Advancement of technology brings along with it, a revolution in each and every nook and corner of IT. Today, it is a mobile revolution everywhere. Because of it, the testing scenario, testers and the entire testing industry has put on their thinking caps to come up with innovative and secure methodologies to test the emerging technologies and project a well tested, quality driven software for the end clients.

 

What is currently on every tester’s mind is Internet of Things (IoT). How to test IoT applications? Before we go into details of how to test IoT applications, let us have a glance through what is IoT and how significantly it is affecting our lives today.

 

Internet of Things – The Technology of Today

When we look at our mobile phones or tablets, they are mere computer based devices in a different sizing structure. The Internet of Things encompasses many other things that are connected through the Internet just like your thermostat, washing machine, automobile, fridge, AC and many such more. None of these things are new; it’s just that they all would now be connected through the Internet. One of the most sought after innovation in this arena is the Smart Watch technology which caters to umpteen requirements which are being demanded by end users.

 

Internet of Things is getting bigger day by day. With its arms trying to get in all possible infrastructure under its periphery, the tougher task is to ensure that whatever technology revolution is coming has be to be properly and thoroughly tested and quality needs to be completely assured, before the end user starts using it. Every little industry starting from our own home to healthcare are getting in IoT into their businesses. Testing these applications is bringing with them various parameters like security, privacy, complexity, performance, accuracy to name a few. Topping it all is complete customer satisfaction, since these applications directly deal with day to day lives of the end clients and hence, testing them plays a pivotal role.

 

Thought there have been fewer IoT based testing tools available, there are certain major factors which may be crucial to any type of IoT testing.

 

5 Parameters to be ascertained while testing Internet of Things (IoT)

 

Usability

 

One of the primarily important parameter while using Internet of Things is its Usability. Since the devices which are involved in this vary a lot in shape and size, it is very difficult to judge the behaviour and actions at real time. It is a tough task to actually perform usability testing on these applications, since these devices are comparatively tiny in size and hence cannot provide any kind of help or documentation viz. tool tips, examples etc. As a term it seems simple, but when it actually comes to testing usability, there is lack of clarity and understanding for these IoT devices.

 

Connectivity

The stepping stone to success of any Internet of Things application is strongest and seamless connectivity. Two things are primarily crucial while testing connectivity: one is there should be a flawless connectivity between all the devices which can be tested by having all of the testing devices working together. But, as time says, connectivity may ditch you at times. At such times, the application has to ensure data security and storage so that whenever the connection is restored, your data is back to shape as it was. This can be simulated by switching off the internet connection on devices, temporarily moving out of WiFi zone or by shifting to airplane mode.

 

Security

 

Yet another feature to be properly tested is the Security aspect. Most of the Internet of Things is susceptible to security issues like password settings, accessing the UI without passwords or lack of data encryption. It is a tough job, for the end users and more so, for the testers, to point out possible hacking elements from where security can lapse, with the scope of project spreading out so wide and far. Earlier, the IoT was a gray area and hence security was never seen upfront but now with IoT getting more familiar, it is always a better step to keep security features tested and proven.

 

Testing in the real world

 

Internet of Things and Real time go hand in hand. Any IoT application can prove to be stable only if tested thoroughly with real time elements since there is lot of connectivity by sensors, between the physical elements and the applications. Traditional testing methods may prove futile and hence it is important to regenerate real time scenarios for testing strategies. Restricting your test set up to a testing lab isn’t the right way. You have to move out to a real life situation and that too, with lesser equipments and facilities as may be provided in the actual scenario, so that the actual behaviour of the application may surface in earlier stages.

 

Coverage of all types of testing

 

Though the scenario may look different than the traditional one and the setup may be entirely real time, there are certain original testing types that are essentially required to ensure a quality rich product, though certain parameters may change within.

 

When we talk about unit testing – testing of an individual functionality, Internet of Things may need a large amount of physical infrastructure to do the testing. Also, unit test automation may turn out quite difficult.

 

System testing is the next big step in traditional testing. It may seem to work fine since there is availability of a system in its entirety but there are certain parameter which may prove challenging like the size of the system, geographical spread and operation in harsh infrastructure.

 

A superset of the above two testing methodologies, Integration testing talks about testing the entire set up on the whole. Challenges faced while unit testing are bound to continue here, but on a larger scale and specially the hardware infrastructure setup.

 

Testing this part of the IT world – the ‘Internet of Things’ is still being explored to its best. As days go by, there are novel and stable testing measures being furnished leading to a more robust and scalable IoT scenario. Software Testing Solution, your testing partner, has been garnering expertise and experience in the arena of testing Internet of Things applications. Visit and request for a Free POC to test drive our services.