concerned. Yet another method that can be implemented to reduce cost is through outsourcing of software testing. IT companies engaged in the development process have identified that offshore testing contributes significantly to cut costs thereby raising the profit margin. There are a number of service providers that do testing for companies at comparatively low rates.

For a client company who wants its software to be tested by a service provider, does not have to incur unnecessary expenditure on recruiting testers and this cut costs for the company drastically.However, there are certain disadvantages associated with such process. The prime being that the company doing the outsourcing has to depend totally on the service provider doing the outsourced jobs.If the service provider fails to make timely delivery of the projects, then the company image is very much tarnished in front of the end users. Often this results in the company losing business.

But in general it is observed that outsourcing is the preferred choice of most IT companies

Reduction of expenses with resources

• There is a significant reduction of expenses with resources.
• The providers of testing services are not only adept in using the costly testing tools, but they own them.Because of this, the testing process is a cost saver.
• For the small software development firms which do not have the resources to hire a testing team, outsourcing is the best option.

Use of quality software

• In most cases off shore testing is associated with the use of quality software.
• The pertinent service providers usually stick to best practices in the process that incorporates prompt identification of defects, smart approaches in preparing test cases, thereby saving time, effort and cost.

Faster testing cycles

• The testing service providers use skills in automating testing resulting is faster testing cycles.
• They also optimize staffing thereby enabling handling of fluctuations in demands.
• Also, since most of them cater only to the testing process, their focus is to provide quality and timely testing services.

Safe practice

• As compared to QA staffing for testing purposes by IT companies, it is observed that outsourcing is a safe practice provided the service providers approached for accomplishing the tasks have the requisite credentials in terms of experience, infrastructure, human resources.
• Therefore, emerging companies, with limited IT infrastructure prefer outsourcing rather than building in house testing facilities.

The IT companies in this process access dexterous team of software testers. The professionals engaged in such testing process are skilled in using the different testing tools.

5 Best practices for Ad-hoc testing

Ad-Hoc testing is a kind where the tester performs the test without any prior planning. In fact, there is no adequate time for properly designing test scenarios with the desired results. In most of the cases, the tests are carried out without any documentation describing the basic specifications and requirements. While executing such tests the tester can easily adopt this approach to tests any part of the system and find out the hidden bugs, if any. Usually, the tester applies skills, intuition, experience and knowledge for the software testing. As far as applying this process is concerned, it is usually carried out under demanding project schedules. There are times when it is impossible to perform extensive testing. Under such circumstances, ad-hoc testings are adopted in place of conservative processes.

However, before indulging in its practice, it is always advisable to follow certain guidelines that will help the tester to acquire more this type of testing.

Get familiar with the software

Knowledge about the architecture of the software is essential to ensure success in ad-hoc testing. Hence, the trick is to get accustomed with the way the software functions.

Test properly

Merely going through the testing procedure is not enough. The best part of ad-hoc testing is that it allows you to test all the software parts without facing any kind of restrictions. The testers can utilize this factor in their favor. They can perform the tests on various levels of the applications. Moreover, it is equally important to focus on the areas that have more risks. Although these are performed without any planned process, an expert tester will always consider the risk analysis first. Hence, it is advisable to begin with the fundamental risk identification and analysis. Once the tester comprehends the necessary areas, he can move onto the bigger folds.

Compare with a tester who lacks knowledge

An adept tester has the desired opportunity to rely completely on his knowledge and ability. This allows him to think about the specific and related testing situations. Such a scope will enable him to look for more number of software bugs during the process.

Experience matters

If your tester has considerable experience, he will be able to find the bugs as compared to an inexperienced tester.

Never mind the numbers of tests

This is another factor that will have an impact on your success or failure. The number of tests decides how many bugs you come across. Mostly, when there is a tight schedule to maintain during project completion, several rounds of testings cannot be possible. But if you consider the best practices, the more tests you perform, the better will be the visibility of the bugs.

Benefits of Ad-hoc Testing

The ability to learn is the final word on ad-hoc testing. The capability of the tester to learn about the software is critical along with the ability to find out the bugs. While discussing about the best practices, the question might arise as to why is it necessary to opt for ad-hoc testing. Well, there are several advantages associated with this testing process. One of the major reasons is that it can be used as an additional testing layer during the regular testing processes. Secondly, this kind of testing offers quicker results and it can considerably improve the aim that could not be developed during the conservative testing methods.

Improvisation is an essential factor in these kinds of tests. It enables the testers to focus on the software instead of the official documentation. In this process, the tester will learn more about the software – its integrations, architecture and flow. It is considered one of the most efficient ways in which software testing is carried out under demanding timelines.

Gallop and Xamarin’s Joint Webinar – Mobile App Testing in Agile Environment

Gallop Solutions, a US based colocated software testing services company is conducting a joint webinar with Xamarin, a leading cloud-based mobile app development & testing platform provider based at California Thursday, May 7th, 2015 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EST . This webinar helps developers and testers to understand the essentials of Mobile App Testing that ensure apps function and perform seamlessly on every device, delighting customers.

The Webinar is designed to help professionals to create a striking and artistic balance between UI/UX designing and performance of mobile apps. Webinar suggests required performance improvements of connected systems to enhance mobile app performance which is crucial before building a mobile product. In a situation where apps range from a number of fancy heavy weight testing tools to all-in-one tools, the webinar also helps in identifying feasible, simple tools and creating a tailored combination which proves to be efficient.

