Category: Mobile App Testing

Load Testing vs Stress Testing: What’s the difference?

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Load Testing vs Stress Testing what’s the striking differences between both the process?
In the following sections, we will discuss in detail load and stress testing. People often get confused between these 2 and refer to them as a load and stress test. But there are fundamental differences between these 2 performance tests, as we will discuss in the upcoming sections. These are the 2 most important performance tests that you may wish to see the results for before your product or application goes live. This is especially true for applications that are connected to the internet.
Load Testing
As the name suggests, in a load test, many users are loaded into the system or application, and then the transactions are performed to see how well they work. Load test gives you an idea of how your application would perform in the real world with “n” numbers of users (referred to as the load) active in the system.
The results of a load test are generally expressed in terms of TPS or transactions per second. This means the system can process “N” transactions per second with an active user load of “X” thousand. The value for “N” and “X” needs to be defined by the business based on the expected number of users and the infrastructure you have in place to handle this load.
Type of performance testing
Stress Testing
In Stress testing, the system is put under stress and then its performance is measured. It is used to verify the stability and reliability of the system under stress. It is also done to ensure the system does not crash at any point.
Considering your application can handle 1o0 concurrent users. In a stress test, you may start by having 100 or more users in the system performing data transactions. Slowly you would stress the system by either increasing the load or having more transactions performed. Then you would monitor how your application is performing in this stressed situation. The stress test is also performed to understand at which point your system is likely to crash or break.

Major Differences between Load and Stress Testing?
Here are some major differentiation points between load and stress testing.

Sno Load Testing Stress Testing
1 It is used to check the performance/functionality of the system under load (multiple active users) It is used to test the reliability of the system under stress or extreme load
2 The load is set up with multiple active users – virtual or real – inserted into the system Stress is created by creating more users, data, and transactions in the system
3 Load test helps to identify the upper limit of the users that the system can handle. A stress test is used to understand the behavior and reliability of the system under extreme load or stress.
4 The performance of the app is measured with load in the system The reliability and stability of the system is measured under extreme load or stress
5 Some of the load testing tools are Jmeter, NeoLoad, Headspin, Experitest, etc Some tools recommended for stress testing are Stress Testers, Jmeter, NeoLoad

Difference between stress testing and load testing
Examples of load and stress testing
To better understand the difference between load and stress testing, let us look at an example. Let us take an example of an online shopping site. Assuming that your application is designed to handle 1000 concurrent users. When you do a load test, you may want to start with a 50% load. So, you set up your systems to simulate 500 users and then check how the system responds by checking the API response times. If the response time is within acceptable limits, you progressively increase the load to 700, 800, 900, and 1000 to see how your application performs under the different loads.
For the same application, if you were to do a stress test, you will 1000+ users simultaneously generating calling multiple APIs. This will stress out the system which is designed to handle only 1000 users. The reliability of the system is then checked by checking the correctness of the API response, to check if the application or pages crash at any point, the data is saved to and from the database, etc.
Some other examples of load testing are sending multiple files for printing at the same time to the printer, sending thousands of emails at a time to load the mail server, or changing large volumes of data in a word or excel or any other processing system.
Some scenarios that emphasize the need for a stress test are an educational website at the time of result declaration, or eCommerce website during their annual sales or new and anticipated product launches, or the latest vaccination availability and booking apps as well.

Wish to know about the best performance testing tools in the market? Read here!

Performance testing includes various types of testing including Load, Stress, and others. A performance test is done to validate the reliability and stability of the system, ensure the response time is within the defined SLA, and also ensure that the system is scalable.
Load test only concentrates on the performance of the application or system with many active users or with a load. Hence, Load testing can be considered as a subset of the performance test.
What is the purpose of load testing?
The main purpose of Load testing is to understand, how the system would perform under the real-life load. For this, the business first needs to analyze the expected user base for the application. Then a load similar to that number is simulated and the performance of the system is measured. The results are normally mentioned as successful transactions per second under “X” load or “X” active users.
It is very helpful in understanding the achievable performance of business-critical transactions along with resource utilization. Based on the load test result, the business decides to scale up or scale down the backend infrastructure.

What are the different types of load and stress testing?
Load testing can be further divided into 4 different categories based on the load used. These are

  1. Load Testing: Here you simply check the performance of the system under different levels of load which are well within the expected load limits.
  2. Capacity Testing: Also called scalability testing capacity testing is mainly done to identify the maximum load the system and the infrastructure can take without breaking down or without breaching the SLA.
  3. Stress Testing: It is done to find out how the system performs under stress or extreme load. This is achieved by reducing the infrastructure, reducing the database size along increasing the load many folds.
  4. Soak Testing: It is a long-form of load testing where system performance or degradation in performance is monitored over a long duration.

How are load and stress testing done?
Every application or system will have a limit to the load it can handle at a particular time. This limit is decided by the size of the database and servers used. Both in load and stress testing,  load or stress in the system is simulated using real users or using tools.
Load testing is done with real users and with simulated users as well. When real users are used, due to the limitation to the number of users available to database, servers, and other infrastructures are scaled down to create a load on the system. Then the testing is performed and the response times are calculated. The results are then extrapolated to derive the performance numbers for the actual infrastructure. When tools are used, any number of users can be simulated, so the actual infrastructure is tested.
Stress testing can be performed only with the help of tools. Here the system is put under stress by having inserting users many-folds than the expected told, or by putting stress on the DB and servers with many transactions and API calls. The aim is to check the stability and reliability of the system under extreme load. It also helps to identify the point at which the system is likely to crash. Based on the results of the load and stress testing, the business may decide to scale up the infrastructure for better application performance and reduced downtimes.
What are the goals of load and stress testing?
The goal of load and stress testing in to find the performance defects in the application and in the infrastructure or network that can affect the application.
The main goals of load testing are:

  1. To ensure that under different permissible the response time for all the transactions is within the SLA (Service Level Agreement) as fixed by the business.
  2. To measure the performance of different application modules under different loads.
  3. To measure the network latency and other components that can impact the response time.
  4. To uncover application design issues that can reduce the performance.
  5. To check the server configurations for web and application to ensure they can handle the load.

The main goals of stress testing are:

  1. To uncover issues that occur only at extreme load conditions.
  2. To check the stability and reliability of the application under heavy load.
  3. To uncover synchronizations issues, memory leaks, and race conditions
  4. Optimizing the system to prevent a breakdown in production.
  5. Planning for the scalability and best utilization of the available infrastructure.

Do you know that volume testing is absolutely needed before app release? Read more

Soak Testing is a type of Performance Testing where the performance of the system under load is analyzed for long-duration similar to a production scenario. Some applications need to be online 24/7 like the eCommerce websites. They may have a different load at different points, a soak test would put the system under test with a specific or varying load and monitor its performance for hours or even days.
A soak test aims to identify issues that occur only after the system has been active for long durations. The most common issue identified in a soak test is related to memory leaks where the system starts degrading after being live for a long time.
Conclusion
The performance of a software application is critical to the success of the application. For this purpose after the functional testing, performance tests are performed. The most common performance tests are load and stress tests. Based on the results of the load and stress test the business decides on the infrastructure needed to support the application.
The load and stress result thus play a very important part not only in the success of the application but also helps business in optimizing resource utilization and improved profit.
 

Protractor vs Selenium: What are the major differences?

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Protractor vs selenium who will win? Both the test automation tools are equally good. However, one has some features that make it supreme to the other.
Test Automation is the need of the hour and is widely adopted by the testing teams across the globe; to assist testers in automation testing several testing tools are now available in the markets.
To achieve the best testing results, it is very important to choose the most appropriate testing tool according to your requirements.
Sometimes, testers sometimes get stuck between two automation testing tools.
And if you are the one, who is having a difficult time picking the aptest testing tool out of Selenium vs Protractor, then go ahead and read this article to find out a solution.

