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The first industrial revolution evolved our labour force by mobilising the mechanisation of production through water and steam power. The second granted us mass production through electric power and the third brought IT and electronics into the workplace to further automate the production process. In 2011, in Hannover, Germany, the computerisation of manufacturing was demonstrated as the next industrial revolution and dubbed “Industry 4.0”. This industrial revolution has already taken place and is continuing to transform the production process. This is where Testing 4.0 finds its inspiration.

As technology advances at an astounding rate, it’s equally necessary for software testing to evolve alongside it. However, developers today face a number of issues due to the versatility of the products they are developing and the various restrictions they are forced to contend with. This is where Testing 4.0 comes into play. It’s the next generation of quality that finds its roots in crowd and cloud solutions. It’s through innovation and flexibility that Testing 4.0 is able to address the concerns of all developers. Enterprise applications, Internet of Things devices, virtual reality, wearables, websites, Testing 4.0 provides software optimisation solution for all this and much, much more.

The Five Challenges of Software Testing

1. Device Diversity

Platform fragmentation is perhaps one of the greatest issues that developers need to overcome. Between Mac and PC, iPhones and iPads and over 24,000 different Android devices, developers are unable to ensure that their software functions perfectly and is intuitive to use on all the different platforms, operating systems and software versions in today’s market. Internal teams will find it hard pressed to test over more than a handful of devices.

2. Target Group Relevance

The expectations of an end user can often greatly differ from the expectations of a developer. Often, companies will find that they are unable to understand the needs and desires of their customers. This discrepancy can seriously affect how technology is received when looking at topics such as navigation, colour schemes and user flow.

3. Reproducibility and System Dependency of Bugs

While software might appear to be bug free on certain devices, defects can often appear on others. For internal testing teams with limited access to devices, it’s hard to ensure that their software functions on all the platforms available on today’s market. In addition, it’s equally difficult for them to reproduce and hunt for bugs over several different platforms in a manner that is resource and cost effective.

4. Organisational Blindness

Due to a developer’s technical background and rational approach to technology, it can be extremely hard to truly understand the desires and necessities of their end users, who will often use their app, website or connected device in a manner they had never imagined. This can often lead to a situation where it’s near impossible for companies to predict how their customers will use their software, which in turn can seriously affect the success of their digital product.

5. A Lack of Resources

Finally, all development teams will find it difficult to have access to all the resources necessary to perform comprehensive and extensive testing. For accurate testing to take place, a testing platform that is well maintained and highly functional is a must. With more devices today than ever before and increasingly hard to hit deadlines and busy schedules, most companies will find that they suffer from a lack of resources.

Interested in learning about how to solve these problems? Please see Testbirds’ Testing 4.0 Whitepaper.

Want to start your own Testing 4.0 project and take the quality of your software to the next level? Start bugtesting with Testbirds today!

Edited from press release by Cecilia Rehn.