IoT Testing Applications

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IoT testing

IoT Testing Applications

The term “Internet of Things (IoT)” was first used in the early 21st century when a team of engineers discovered how to link objects to the internet through an RFID tag (Radio-frequency identification). The term IoT testing has stuck around ever since. Today, we are living in a world where there are more IoT-connected devices than humans. These IoT-connected devices and machines range from wearables like smartwatches to RFID inventory tracking chips.

IoT connected devices communicate via networks or cloud-based platforms connected to the Internet. The real-time insights gleaned from this IoT collected data to fuel digital transformation. The Internet of Things promises many positive changes for health and safety, business operations, industrial performance, and global environmental and humanitarian issues.

This article provides insights into the concept of IoT and how we at Q-Pros verify and validate implementations of such a trending technology through applying specific types of functional and non-functional testing.

What is IoT Testing and Why is it Important?

We have seen IoT applications growing tremendously across many critical business cases, which as a result, has made IoT testing essential to ensure quality is maintained to increase end-users’ adoption and satisfaction.

With IoT around, there will be challenges and changes that the QA industry will have to adjust accordingly; it will have to focus more on user-centric testing and prevent bugs at the design stage. Software testing engineers will need to develop new skills and knowledge in embedded systems testing and build an effective strategy for IoTsoftware testing.

An effective testing strategy will include:

  • Measure the quality of testing.
  • Review testing toolset considering user feedback.
  • Remote testing and debugging.
  • Analyze test results and effectiveness.
  • Automation testing through codes to preserve quality standards at each stage.
  • Test analytics.
  • Data generator tool. And an effective data testing management tool as well.

Types of Testing

To verify and validate IoT testing applications, the test engineers need to ensure the following types of testing are planned, designed, and executed to ensure full quality coverage:

Functionality

  • Access control
  • Identity roles management
  • Mobile and web applications
  • Functional business requirements

Connectivity

  • Verify the device behavior in unstable networks
  • Data restore when there is no connectivity or power loss

Usability

  • Ease of use
  • UI Testing
  • UX Testing

Compatibility

  • Validating all possible working combinations of devices, operating systems and protocols.
  • Verifying the behavior of the developed hardware/software with the older versions of the hardware/software.
  • Verifying the behavior of the developed hardware/software with the newer versions of the hardware/software
  • Verifying the developed hardware/software performance after adding new update/feature or after a rollback in case of a failure.

Security

  • User authentication
  • Device authentication
  • Data protection
  • Data encryption

Performance

  • Device-to-device communication
  • Server-to-server communication
  • Device to- server communication
  • Network performance

Automated Testing

The Internet of Things Solutions World Congress (IoTSWC) 2018 predicts a slow simplification of communication protocol standards in IoT development. That means automated testing will most surly fully enter this industry. For now, testing applications connected to the network often results in sleepless nights. Since we cannot approach all IoT devices by automation, the use of automated tests for IoT is always a matter of a specific device.

The simulators might help to render the network of IoT nodes and deliver a range of benefits for IoT product release:

  • Accelerated testing is one of the top features Automation can bring to IoT Quality Assurance. It removes resource limits and provides cross-device/browser testing possibilities.

  • Test Coverage. Since automated tests are cost-effective, QA would be able to cover a broader range of app versions and desktop & mobile devices, detecting defects even in the preliminary stages. Automated Test Cases can offer a higher code coverage with the possibility of covering complex scenarios daily.

  • Automated testing might ensure the IoT testing app is multi-user and can be deployed in a dispersed environment. As IoT is an emerging technology in 2019, the role of automated Quality Assurance (QA) is one of the ways to accelerate product delivery and raise the competitive edge of the industry.

To learn more about how we leverage AI in software testing and take advantage of modern solutions to level-up your applications you can request a uniquely designed testing service through our

Online Test Request