Selenium 
Selenium is used for automation testing of web applications and is an open-source testing tool.
Selenium is meant only for web-based applications and can be used across various browsers and platforms.
Selenium is an all-inclusive suite that is licensed under Apache License 2.0. It constitutes of four different tools under it:

  • Selenium Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
  • WebDriver
  • Selenium Remote Control (RC)
  • Selenium Grid


Selenium IDE
Selenium IDE GIF
The simplest among all the four tools under Selenium is Selenium IDE. Selenium IDE is used to record the sequence of the workflow.
This Firefox plugin is easy to install and is also companionable with other plugins.
It has some of the most basic features and is largely used for prototyping purposes. It is very easy to learn and use.
Selenium RC
RC
Selenium Remote Control (RC) allows the testers to choose their preferred programming language.
It’s API is quite matured and supports extra features to assists tasks beyond even browser-based tasks.
Selenium supports  Java, C#, PHP, Python, Ruby, and PERL and can perform even difficult level testing.
Selenium WebDriver

Selenium WebDriver is an advanced version of Selenium RC. It provides a modern and steady way to test web applications.
Selenium directly interacts with the browser and retrieves the results.
An added benefit of WebDriver is that it does not require JavaScript for Automation. It also supports Java, C#, PHP, Python, Ruby, and PERL.
Selenium Grid
Selenium grod
The main benefit of automation tools is faster execution and time-saving. In Selenium, Selenium Grid is responsible for the same.
It is specially curated for parallel execution of tests, on various browsers and environments; it is based on the concept of hub and nodes.
The main advantage of using this is time saving and faster execution.
What Protractor is all about?
Protractor is a powerful testing tool for testing AngularJS applications.
Though it is specially designed for AngularJS applications, it works equally well for other applications as well.
It works as a Solution integrator by assimilating the dominant technologies like Jasmine, Cucumber, Selenium, NodeJS, Web driver, etc.
Protractor also has a high capability to write automated regressions tests for web applications. Its development was started by Google but was later turned into an open-source framework.
Protractor
Why do we need Protractor?
Here are a few reasons to convince you to use Protractor:

  • Generally, most of the angular JS applications have HTML elements like ng-model and ng-controller, Selenium could not trace these elements, whereas Protractor can easily trace and control such web application attributes.
  • Protractor can perform multiple browser testing on various browsers like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, IE11, Edge. It assists in quick and easy testing on various browsers.
  • Protractor is suitable for both Angular and Non-Angular web applications.
  • Because of the parallel execution feature, it allows executing test cases in multiple instances of the browser simultaneously.
  • It permits the installation of various packages as and when needed. In simple words working with packages is easier in Protractor.
  • Working with multiple assertion libraries is possible with Protractor.
  • Protractor supports various cloud testing platforms like SauceLabs and CrossBrowserTesting, etc.
  • It assists in faster testing.
  • Runs on both real browsers and headless browsers.

What is Selenium Protractor?
If the app you are developing is on AngularJSit’s always a better option to use Protractor since

  • it’s meant for AngularJS apps
  • We can create customization from Selenium in creating Angular JS apps
  • Protractor can run on top of selenium giving all the advantages of Selenium
  • You can use API exposed by Webdriver and Angular
  • Uses the same web driver as that of Selenium

What is the best IDE for protractor?

  • Visual Studio
  • CodeSublime
  • TextAtom Editor
  • Brackets
  • Eclipse
  • EclipseVisual Studio
  • ProfessionalWebstorm

Difference between Protractor vs Selenium
Here are the basic points of differences between Selenium and Protractor:

Comparison Basis Selenium Protractor
Supported Front End Technology-Based Web Application Supports all front end technology Specially designed for Angular and AngularJS applications, but can be used for Non-angular applications also.
Supported Languages C#, Java, Haskell, Perl. PHP, JavaScript, Objective-C, Ruby, Python, R JavaScript and TypeScript.
Supported Browsers Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer ( IE), Microsoft Edge, Opera, Safari,  HtmlUnitDriver Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer ( IE), Microsoft Edge, Safari
Synchronization or Waiting Does not support automatic synchronization between tests and application. It needs to be explicitly synchronized using different waits. Supports Automatic wait for Angular applications, but they are not applicable for Non-angular applications. But you can explicitly synchronize waits in Protractor.
Supported Locators Strategies Supports common locator strategies like Id, className, name, linkText, tagName, partial link text, XPath and CSS  for all web applications Supports common locator strategies like Id, className, name, linkText, tagName, partial link text, XPath and CSS  for all web applications plus it also supports angular specific locator strategies such as model, repeater, binding, buttonText, option, etc. also permits the creation of custom locators.
 
Supported Test Frameworks		  
Based on language binding, it supports various Test Frameworks C#- NUnit,
Java- JUnit, TestNG
Python- PyUnit, PyTest
JavaScript- WebDriverJS, WebDriverIO		  
Protractor aids Jasmine and Mocha. The protractor is provided with Jasmine as a default framework.
Support for BDD Yes. (Serenity, Cucumber, JBehave, etc). Yes. Mocha,  Jasmine, Cucumber and Serenity/JS
Reporting Requires third-party tools:- TestNG, Extent Report, Allure Report, etc. Requires third-party tools:- protractor-beautiful-reporter, protractor-HTML-reporter etc
Managing browser drivers Requires third-party tools like  WebdriverManager to sync browser version and driver. Requires web driver-manager CLI to automatic sync between browser version and driver for Chrome and Firefox.
Parallel Testing Requires third-party tools like TestNG. Supports parallel testing.
Cost Open-source Open-source
Nature of Execution Synchronous Asynchronous
Needed Technical Skills Average Moderate
Support No official support operates on open community model No official support operates on open community model
Ease to automate Angular Applications Not easy, a lot of sync issues and difficult to find real wait conditions. It is made for angular applications hence it is easy to automate Angular Applications
Test Execution Speed Slower Faster
Ease of Scripting Requires more lines of code and hence scripting is difficult. Even more difficult than Selenium.
Support for Mobile Application No direct support Direct support
CI/CD integration Yes Yes
Docker Support Yes Yes
Debugging Easy Difficult
Test Script Stability Less stable scripts More stable scripts


Is protractor better than selenium?
Both Selenium and protractor are automated test tools for web applications.
Both are used to automate Angular Applications. As Protractor is specially designed for angular applications, so if you are testing angular applications, it is better to opt for a protractor.
By now you would have been pretty clear about the differences in both. and it would now be easier for you to choose the better tool for your requirements and the winner in Protractor vs selenium will change according to it.
Study your requirements clearly and pick the aptest tool for more efficient testing results.

What is Software Performance Testing?

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Software performance testing checks the actual software with specifications mentioned before it is being built. Its most basic function is to work as a diagnostic aid to locate problems in communication. Scott Barber, a famous testing expert, said that it is difficult to pinpoint an exact definition for performance testing because it works differently in different situations and other various companies.

Software performance testing
What is software performance testing?
Usually, software performance testing is performed to validate and verify quality metrics of software such as robustness, reliability, scalability, etc.
The software will be subjected to various load conditions and its response and output will be measured to find out various factors.

Typed of software performance testing

However, every company uses different types of performance tests depending upon the testing environment. Here’s a look at some of the popular performance testing:

1. Load Testing

One of the most basic types of performance testing, load testing method checks the increasing load of the software until the threshold is reached. Increasing load means an increasing number of simultaneous users, transactions, and behavior of the software under test situations.

The testing’s primary purpose is to observe the response time to ensure that the software can withstand a certain amount of load at any given time, which is why it is also called Volume Testing.

2. Stress Testing

Stress testing is another common performance testing method that checks the stability of the software when hardware including CPU, disk space, and memory isn’t stable. It is negative testing in which software is loaded with a large number of concurrent users that can’t be handled by the software.

It is a type of non-functional testing because it tests the non-functional aspects of a website or application, which is carried under a controlled situation so that it can capture uncertain scenarios and rectify them.

3. Throttle Testing

Throttle testing is a limited testing situation in which a load is tested at a limited speed to check the speed at which a website will load for users who have low network connectivity including those living in distant areas, 3G and 2G data, and using mobile internet. This testing makes use of certain tools like traffic sharpers and speed stimulators.

4. Endurance Testing

In endurance testing, the software is tested with a fixed amount of load for a long period of time to observe the system’s behavior. For instance, if the software is designed to work properly for four hours, its endurance is to be tested for double the time, which is eight hours.

This type of performance testing is used to check if there are any system fails or memory leaks. Endurance testing is often referred to as soak testing.

5. Spike Testing

Spike testing is similar to stress testing but the software is tested against load volumes and workload models for a longer time with a simultaneous increase in concurrent load.

The test is conducted for a time longer than its anticipated functioning time. Any unknown behavior is tapped and corrected at the very moment.

6. Smoke Testing

In smoke testing, the software is run on a very small load, which is much less than it can usually handle. If the test generates smoke, then the software has an error in its script.

It is one of the simplest tests used and usually the verification test that is run before the software is launched or larger tests are run.

7. Capacity Testing

As simple as it sounds, a capacity test is one in which the software is tested for the load it takes handle at any given time. When you know how many users your software can handle, you have better visibility of future events that might limit your application or website. It is a confirmatory test to avoid any future problems especially when you want to increase the volume of data.