“Fixing bugs of most recent mobile app failures doesn’t create new experience for the customers.   It’s something more.. our Webinar is intended to build an approach right from designing and testing the app to evolve based on customer feedback,” said Ananth, Mobile Test CoE Lead, Gallop Solutions”. Excelling in a swift market requires ensuring quality through testing by identifying flaws beforehand and avoiding defects from creeping live. Switching from manual to automation testing, implementing Agile and Devops techniques helps in faster testing processes.

Join our joint Gallop_Xamarin Webinar “Mobile App Testing in Agile Mode” by experts Ananth, Mobile Test CoE Lead, Gallop and Spencer Montgomery, Partner Manager, Xamarin, who can help to implement strategies for a successful mobile app.

Speaker 1: Ananth Vinnakota, Mobile Test CoE Lead, Gallop

A management graduate from California State University, Ananth is an expert strategist in both business and business technology road maps. With mastery in vertical and horizontal cross platform mobile technologies and solutions, he is a business incubation specialist in mobile products integrated with cloud and big data.

Speaker 2: Spencer Montgomery, Partner Manager, Xamarin

Spencer has been with Xamarin for over a year now. Apart from being responsible for maintaining a wide range of consulting partners, he is also the technical lead for Xamarin Test Cloud and has specifically been assigned to customers throughout the Americas and APAC Regions.

About Gallop Solutions

Gallop Solutions is a US based Colocated Independent Testing Services & Specialist QA Staffing Services Company operating since 2003 with offices in Philadelphia, Dallas & California. Our services are backed by Proprietary Testing IP (Enterprise Test Acceleration Suite – ETAS) for enhanced productivity and in-house R&D teams. We are a 100% subsidiary of Cigniti Technologies, World’s 3rd largest independent software testing services company with over 1600 consultants globally across various domains with 400 located in North America.

About Xamarin:

Xamarin is the new standard for enterprise mobile development. No other platform enables businesses to reach 2.6 billion iOS, Android, Mac and Windows devices with 100 percent fully native apps from a single, shared code base. Xamarin is used by over 900,000 developers from more than 100 Fortune 500 companies to accelerate the creation of mission-critical consumer and enterprise apps. Xamarin’s global customer base in 120 countries includes Dow Jones, Bosch, McKesson, Halliburton, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cognizant, GitHub, Rdio and WebMD. Xamarin is a Visionary in Gartner’s 2014 Magic Quadrant.

Mobile Compatibility Testing Best Practices

Mobile compatibility testing is a process by which quality and performance in terms of functionality, consistency and usability of the mobile application software are tested. Lack of mature testing tools, different devices and platforms, short release cycles and the diverse network connectivity options are some of the key challenges that often result in numerous missed deadlines and cost overruns in today’s mobile app testing environment.

An inclusive mobile testing strategy involves device and network infrastructure, optimized choice of target devices, an effectual combination of automated and manual testing tools. When it comes to getting your mobile applications to market timely and within budget is it essential to conduct functional as well as non-functional testing.

Let’s discuss about the various elements of an effective mobile compatibility testing strategy and best practices that optimize mobile application testing.

Compatibility Checking

• Testing professionals focus on ensuring excellent mobile application compatibility and functions across multiple devices of different hardware, screen sizes and resolutions.
• A test plan is drafted on evaluating the devices from the end user market. Devices and testing environment are decided respectively, based on the evaluation report.
• Apart from the compatibility checking, functionality on several devices is also checked up for Interoperability after rigorous testing.
• Compatibility and Interoperability analysis is managed and reported using external and internal test management and bug reporting tools.

Best Mobile Testing Practices

Software testing of mobile applications uses many of the same QA & Testing practices typically used for other software applications. However, there are significant factors that can define how successful the mobile app is ultimately.

Below are the best strategies in developing and performing quality assurance on mobile applications for addressing precise aspects of the testing procedure.

• Ensuring that you have access to not just emulators or simulators but all physical devices on which the application run.
• Considering the personnel, additional time or both required to test all the application modules on multiple devices.
• Having an explicit list of devices on which QA will be carried out. Basically, this means that the professionals are committed to supporting some Operating Systems and devices on which the app will perform as designed. The users are informed that although the application might work on other devices, the personnel won’t be held responsible for unexpected issues. Nowadays, this approach is taken by the majority leading vendors, for instance, Skype.
• Implementing a mixed strategy when you have a set-up where you do not have all the supporting devices and so cannot perform exhaustive testing on each. In the early stages of application development, you can use an emulator. Also, keep adding real devices into the testing later down the development cycle. Thus, you can certify that all the objectives and requirements are being covered.

Major Functional Testing

• Checking the application as a “black box” and trying to break it.
• Opening every screen of the mobile app and changing the position from portrait to landscape mode and back again as this is the way to discover most errors.
• Checking device-specific functions, like communication interfaces and sensors.
• Writing test automation scripts for mobile apps by using a standard tool.
• Choosing a test automation tool that fits into the company infrastructure as well as strategy.

Key Non-Functional Testing

• Usability tests.
• Comparing performance levels for upgrades between the new and the released version of the app.
• Checking how the application reacts to SMS, incoming calls, tweets or MMS.
• Authenticating the test device’s battery drain.
• Checking memory usage of the app.
• The ease with which the application is Installed and deleted.
• Checking mobile applications for version upgrades.
• Compatibility and Localization testing.
• Testing the application on various carriers and network connections such as GPRS, Wi-Fi or LTE.
• Choosing the right testing tools.

Mobile testing is more useful, if the testing team and the developer have a better understanding of the target end users of the apps. With the above mentioned knowledge, the development and testing teams can optimize and reduce the amount of development and testing effort required for different devices and varied software versions.