How would you feel if the software you are installing gets struck in the middle or just corrupts your operating system?
Awful right! Software installation is the first interaction of the user with the software.
Hence, the proper installation of software is very important to ensure end users satisfaction and trust. Installation testing ensures that the software is ready to deliver it to its end users without any issues in its installation process.
What is Installation Testing?
Implementation testing aka Installation testing is done to check the successful installation and to ensure that software is working as per the expectations. Carried out before the end user’s first interaction with the software, Installation testing is the last phase of software testing life cycle (STLC).
Basics of Implementation Testing
Before moving ahead it is important for us to know about the basic features of installation testing. Here are some important features of Installation testing, that we should know:
- Software testing engineers carry it out in the presence of the configuration manager.
- As stated earlier, it identifies and detects bugs and defects in the installation process.
- Implementation testing is activity-based testing.
- Installation testing is the last phase of STLC.
- It is very important to ensure an ideal user experience.
How to do installation Testing?
Installation testing holds a very significant value in STLC. It is very important to carry it out properly so that it leaves no chances for any glitches. You can ensure the smooth testing by following below given points.
- Check for existing versions of the software and validate if the software installer checks for them too.
- During installation validate if the software gives a choice to the user to specify the installation location and also offers a choice of the default location. Also, validate it installs the software in the specified location.
- Validate the appropriate display of instructions on the installer.
- Verify that software is easy to install from various locations like the internet, over the network, from the CD, etc.
- Stop the installation process in between and check if the system returns to its original state.
- Manually check for the disk space and then validate if the software installer calculated the disk space appropriately.
- Validate software reactions for low disk space. Check if it responds accurately when the disk space is low.
- Verify all the registry changes during the installation process.
- One major part of installation testing is uninstallation testing. Validate while uninstalling the software, the system deletes all the related system files.
Today, software is available on various platforms, hence it is very important to validate their proper installation on different platforms. Though it is time-consuming, it is very important to ensure software is easy to install on various platforms.
Importance of Installation Testing
Thinking why is it important to spend time on Installation testing? Installation testing plays an important role in software testing life cycle. Here are some reasons proving its relevance:
Also Read: Agile Testing – An effective Software Testing Methodology
- Installation is the first interaction of software and your prospective customer. Hence, proper installation is very important to make a good impression on your prospective customers.
- Installation testing can help you to ensure complete coordination among various components of your software.
- Apart from installation testing, uninstallation testing is also equally important. It ensures that all the related system files are deleted from the system freeing up all the occupied space of system memory.
Challenges in Installation Testing
Installation testing having a wide scope and being time-consuming; can be very challenging for you at times. Some of the common challenges that can incur are:
Also Read: Ad-hoc Testing: A Brief Note With Examples
- The Installation test cases need to be run on the various environments with different configurations.
- They need to be run under various system conditions.
- It gets time-consuming to run of multiple test cases on different systems with various configurations.
- There are no clear test models, tools and test coverage criterion for installation testing that can further increase the challenge.
Common Test Cases in Installation Testing
Test Cases are very important when doing software testing. Same is the case with installation testing also. Here are few common test cases that can help you prepare your set of test cases.
- There should be test cases for all workflows based on the requirement.
- Include test cases to verify the already installed versions of the product and to verify to verify the path of the newer version.
- Test cases for validating required Disk space are crucial.
- Have test cases to validate all the messages to be displayed while installation.
- Include test cases to check disk space, before and after installation.
- Have Test cases to compare the files and packages of the previously installed version with the newly installed version.
- Validating the changes in the registry is an important inclusion.
- Forced stop of installation is another aspect that requires to be checked.
- Include test cases to validate custom installation and default installation path.
- Include test cases to test the installation process while similar software that uses a lot of RAM is also running.
- Don’t forget to include test cases to test for insufficient memory and insufficient disk space.
- Have test cases to check the installation process while the security is high and firewalls are ON.
- Include test cases to test the time taken for installation.
- Include test cases for successful uninstallation testing.
Conclusion
Keen check on each and every aspect of software development and testing is very important to provide enhanced customer experience. And Installation testing is one of the most important phases of STLC. So be very particular while performing installation testing on your product.