8. Component Testing

Component testing checks the functionality of a particular part of your application or website. It tests simple but important aspects including file upload, shopping cart, email function, chart feature, or search function.

9. Peak Testing

In peak testing, you expose the software with increased load for a small time and regular peak in concurrent users to analyze how the website or application will behave in a real-life situations.

10. Scalability Testing

This kind of performance testing is usually carried out during the development of the software and just before launch. In scalability testing, you check how the website or application will program is another software is added to the server or find ways to improve loading time. The test’s primary aim is to find out at what peak the software will prevent more scaling.

Common Issues Observed during Performance Testing:

Performance tests are conducted to make sure the system is free of the fault so that it is ready to be launched in the market. Let’s take a look at some of the common issues that you might encounter during performance testing.

1. Poor Scalability

The system isn’t able to handle the desired number of load that delays loading time leading to unexpected benefits that can affect memory, CPU usage, disk usage, network configuration, and operating system.

2. Bottlenecking

This issue occurs when data flow is halted or interrupted because the website or application isn’t capable enough to handle the load.

3. Insufficient Hardware Resource

This means that there is a lack of hardware that results in memory shortage and CPUs don’t perform well.

4. Software Configuration Problem

It is a minor issue which occurs when configuration settings are set lower than the system can handle. All you have to do is adjust software configuration settings, and it’ll work perfectly fine.


Here are Some of the Best Software Performance Testing Practices:

  1. Run performance tests as early as possible in the development process, so that you can conduct small trials that are successful rather than one big that will have many problems.
  2. You should remember that performance testing is not only for the entire system but can also be used to test individual sections.
  3. You must conduct multiple tests on one part to ensure that test results are consistent.
  4. Make sure you always involve IT developers and testers in the process so that it is an all-around process and you don’t need to keep going between two departments.
  5. Before the test, make sure that you require internal/external or a combination of both is required.
  6.  Devise a high-level plan before the test
  7. Develop script for proof-of-concept for application under test
  8. Configure router configuration, database test sets, quiet network, test environment, etc.
  9. Before the actual test run a dry test to check the script is correct or not

Software performance testing process
Performance-testing-process

  1. Test environment identification-  Identify the physical test environment, tools required and the goals that need to be achieved.
  2. Identify performance acceptance criteria – Charestrisics such as response time, throughput, and resource-use goals and constraints
  3. Plan and design tests- Prepare test environment, select the desired tools, devise strategy, etc.
  4. Configure the test environment – Prepare the required resources to execute the tests
  5. Implement test design – Develop test design in accordance with test design
  6. Execute the test – Run, monitor, validate and collect the test and test data
  7. Analyze test results, make reports, and retest – Consolidate the test data and analyze it. If tuning is required do that and go for a re-test.

Conclusion
Software Performance testing is a key process that can determine the success of your software. If you wish to know how your app can perform in the real world talk to us! 

What is Remote Usability Testing? Why is it Crucial?

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Remote usability testing has opened a new horizon for software testing. Imagine an unknown user testing your website who has no pre-occupied thoughts about you and your business sounds effective, isn’t it? Let’s dig deep into the process.

  1. What is Remote Usability Testing?
  2. Why is it needed?
  3. When to Perform Remote User Testing?
  4. Moderated Remote User Testing
  5. Benefits of Moderated Remote User Testing
  6. What is UN-Moderated Remote User Testing?
  7. How to Run a Remote Usability Testing?

What is Remote Usability Testing?
Remote Usability Testing
Remote Usability Testing is a technological process that allows you to perform research of the participants, with the help of different tools and virtual vendor services of Remote Usability. This procedure plays a vital role in decision making and for the massive success of your product.
You can observe and grab the answers from real-life users by following specific steps:

  • Display your service or product in front of the participants
  • Ask them to complete different tasks
  • Carefully observe the participants behavior throughout the journey of test
  • Interact and communicate with them while they are completing the analysis

Why is it needed?

It is a unique set of test procedures that will enhance your ability to understand how real-life customers are reacting to your service or product. You can learn and improve their products exclusively for targeted precious customers.

It is a specific job to run remote user tests frequently for your valuable website. Most of the websites will be having their precious users scattered across the globe and therefore persuading the customers to do the remote user testing by visiting them personally could be a challenging task.

There are methods available to conduct the same test through well qualified online tools. It might take just 20 to 30 minutes that involves a few simple tasks. Since the users need not worry about traveling, but merely participate in the test from their home or office within their comfort zone, it is likely that they agree without much concern.

The remote user testing can be “moderated” or “un-moderated” according to the methods implemented to complete the tasks.

When to Perform Remote User Testing?

Certain factors make it inevitable to consider remote user testing. Let us analyze a few conditions that lead us to this conclusion:

1)  There might arise issues in managing the schedules which in turn will hinder the in-person testing, because of the timelines.
2)   The targeted participants are usually dispersed geographically, which makes traveling difficult and least preferable.
3)   The participants find it difficult to use a particular working device as per the software requirements.
4)   Multiple tests can be conducted potentially.
5)   The participants gave the flexibility to use their equipment or software essentially.
Moderated Remote User Testing
 
Moderated Remote User Testing

In Moderate Remote User Testing, Participants are carefully observed by interacting with them while they are completing the test and performing the given tasks. Moderate Resting could be considered as the ultimate choice for completing a structured complex set of tasks, where more interrogation and interaction will highly benefit the procedure. Following the guidance, steps need to be considered while conducting a moderate Remote User Testing

  • First, you should define the Remote User test and then decide the set of tasks that you will assign to customers to complete and also any other question as a follow-up process.
  • Schedule properly and inform the timings of the test sessions.
  • You need to understand the participant’s capability and provide enough space and time during the test sessions so that they can resolve the technology issues correctly without many complications.

Moderated Remote User Testing will allow you to assign the performance of multiple tasks based on the interview. You can ask the participants to follow up questions. Ensure that every person has completed the test. Check and analyze according to the plan.

According to the methodology or technology used, you can efficiently analyze certain types of metrics including time on task, completion rate of the task, the time is taken to complete the task, time taken for finishing a single web page, opinion or satisfaction rankings, and pathway covered by the clickstream.

Benefits of Moderated Remote User Testing
Moderated Remote User Testing is advanced and the best option with two significant advantages.

  • The first benefit that both the moderators and participants will enjoy during the moderated Remote user Testing is the ability to interact with the customers participating in the test. Moderators can ask to follow up questions regarding the comments etc.
  • The second benefit is the flexibility and complete control that accompanies the moderated Remote user testing. By this method, the moderators are provided control of the whole test session, and they can efficiently channelize and guide the participant, in case they are getting off track. You can eliminate or shift tasks according to the requirements.

What is UN-Moderated Remote User Testing?
unmoderated Remote User Testing

The researchers and moderators automate their study using a particular software program. The participants will be attending the test by performing a list of pre-determined tasks. The screen and the voice will be recorded, and they will complete the task by thinking out loud. Participants are the actual decision-makers regarding place and time. A virtual tool will be installed and used for participating, recording the test session and provide honest feedback.

Once the participants complete the tasks, the researchers will be receiving the recorded video results of the participants for review. Un-moderated Remote User Testing does not allow the researcher to communicate in real with the participants during the test. But the researchers can send follow up questions or just interact with the participants, after viewing the recorded test session.

How to Run a Remote Usability Testing?

  • If you are the moderator, it is essential that you define the Remote User test and decide the list and order of the tasks you plan to ask the participants to perform.
  • The next step is to determine the list of participants. Most of the un-moderated testing software tools will allow the moderators to recruit or intercept users from the own list of tool developers participants or select them from your Official website.
  • Prepare and determine the recording capability of the particular screen sharing service and keep it working for the test.
  • Choose the perfect contestants who are your targeted customers.
  • Include research questions with rich quality and analyze the feedback.
  • In case the participants have some visual defects or not familiar with the screen sharing services then make sure they are assisted by a person with knowledge of screen sharing tools.
  • Most of the un-moderated testing software tools will generate test results automatically for your analysis.


Conclusion

Remote User Testing is a wonderful combination of comfort and technology, which allows you to conduct the test for huge participants at much reasonable price rates. Every methodology of user research software has unique advantages and limitations. Therefore it is crucial that you analyze the different Remote User Testing tools and choose the one which is perfect for your research.

How Much Does Usability Testing Cost?

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With the intensive competition, among the websites, applications, and software, it is extremely important to ensure ease of usability so that your users can easily adapt to your digital product. If the users find it hard to operate your software product they might lookout for an easier alternative to your product. To avoid such a situation you need usability testing. But How Much Does Usability Testing Cost? 


