Soon to be published, The European Software Testing Summit Report, contains findings derived from four years’ worth of project-based entries into The European Software Testing Awards, written by The European Software Testing Awards judging panel.
First Look at the Mobile Testing Chapter
A sneak preview of the Mobile Testing Chapter is shared below:
This chapter assesses entries into the Best Mobile Testing category. The key aspects that were evaluated during judging included: how technology was used to aid testing; preparation of testing; definition of functional requirements; use of best practice or techniques; achievement of outcome and commitment to high quality standards. There are a number of common themes appearing, which mimic what is seen elsewhere across the other categories.
All nominations this year were working using some agile practices, with a number that had clearly defined minimum viable product with understandable articulation of customer value expected to be achieved. There was a higher proportion that referenced use of TDD/BDD than in previous years, where close collaboration between the developer or infrastructure engineer, business and tester is required. This can be expected to increase during 2017.
The sophistication of the nominations and scope for mobile testing continues to grow in line with the increased real world usage. This includes the breadth of phones, tablets, operating systems and browsers but also smart devices have started to be seen. The internet of things is now becoming a reality and a challenge for the industry to step up to.
As one would expect within the time‑boxed iterative world of continuous integration, tooling is becoming broader. A wide variety of emulation types, automation tools, service virtualisation and automated deployment tools were mentioned across the nominations. This calls into question, how does the industry decide which tool suite/family to choose and will this be for the short or long term?
Whilst emulation clearly played a significant role in many projects, real devices are continuously relied upon. As the internet of things continues to bring new devices onto the market is it a realistic expectation that any real device testing will be achievable or desired across the industry in the future? Is the industry wedded to real device testing because emulators have not achieved the level of capability required or is this a trust issue which could be likened to the initial reluctance towards automated testing?
The range of test types being covered in nominations has increased. Many projects reflected both functional and non‑functional testing types. Automated regression testing played a key part. Strong non‑functional testing nominations made reference to performance, disaster recovery, fail over and security testing as part of their scope.
The expectation that a tester needs to understand both the application and full end‑to‑end infrastructure came through as a clear trend across submissions. Appreciation for types of available networks, geography and cloud hosting showed increased prevalence. This necessitated improved understanding of monitoring at all levels of infrastructure topography, this on occasion required dealing with multiple suppliers in a timely fashion…
The European Software Testing Summit
The full chapter, along with more insights from different Awards categories, will be available in The European Software Testing Summit Report, which will be distributed at The European Software Testing Summit.
The European Software Testing Summit is a one-day event that will take place on 16th November in central London. To find out more information and register click here.
Written by Cecilia Rehn.