Let’s get into more details about usability testing and the cost of performing it and the overhead cost incurred when we do not perform it.
What is Usability Testing and Why does it Matter?
Usability testing is a software testing techniques that ensure that software product you have developed is easy to use. Usability testing is generally carried out by real users.
They are asked to accomplish a key task of the software, and their ease to accomplish it is considered as the usability test results. The purpose of usability testing is to validate and enhance the usability of the product or the flow of the task that the end-user uses to accomplish the task.
What is Usability Testing and Why does it Matter
For example, you own an e-commerce website. The key task of any e-commerce website is to let your customers search for their products and purchase it. The flow of the process might go like:
Going to the home page, searching for the required product or looking at the product catalog, reading the complete description, analyzing the reviews, maybe adding to the cart and finally purchasing it.
During the usability testing, we look for the blockers that prevent the user from performing these tasks smoothly.
In short, the main aim of performing usability testing is to ensure the user can perform the task or use our solution easily.
But why is it important?
 
Importance of Usability Testing
Usability testing is extremely important in the present world, where you have to compete with hundreds of users. If you do not provide easy to use solutions to your users, you already lose your race to them.
If the users will find it hard to use your product, they will turn to other options available in the market; hence you will find it hard to make your presence in this competitive world.
Cost of Usability testing
The cost of usability testing depends on various factors:

  • Platform Technology Costs

The cost of usability testing depends upon the platform required (desktop and/or mobile), features, and the number of users accessing the product concurrently. Many testers combine all these costs into one.
Commercial UX platforms testing varies between $1,000 to $100K for a simple web-based-only study to multiple studies for a prolonged period.

  • Competitive/Comparative Studies

If you decide to opt for comparative studies/testing, you might have to pay higher for usability testing. Your cost will ultimately increase with an increasing number of comparative products.

  • Cross-device knowledge

Testing Multiple Device Types: Mobile & Desktop
If you want to conduct usability testing on your product for multiple devices, you will have to end up paying more.
Mobile UX is different from desktop UX, so testing on multiple devices requires more time and more effort and hence more cost.

  • Larger Sample Sizes

In the case of larger sample size, like in comparative studies increases the number of participants for usability testing and recruiting costs.
Even single testing can require larger sample sizes if you go for multiple user segments. Hence the larger sample size means larger cost.

  • Participant Recruiting

The cost of usability testing also depends on Participants. Usability testing participants may charge you from a very trivial amount to a hefty amount.

  • Moderated Recruitment costs

Involving a well-trained and veteran moderator who would test the product in the corporate setup can incur you paying a high cost for well-trained and veteran personnel. A moderator can charge you between $100 and $300.

  • Unmoderated Recruitment Costs

If you chose not to use a moderated usability testing, you end up using various other sources like advertising, internal customer online panels, lists, and bulk email costs.
These sources too will add up to your usability testing cost. These sources have their own charges like online panels, range from $7 to $10 for general consumer profiles and can rise up to $40 to $100 for specialized profiles. Likewise, you will have to pay for other sources too.

  • International Studies

If you decide to carry out usability testing on an international level, you will have to pay more. Searching for international participants and their fees will both be added expenses.
Also, you will have to consider the cost of translating and re-translating the responses. Again the translation cost will be directly proportional to the study length.
Example For Usability Testing Costs
Though you cannot deploy any formula for usability testing, here are few examples of usability testing cost based on different budget:

Usability testing can cost you under $10K for an independent contractor that would conduct 5-10 moderated sessions. And if you chose the unmoderated study, an agency would conduct only the analysis phase for you.
These prices would keep rising as per your requirements and more extensive study for both moderated and unmoderated studies. The cost of usability testing can rise up to as high as $100K + for more extensive study.
What cost you might have to pay for not doing usability testing 
You might end up paying much higher cost if you chose not to carry out usability testing.
If your key functionality has even a single blockade that might prevent the users to accomplish the end task, you would have to end up reconsider your development phase and hence consuming more time and ending up paying more money. This complete rework process can cost you around $150K.
Now it is up to you to decide what is more profitable – to do or not to do usability testing!
Conclusion
Although it is believed that usability testing is both costly and time-consuming, but if we look at the benefits of usability testing, it is a better idea.
As we have already discussed above the not conducting usability testing means an extra of 4 sprints leading to an added cost of over $150K and a lot of time. This cost and time could have been saved to an extent by conducting usability testing.
Not only this, the defame and loss of trust that will come along with not doing usability testing is immeasurable.
Hence it is a better option to choose usability testing and get things to work smoothly.

10 Reasons Why Outsourcing App Testing is the Best

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Why do I need to outsource app testing? You might be thinking that reducing production costs has more importance than focusing on app stability. However, if outsourcing is an unwanted expense why would app development companies nowadays rely a lot on offshore testing companies to test their app?
This blog can help you understand the essentially of the outsourcing app testing process, why it’s not a loss and works as a risk reduction process to make sure that everything goes smoothly once your app is deployed.
User retention statistics and why it is related to testing
According to the latest survey done by Quettra, 95% of new users discard the apps they have installed and moved on to another. Why? Retention metrics of apps nowadays are so bad.
Optimizing and stabilizing the app has of cardinal importance and often app development companies rely on their in-house testing team which can prove to be not that efficient.
Stats cement the fact that only a stable product can attract users. I.e. you have got only a few days to attract customers once the app has been deployed. The most crucial period! So you have to make an impact as early as possible.

Owing to the same reason efficient software testing has now become a business-critical for businesses. In such scenarios, it is very important to get getting done most efficiently.
When testing is so important for businesses it has to be done proficiently with all available resources. In the new trend, businesses prefer to outsource testing teams, to ensure the most efficient testing.
There was a time when outsourcing was generally done to be cost-effective but now outsourcing testing has many other benefits and is hence considered a better choice for businesses.
Deploying a dedicated testing team can benefit software development in many ways. Here are a few main benefits of outsourcing testing teams.
1. Cost-Efficient
One of the major reasons for going for an outsourced testing team is its cost-efficiency. Your investments and the returns you get on them play an important role in running business.
Suppose you decide to have an in-house testing team, you will have to pay to efficient test engineers, have to spend on buying testing tools, creating infrastructure for an additional team and then training them on the business requirements.

Read also : Top 10 Penetration Testing Companies in India

All this might cost you a hefty amount and not ensuring you meet your future testing needs.
However, you can easily outsource a testing team for a lesser amount, where you get assured of getting your job done by expert testing teams in the presence of state of art techniques and infrastructure.
You not only save a hefty amount on buying testing tools and establishing an infrastructure. Though many established businesses have their in-house testing team, if you do not have one, it is a better option to opt for a veteran outsourced testing team.
2. Better Quality Assurance
 
Better Quality Assurance
When you outsource a testing team you assure that you achieve unbiased testing results. When testing is being done by the in-house team of developers and testers they might lose the objective to achieve the desired results.
Also, when you outsource a specialized team you ensure that you engage the most capable and competitive resources to get your work done.
Such teams can help find the testing results at an earlier stage of development and hence benefiting in not only saving you a lot of bucks but also decreasing the efforts and time required for the delivery of the software.
3. Concentrate on Core Competencies
Statistics say that only less than 25% of visitors return to most of the websites/apps for the second time. They have multiple options to serve them.
And when the competition is so high, you will have to WOW your users for the very first time. But this is not possible if your product has any bugs or glitches.

Read also : Top 10 Android App Testing Companies in India

The outsourced teams that are experts in the testing and QA can guarantee you maximum defect detection. When you outsource a testing team your core team can completely focus on the core development and hence ensuring better development of the software.
And the outsourced team can guarantee the better detection of the bugs. This whole process will result in a better app where the teams can concentrate on their core competencies.
4. QA Automation
Software testing has gradually advanced from manually to automate testing. Automated testing has taken an important place in software testing. But not to forget automation testing requires specialized tools and proper expertise to get maximum benefits.
Using automation tools require an expert and experienced team with better knowledge and hands-on experience in automated QA tools and techniques. Establishing such an expert team requires a lot of time and resources.
It is much easier to outsource such a team. You can instantly get hold of veteran teams who can assists proficiently in your automated testing requirements.
5. Deliver in Strict Deadlines
In case of strict deadlines, it generally happens that development takes a front seat and testing takes a back seat.
When testing takes a back seat, it so happens that the quality of the product is put on stake. And when you deliver a buggy product, you lose your credibility.

Read also : Top 10 Mobile App Testing Companies In The USA

When project deadlines are strict it is better to outsource the testing facilities. The outsource team can efficiently handle the testing part of the project giving your team to focus completely on developments.
Such teams will help you deliver a bug-free product to your clients within the timelines.
6. Flexibility of Resources
Outsourcing also becomes budget-friendly when you consider the number of resources required. Deploying and paying for the required number of resources is possible only with QA outsourcing. Your QA requirement may sometimes vary, and with outsourcing teams, it is very easy to cope up with such sudden changes efficiently and cost-effectively.
Especially in fast release cycles you are required to suddenly ramp-up and at the next moment ramp-down your resources. With outsourcing teams, it is easier to be flexible with the number of resources and to pay only for the required number of resources.
7. More Objectivity
With the introduction and widespread of the DevOps approach, the organizations now make many teams integrate the development and testing process and deploy them as a shared function.
Though, this approach can veil many defects in the code while designing and development are being done simultaneously. An external and outsources team can rigorously and in an unbiased manner can detect bugs that the in-house team might not be able to do.
8. Ethical approach
An outsourcing company will have the ethics to meet any kind of setback head-on. Instead of the blame game, they will make sure that the issue is sorted out rather than repenting on it. Not just that, this kind of work ethics can be seen in other aspects too.
9. Better exposure to apps and scenarios
In-house testers and their exposure to apps will be limited.  For instance, imagine that a team of talented and hardworking developers is working on an e-commerce app.
Their knowledge will be limited considering the fact that they might not have worked for this particular domain or their exposure will be minimal.

Read also : Top 10 Game Testing Companies In India

An experienced testing team, on the other hand, might have come across such apps a lot and they have a clear idea about what the user wants. How? User testing is the key!
10. UAT- extensive testing for better insights
If you rely on an in house testers for user testing they might not have time for that first of all, Even if they are forced to do, they might rely on some software which cannot guarantee accuracy.
On the other hand, a testing company will have a large user base which can be put effectively to test any software and gain user insights on what sort of improvement is required.
Demerits of in-house testing teams
Though many companies have a well-established in-house testing team, for those who do not have it, it is better to opt from an outsourced testing team. Having an in-house testing team comes accompanied with the following demerits:

  1. Additional expenses: You will have to spend extra money on hiring expert test engineers, buying test tools and developing infrastructure to accommodate the new team.
  2. Training overhead: You will have to ensure that the test team is trained to understand the business requirements and you can never be sure that this training will ever be utilized in the future.
  3. Elongated time:Setting up an in-house team will require additional time and might increase the project delivery date.
  4. Less accurate test results: An in-house team might get biased and might sometime miss out on the defects and hence loosening the true objective of testing.

Conclusion:
Software testing is an inevitable and tedious task. Testing needs to carried out in a streamlined and managed manner to ensure its maximum benefits. Specialized testing companies have a well-planned and streamlined methodology to carry out testing.

They also have a team of expert test engineers and advanced technologies and methodologies to carry out testing in a most valuable manner. hiring such veteran testing teams like TestBytes can benefit your business a lot.

Issues with Women Safety Apps! How to Rectify Them?

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Women safety Apps! A life-saving piece of technology women can get hold of at this juncture of time. These apps can offer an invisible guard and can be the best and safest tool available against the crooked minds out there in society. However, if we get into the technicalities, are they perfect in terms of functionalities that they vouch for? Does this app offer a hassle-free user experience as it is supposed to be?

Avoid the unthinkable! Do proper QA (Quality Analysis)

In the case of safety apps, quality has of utmost important than any other. Proper testing has to be done to make sure that these apps do not have any kind of flaws. Since people rely on this app for safety, it’s the trust that has to be valued more than anything else.

A proper quality check is a must. However, nowadays app development is often focused on deployment rather than what’s getting deployed.

Let’s have a look at the major app that’s being used by women for safety and what all issues they have.

The Technology that Empowers Women’s Safety App

1. GPS Tracking: These apps rely on GPS technology to locate a user at any time and remain accurate in terms of giving their location, which improves emergency situations by sending help as soon as they track the victims.

2. SOS Alerts: By only tapping a side button, the user is capable of sending sos alerts to chosen contacts or emergency service providers whereby their exact location could be mapped.

3. Safe Routes: Certain apps offer safe paths referring users to avoid hazardous neighborhoods and get them to the desired destination with ease.

4. Community Features: Several apps build a sense of togetherness, allowing users to share their experiences with other people and ask for help or issue solicitations instantly while maintaining emotional support.

Benefits of Women’s Safety Apps:

1. Better Safety: These apps also provide instant support and time-tracking, which makes personal safety much better.

2. Empowerment: Women can move comfortably and remain independent through the use of these apps, which has positive self-perception effects on them.

3. Community Help: These applications create a supportive environment through which women can get emotional support and quick assistance when needed.

4. Data Insights: The women safety apps can provide help to the authorities in collecting data related to the women safety issues and about areas where frequent women crimes take place which might contribute to a safe town planning and in taking relevant security measures.

Apps Download Rating
Women Safety 100,000+ 4.1
CitizenCop 100,000+ 3.9
Family Locator 50,000,000+ 4.5
Eyewatch SOS for Women 10,000+ 4.2
My SafetyPin 50,000+ 3.9
Raksha 5,000+ 4.4
beSafe 100,000+ 3.8
Himmat Plus 500,000+ 3.8
Chilla 50,000+ 4.5
MSMR 5,000+ 4.3
Rescuer 10,000+ 4.4

1. Women Safety
Promising features! However, if you go through the user review section you can find people reporting many major issues that should be rectified ASAP.
Installation: 100,000+
Rating: 4.1
Major issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Advertisement keeps popping up which is annoying to a lot of users
  • Sometimes more than a message will be required to make sure that the person on the other end has received the message
  • They used to have text message options but it seems that suspending that feature has made users a bit furious
  • Even though many have said that audio and video recording related feature of the app is working well, an equal amount of people have also said that the functionality is not working.

2. Citizen Cop
The most astounding feature of Citizen Cop is that it can also be used as a tool to report a crime that happens in your vicinity. The major flaw of this app is that it fails in providing major high UX as the functionalities of this app as it was supposed to be.
Installation: 100,000+
Rating: 3.9
Major issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Location-related issues
  • Too much of access permissions
  • Issues with notification
  • Icons visibility

3. Family Locator
App meant for family members so that they can track each other in case of any situation. All the apps installed in the circle will be in sync. Messages can be sent in between as an extra safety measure.
GPS related functionalities are the core aspect of this app. However, users have reported faults in that and it serves as the critical factor that serves as a blockage for the success of the app.
Installs: 10,000+
Rating – 4
Major Issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Tracking issues! as people have reported multiple times that they are not able to track the person they have added to the app
  • Login issues, like the app, get stuck while login in for few users
  • Notification issues as many have complained that the notifications are either not coming up or coming frequently which causes a disturbance.
  • Low performance of app at peak time

4. Eyewatch SOS for Women
Harassment in public places has become a menace now. To stop this you need to get hold of technology and have to use it effectively. With Eyewatch SOS for Women, it will be possible with ease.
Even though the core functionalities of this app do not have any issues, users have reported other crucial aspects are faulty and cited as the major reason why they are not able to use the app properly
Installs: 10,000 +
Rating: 4.2
Major Issues of the app as per user reviews

  • SMS module malfunction
  • Icon issues
  • Power consumption issues
  • Issues in sending OTP

5. My SafetyPin
My SafetyPin will allow you to move to zones that are safe based on various factors. A concept that’s one of a kind, formulated to an app that can help women travel without any fear.
Usability is the weakest point of this app. Social media integration has also some issues as per the user reports.
Installs: 50,000+
Rating: 3.9
Major Issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Usability issues where people find it experiencing the full potential of the app
  • People complaining problems regarding deleting the profile
  • Social media integration issues
  • Location-related issues

6. Raksha
A perfect companion of ever come across any sudden danger in your life. Ready to use ‘Are you in Trouble’ to notify all the emergency contacts in your phone.
Performance testing is a must for apps. If you search in the user reviews section, you will get to know why
Installs: 10,000 +
Rating: 4.4
Major Issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Messages not getting delivered to emergency numbers
  • Performance issues
  • Not working as it was intended to

7. bSafe
One of the most versatile apps out there! It has all that a user is looking for in a safety app. creating an account is a must for apps since it helps in collecting user data and from the user perspective, it gives a feel of personalization and safety. What if that has a problem?
Installs: 500,000+
Rating: 3.8
Major Issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Trouble in creating account
  • Unavailability of email registration
  • Misleading information regarding the subscription

8. Himmat Plus
Renowned for its user-friendly interface, the app Himmat can help you in assuring safety through many features it has.
A clear case of why interrupt testing, touch response testing, and performance testing is required.
Installs: 50,000+
Rating: 4.5
Major Issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Login issues
  • Unable to function in the background
  • Touch calibration issues
  • Few users have reported that the app crashes in between

9. Chilla  
A powerful app with powerful features that are studded with some unique features that’s its competitors fails to put forward. Providing impeccable user experience is the key to the survival of any app. Any issues with that can result in a stagnant download rate.
Installs: 10,000 +
Rating: 4.2
Major Issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Issues with tracking location
  • Login issues
  • App not working properly
  • UX issues
  • Download issues

10. MSMR
Are you in doubt about the person you are going out with? Share your location related details along with video and audio live streaming through this app.
Functionalities should always work properly be it any kind of app. These functionalities and the background activities of the app should not drain the battery either. However, users reported that this app has some issues in maintaining that.
Major Issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Interferes with the functionality of other apps
  • Unavailability of content
  • Lock screen information visibility is sometimes affected
  • Addition of personal information is sometimes frustrating
  • Battery consumption issues

11. Rescuer
Do you find it frightening to go out in the dark? The rescuer can be the companion that you have been looking for. With just one tap of a button, this app can send alert messages along with location to saved numbers and can be that assistance to get out of the fear.
Another case of performance and crash issues. one of the most common and deadly issues with anyapp.
Installs: 5000+
Rating: 4.4
Major Issues of the app as per user reviews

  • Not working properly
  • Login issues
  • Performance issues

Major issues faced by users at present

  • SOS functionality must be the forte of these kinds of apps, but in some cases, even that’s not working properly
  • Recording of audio and video has prime importance in reporting a crime. Many in the review section has reported that often some of these apps fail in that aspect
  • Validation field issues which are a major concern to the security of the app itself
  • Compatibility issues
  • Page layout issues that surface owing to various screen size and resolution
  • App crash owing to various factors
  • Not able to provide UX (user experience) as it was intended to in the planning stage

The Consequences of App Failure

If safety apps for women don’t work well, it can cause serious problems:

1. Personal Safety at Risk: If a safety app fails to work, in case of emergencies, it might take several hours before help is sent, endangering the lives of women.
2. Lost Trust: Possible victims of failures in safety apps can lose trust and confidence on these technology advancements.
3. Legal Trouble: Developers of apps may be dealt with legal repercussions if their apps do not administer what they pledged.
4. Emotional Stress: A safety application that breaks down on the consideration that editions with an emergency can prompt private agony making discloses about why it is fundamental for apps to be solid.

Why testing is important in the present scenario?

  • More than 50% of users are not even willing trying an app ever again if they have come across any kind of difficulties in using it.
  • 92% of the web apps that’s in existence now is said to have some kind of security flaws.
  • 66% of app development companies have already experienced some sort of attack.
  • Another statistics says that around 3 billion smartphones will be online by 2020. Imagine that you are about to compete or competing in a market that’s flooding with companies who are trying to compete with each other in offering better UX (user experience.

As an app development company, how do you get that upper hand?
A stable product! The obvious answer indeed, however, the process of making a stable app is arduous, you need to run your app through various user-based scenarios at every crucial point of development.
The three points mentioned blow has to be kept in mind throughout from production to deployment.

  • Target should be left for release stability and everyone should track issues based on the same goal
  • When it comes to prioritization errors with major impact should be given prime importance
  • These above-mentioned points will make sure that bugs are tracked fast and issues can be resolved at the earliest.

Strategies that have to be followed while testing an app

  • When it comes to priority, strictly consider those devices which have got a major presence in the market
  • Real devices and emulators have their benefits and drawback choose them wisely
  • QA team and business users should review test cases
  • Make sure that extensive UI testing has taken place
  • Have a clear idea about the Oss
  • Couple manual testing along with automation testing for effectiveness
  • Rely on cloud testing for fast process
  • Run compliance and regulatory tests to geographical variances.
  • Document UAT (user acceptance testing)

Types of testing have to be performed on mobile apps at any cost

  • Usability testing: Will check the user experience offered by the app
  • Compatibility testing:   Testing of the app against various platforms
  • Interface testing: To check the ease of access factor of the user interface
  • Performance testing: Will give you an idea of how the system holds against various load conditions
  • Operational testing: back up plans if the app goes down will be tested
  • Security testing: Will check the vulnerability of the app

Few test cases for testing a women safety app

1. User Registration:
Test that user registration works correctly, capturing necessary information without errors.
Verify that unique usernames are enforced to prevent duplicates.

2. Emergency Button:
Test the emergency button to ensure it triggers an alert promptly.
Confirm that the alert contains accurate user location information.

3. Location Services:
Verify that the app accurately tracks and updates the user’s location in real-time.
Test the app’s behavior when location services are disabled.

4. Contact Integration:
Test adding and removing emergency contacts to ensure proper functionality.
Confirm that alerts are sent to the correct emergency contacts.

5. In-App Chat:
Verify that the in-app chat feature allows communication with emergency contacts.
Test if messages are delivered promptly and reliably.

6. Voice Commands:
Test the voice command feature to trigger emergency alerts.
Confirm that the app accurately interprets and acts on voice commands.

7. Battery Usage:
Test the app’s impact on battery life during regular use and in emergency situations.
Verify that the app optimally uses device resources.

8. Customization Options:
Confirm that users can customize settings such as alert messages and notification preferences.
Test if changes to customization settings are applied successfully.

9. Offline Mode:
Verify that the app provides basic functionality even when offline.
Test if emergency alerts are queued and sent when the device regains connectivity.

10. App Accessibility:
Test the app’s accessibility features for users with visual or auditory impairments.
Verify compatibility with screen readers and other assistive technologies.

11. SOS History:
Confirm that the app maintains a history of triggered emergency alerts.
Test the retrieval and display of past SOS incidents.

12. App Permissions:
Verify that the app requests and handles necessary permissions appropriately.
Test the behavior of the app when denied necessary permissions.

13. Response Time:
Test the app’s response time to emergency situations, ensuring it’s within acceptable limits.
Evaluate the server’s response time to handle incoming alerts.

14. Compatibility Across Devices:
Test the app on various devices and screen sizes to ensure a consistent user experience.
Verify compatibility with different Android versions.

15. Integration with Emergency Services:
Confirm that the app successfully communicates with local emergency services.
Test the accuracy of location information provided to emergency services.

16. User Authentication:
Test the security of user authentication mechanisms to prevent unauthorized access.
Verify that password recovery options work securely.

17. App Reliability:
Test the app’s stability by simulating various scenarios, such as low memory or high network latency.
Verify that the app doesn’t crash under normal usage conditions.

18. Data Encryption:
Test the encryption of sensitive user data to ensure it’s secure during transmission and storage.
Verify that encryption protocols adhere to industry standards.

19. Social Media Integration:
Test the integration with social media platforms for sharing emergency alerts.
Confirm that sharing functionalities work seamlessly.

20. User Education:
Evaluate the effectiveness of user tutorials and help documentation.
Test if users can easily understand and utilize the app’s features through provided resources.

Conclusion

All these apps have promising features. But when it comes to offering them they have a lot of issues. Imagine there is an issue faced by a user while using the app in a dangerous situation.
The thought itself is frightening to the core. To make sure that there doesn’t happen, stringent QA is required. For that seeking assistance from an experienced QA company would be the best and the safest option available and in existence now.

How to Find Bugs in Your App

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Have you ever wondered about how to find bugs in your app? Do you possess testcases that you think is enough to trace out bugs? In this blog we have detailed about the effective steps that can be used to find bugs in your app.
1. Save the Code at Good Place
This first step is not only useful for tracking bugs. It has many other advantages that, truthfully, would give for an entire article. All the files that make up the source code of an application are not simple files that we should have saved in Dropbox or, worse, in a hard disk.
We should not save the source code of an application in places like Dropbox, Google Drive or on a hard drive. They are pretty peculiar files.
They are files that undergo different changes over time and that as a whole have different versions. To coder, these versions of the code have to be easily accessible and must have an explanation of what they represent.

To understand each other, we are talking about different versions of your code files, representing different versions of your application in the market for example, version 1, version 1.1, and version 2.0.
To all this, we have to add that these files have to be easily accessible to all the people who are working on them. The owner of the code has to be in possession of these files, but he has to allow access in a secure way to the developer or developers working on it.

Also Read : How to Test an Ecommerce Website: Points To Remember

The good news? There is a storage system that allows all this and much more that was designed precisely to save code. This system is called Git.
We could say that Git is not just a protocol, a standard or rules to follow, call it what you want. From here, there are different platforms that implement it. The best known today, and the one that has more popularity, is Github.
Advantages of Git includes,

  • Distributed Development

Each developer gets a local repository connected to a central repository does not require a network connection for commit creates a reliable environment

  • Workflow Branching Capability

Easy to manage branched system that provides an isolated environment for development. Create a new branch if you wish to work on something new. Ensures master branch have production quality code helps to work as detailed as agile backlog

  • Merge One Branch with Another

Merge one branch with another helps to pull request from one branch to entirely different one owing to that, changes can be tracked easily opens up the chances for discussion regarding their work before integrating with codebase inexperienced developers ruining entire project is minimal since pull request can be created as formal code review

  • Community Support

New addition to the team can get easily used to distributed development Easy to leverage 3rd party libraries others can fork their own source code

  • Faster Release Cycle

Developers can share smaller changes frequently helps well with continuous delivery and integration environment deployment can be automated. You can build and deploy code to servers from the branch of your like

2. Bug Tracking
At this point I am going to assume that we have the code of application in a Github repository.
If we had everything well configured, we, as owners of the application, would have to be the owners of the Github repository and developers, would have to have access to it in order to make the necessary modifications.
So far we have not seen any reason why Github can help us in tracking bugs, but peace of mind, we start now. Every repository in Github has a tab called bugs (bugs), and yes, we will use it for precisely to register the different bugs that happen in your application.
We can create a new bug by clicking on the New Issue button. From there we can add a title and a description. Now this bug will be registered in the repository until someone does something with it.
3. Automating the Bug Log
So far we have solved a small part of the problem. Now we have a registry of bugs to which, both we as owners of the code, and the developer that will be the person in charge of solving them, we can access.
However there is a great disadvantage. At this time the bug log is something manual. To track a bug, we would have to experience it ourselves and then go to the repository to register it and write down the details of it.

Does not seem like a good idea, right? Above all we have to take into account that there will be bugs that will only appear in certain specific cases, with which it is possible that, yes, they will be experienced by other users and not by ourselves.
It is also not necessary to mention that the process of going to create the bug manually to the repository is not an especially productive method.
Another tool to the rescue! In this case it is about Rollbar. Rollbar is a platform that is responsible for tracking bugs in any type of software. We can use it on websites, desktop programs, and programs running on a server and, of course, mobile applications.
4. Configuring Rollbar and Connecting with Github
How can we configure both tools to automate bug logging?
First of all we must create a project in Rollbar and configure it so that it is linked to the Github account. Specifically we will have to link new project to a repository. This repository will obviously be the one that contains all the source code of your application.

Also Read : How to Test a Bank ERP System

Next, we will have a slightly more technical part that the developer must complete. You will have to implement the Rollbar library within the source code of the application. It’s a quick job that can be ready in less than 1 day depending on the level of registration you want to follow.
What will happen once these steps are completed? Any bug, which happens to any user in your application, will be created automatically in the Issues section of Github repository. Automated bug logging!
5. Obtaining More information of Each Bug
Another of the problems we had without Rollbar that was the little information we had about a bug.
For anyone, with or without technical knowledge, it is very difficult to find out at a glance what is causing an application to fail. It does not matter if you have technical knowledge. Maybe you could know where the shots are going, but it would be almost impossible to know the cause at 100%.
6. Solving Bugs and Communication with the Developer
Well, now that we have seen the different tools, the configuration of the same and what benefits we will obtain, we will see what the day to day would be like to track the bugs of application.
In the first place, we should not have any person in charge of recording the bugs. Automatically Rollbar would create them as they happened.
The developer every X time would have to go consulting if there are new bugs and solves them. Once a bug has been solved and the code has been updated in the repository, the bug would be closed.

These are the standard factors that one asks for testing, for each of these clients, more information is required, such as on which network provider the bug was detected or the size of the screen where the bug was, etc.
Finding out bugs can be fun. Correct documentation along with corner cases will help you maximize the result.
Conclusion
These are the basic steps in finding bugs in the developmental phase of software/app once the development has been done, it’s always better to do professional QA (Quality Analysis) with the help of a QA company to make the app as stable as it can get.

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8 Best Python Test Automation Framework

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Python test automation framework ! Yes you have heard it right. Python has got framework that can be used for testing. Since the language is Python, regarded one of the most versatile language in the world, quirks of such framework is many. Some of them are,

  • The quality of the script of the framework
  • Easiness of test case
  • Method to execute modules

Considering the following points you can easily pick out the best framework for your purposes. Some of the commonly used python frameworks are;
1. Robot Framework

Robot framework is largely used for acceptance testing. It is counted among one of the best python framework. The robot is used in Python but it can run on .net-based IronPython and on Jython which is Java based.

The robot is compatible with various platforms including Windows, MacOS or Linux. Robot framework requires Python 2.7.14 or above. To run Robot you will also require ‘pip’ or python package manager. You should also download a development framework to use robot framework.
Advantages of Robot Framework

  • It helps testers to create readable test cases easily using keyword-driven-test approach.
  • Easy usability of Test data syntax
  • It allows using individual elements in separate projects.
  • Having numerous APIs is highly extensible.
  • Supports parallel running of tests via a Selenium Grid.

Disadvantages of Robot Framework

  • Creating customized HTML reports using Robot can be very tricky.
  • Not enough support for parallel testing.

2. Pytest Framework

Pytest Framework
Pytest can assist in test automation of all kinds of software testing. It is easy to learn, open source Python-based framework extensively used by QA teams.
Its veteran features like ‘assert rewriting’; it is being extensively adopted by testers worldwide. Using python does not require any specific prerequisites except for working knowledge of Python. Apart from this, you should also have a python package manager, command line interface, and an IDE.
Advantages of Pytest Framework         

  • Supports compact test suits.
  • Unlike other tools, Pytest does not require debugger or explicitly checking the logs.
  • Supports easy creation of test cases.
  • Pytest allows the use of multiple fixtures.
  • Pytest is extensible by using plugins
  • It offers easy and fewer bugs prone development of test cases.

Disadvantages of Pytest Framework        
The main issue with pytest is the compatibility issue. It does not allow using the test cases written in pytest to be shared with other frameworks.
3. PyUnit/UnitTest Framework
PyUnit/UnitTest FrameworkUnittest or PyUnit is a unit testing Python framework. In the PyUnit framework, the base class TestCase provides assertion methods and the cleanup and setup routines. The methods name starts with “test” in the subclass of TestCase to allow them to execute as test cases.
For the grouping and loading of tests, it supports the load methods and the TestSuite class. It also supports XML reports and unittest-sml-reporting. PyUnit comes with Python by default.
Advantages of PyUnit/UnitTest Framework         

  • No additional module is required to be installed.
  • It is easy to work even for people with no high-end knowledge of Python
  • It offers simple and flexible executing test cases execution.
  • Quick generation of test reports.

Disadvantages of PyUnit/UnitTest Framework

  • The snake_case naming method of python codes and camelCase naming method of JUnit causes confusion.
  • Unclear intent of the test code.
  • Requires boilerplate code.

4. Behave Framework

Behave allows software teams to run BDD testing without any difficulties. It is similar to SpecFlow and Cucumber. Behave allows writing test cases in easily readable language.
Behave requires Python 2.7.14 or any above version, Python package manager or pip, and any IDE like Pycharm or other.
Advantages of Behave Framework

  • Easy coordination among the teams and easy execution of all kinds of test cases.
  • Promotes detailed Reasoning and thinking
  • Clarity of QAs and Devs output.

Disadvantages of Behave Framework

5. Lettuce Framework

It is a behavior driven automation tool that is easy to use and it getting highly popular for BDD testing. It is based on Python and cucumber. It makes the process simpler and entertaining by its BDD approach. Lettuce requires Python 2.7.14 or any above version, Python package manager or pip, and any IDE like Pycharm or other.
Advantages of Lettuce Framework

  • It uses simple language and allows developers to create more than one scenario.
  • Supports cooperation among Dev and QA teams.
  • Helps in running behaviour driven tests cases for black box testing.

Disadvantages of Lettuce Framework
It required strong coordination and communication among developers, testers, and stakeholders.
6. RedwoodHQ Framework


The RedwoodHQ framework lets multiple testers to connect in a single web location to execute the tests simultaneously. It supports complete automation and management of software testing.
REdwoodHQ supports action keyword enabling creating test cases quickly and easily. Supports writing test cases in Python and other languages such as C#, Java, etc. It has an inbuilt IDE.
It helps in easy creation, modification, and execution of test cases. It records a history of all the test runs for future references.
Advantages of RedwoodHQ Framework

  • It is a very user-friendly framework
  • Supports parallel testing
  • Compatible with continuous integration tools such as Jenkins and TeamCity.
  • Suitable for front-end and back-end testing
  • Supports the parallel running of test cases
  • Helps testing teams to easily create and modify the tests.

7. Jasmine Framework
Jasime is a behaviour driven development (BDD) framework. It supports Python as well as Ruby and JavaScript unit test automation. It combines the server-client unit testing. To run Jasmine you are required to have Karma tests runner.
Advantages of Jasmine Framework

  • Supports both asynchronous and DOM-less test cases.
  • Simple, user-friendly and readable syntax
  • Parallel execution of server and client side test cases
  • No external dependencies
  • Available in a ready-to-use state
  • Active community for support issues.

Disadvantage of Jasmine Framework

  • More stress on applications of business value than the technical details.

8. Gauge framework

Gauge is an impeccable tool made from the same team that made Selenium. Since Gauge is an open source framework, there are plenty of quirks in using it. If you wish to integrate continuous testing into CI/CD pipeline, Gauge is one of the best options. Gauge is nowadays gaining lots of momentum owing to its cross-browser testing functionality.
Advantages of Gauge framework

  • Supports variety of plug-in such as java runner, c# runner, Ruby runner, JavaScript runner, Golang runner, Python runner, IDE plugins, Reports, build management etc.
  • Supports all major programming language including Python
  • Command line support
  • Defects can be quickly detected
  • Easy to write test cases
  • Cross browser tests can be automated
  • Scalability of product requirement across QA, Dev and business teams.

Disadvantage

  • Relatively young. Will take time to evolve

How to pick the best test automation framework?
In large a good test automation framework should have best

  • Scripts
  • Test cases
  • Assumptions
  • Techniques to run every module and code
  • High capability to detect the flaws and weaknesses.

But every project is different and might require one or more of the above parameters. So while selecting the best framework for test automation considers the following points:

  • Resource it requires
  • It’s functionalities
  • Test drivers that it includes.
  • Reporting features
  • Integration with third-party tools

It is better to break the project into smaller modules and then look out for the best fit. Not to ignore your budget. You need to consider your budget and then look out for a framework that offers maximum benefits and features for your project.
What to look for in a testing automation framework?
The framework helps in automating your testing process while reducing the manual efforts and making the testing process faster and more efficient. When looking out for an expert framework for your testing requirements consider the following points:

  • The capability of the framework to justify your testing needs
  • Ease of use
  • Library with reusable components
  • Maintenance overheads
  • Integrating with other tools and frameworks
  • Functionalities of your framework
  • Integration with the third-party tools
  • Complexity
  • Features of the framework
  • Support and Maintenance features
  • Triggering automatically without requiring human intervention
  • Stability, flexibility, and extensibility
  • Report creations

There are just the generic points you might consider before picking up a framework for your testing process. On a larger picture, developer’s requirements, an application under test, environment and more play a more important role in selecting the best framework for your requirements.
Conclusion

Now when we are acquainted with various python frameworks, choosing the best one could be a tricky task. Though all of them are good and serves different requirements. It is best to take a note of all your requirements and then pick the framework that fulfils your maximum requirements.

How to Test a Social Media Application?

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Social media apps have literally become the lifeline of the present generation.

Social media apps are now a podium

  • to connect with people,
  • for entertainment purposes,
  • do business,
  • find or offer jobs,
  • get some information and whatnot.

Apart from its benefits, social media apps could also be very harmful. These apps could lead to high-security breaches if they are not properly validated for their security.
Apart from this improper functioning of these apps in any aspect could affect the business of thousands of people depending upon these apps for their business needs.
Hence Proper Testing of Social Media applications is very important.
Here is a sneak peek into how to test social media apps.
Why is it important to Test Social Media?
How to Test a Social Media Application.


According to Statista – “Number of worldwide users is expected to reach some 3.02 billion monthly active social media users by 2021.”
Such a large podium definitely needs to be secure and provide a seamless experience to all its users. Hence it is very important to test these applications for their efficient and effective working.
Types of Social Media Testing
Social media is a bundle of various functionalities. Testing social media apps requires you to have extensive domain expertise, large experience, and the correct skillset for it. Testing of Social media applications includes:

  • Enterprise Software Testing: Social media applications serve a large number of people and are very robust to test and require a high level of security testing. Hence these applications require some high-end enterprise testing solutions to be tested.
  • Web 2.0 testing: Being a web 2.0 based application, testing of social media applications requires the early involvement of testers. These applications are also susceptible to frequent changes and hence automatization of the test cases for such applications is preferred.
  • Web-testing including compatibility, functional, Security Testing, Performance Testing and database testing needs to be done for social media apps.
  • SaaS Testing: SaaS is referred to software as a service model. Social media services follow the Saas model and are requires to be validated for proper functioning using SaaS testing.
  • Web Analytics Testing: Social media apps deal with a large amount of data, Web analytics testing helps in collecting of website data and then analyzing and reporting based on your user’s targets.
  • User Acceptance Testing: includes testing social media apps for its attractiveness and user-friendly nature.
  • Content Management testing: Content management testing validate that the content is appropriate for the audience. Social media applications like Facebook are an ocean of content, new content is posted every now and then, and hence, content management testing becomes an on-going task and is very important to avoid any content related issues.
  • SEO testing: SEO is the need for the hour to promote your websites/applications online. Hence SEO testing becomes very important to ensure proper growth and exposure of your social media application.
  • Online Advertisement application testing. Social media applications these days promote businesses using online advertisement. Validating the proper functioning of online advertisements is very important.

Also Read: How To Test a Mobile Application

Social Media Application Testing Life Cycle
stlc
To ensure that your social media testing goes well, follow a proper testing methodology. Here are the steps you can follow to ensure proper testing of your social media apps.
1. Analyze Test Requirements:
First and foremost step if to analyze test requirements. Determine the scope of the testing and the test objectives.
Make a list of what all you need to test, how much time and how many resources you will require for testing.
2. Test Plan Creation:
Test plan creation is the next step towards conducting successful social media application testing.
Test planning is dependent on what does tester’s aim to achieve from the testing.
Hence they should have a clear understanding of what they are supposed to test like are they supposed to carry out only front-end testing or back-end testing or the both.

3. Allocation of Resources for Testing:
As per your analysis in test requirement phase, allocate resources for the testing like the human resources, allocate the time for testing, etc.
Before starting testing your social media mobile app, you should shortlist the testing techniques -Functional and Non-functional.
functional non functional testing
Also make a note of network, operating system, and device platforms for functional testing.
For Non-Functional Testing, techniques select from various testing techniques like Performance Testing, Usability Testing, Adaptability Testing, and Security Testing.
4. Test Case Document:
This is the first step towards actual testing.
Create test cases based on the test plan created by you in the initial phases of testing.
Create a test case document with all the features and functionalities of your social media app.
The test cases should include all the functional test cases along with various other test cases for usability testing, adaptability testing and other test cases like testing the speed of the app, memory usage, battery usage, and data requirements.
5. Defining the alliance of Manual Testing and Automation Testing.
Testing of social media apps includes an amalgamation of both manual and automatic testing. Prepare a separate document for manual testing test cases and automatic testing test scripts.
6. Execution of the Test Case:
The actual testing takes place here, where you will actually execute the test cases created in the previous step. You can execute test cases and scripts in physical devices or using testing tools, or in the cloud.
7. Identifying and Removing the Bugs:
While executing the test cases, all the bugs that are detected have to be reported to the development team, for removing them.
8. Documentation:
Document all the bugs that you have found. This documentation can help you as a reference for future testing.
9. Test Completion:
After bug’s removal, the application has to be retested to check if the bugs are properly removed and to check that the change in code has not affected the present functionalities.
Though there is nothing like test completion, as the application may require to be repeatedly tested whenever there is any code change.
But if in any round of testing, the code is identified as bug-free, the testing is considered to be completed.
Tips for Testing Social Media Applications
Here are a few tips to test your social media application effectively:

  • Testers should be experienced in the design and implementation of Web 2.0 testing
  • Carry out all-inclusive website testing.
  • Autonomous validation is important for social media apps.

Conclusion
Social media applications are witnessing a sudden hike. People are getting dependent on them for their day to day enquires and uses.

Such a wide platform requires to be tested comprehensively so that they possess no threats to their users either at a personal or professional level.