How Safe is your Mobile Banking App?

According to a report prepared by KPMG, number of mobile banking users will get doubled by 2019 and reach a quarter of the global population. With the emergence of mobile banking apps, a huge percentage of banking transactions have already moved away from traditional methods like using services of ATMs or bank branches. In light of this progression, banks are continually striving to introduce innovative and advanced mobile services. It goes without saying that the end users’ expectations are also rapidly increasing. Such expectations include the highest level of performance, support for a never-ending number of mobile devices and a complete package of features that can empower them to meet their routine banking needs seamlessly. In this scenario, testing of mobile banking apps has become extremely crucial to ensure a flawless and smooth user experience. Banking applications deal with absolutely confidential financial data, which has made their testing one of the most difficult ones with some major and mandatory elements. Let’s have a look at 4 key elements that have to be considered while testing mobile banking apps.

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Getting right kind of test data

Different types of misuses can happen if a customer’s personal information gets uncovered in public domain. Hence, to prevent this, most countries have strict regulatory requirements that often make the personal information inaccessible to the testers. To produce right kind of test data, a tester should consider retail banking apps that validate testing over different devices. For instance, in case of two customers having short and long names and different account balances, testing the app with these data may ensure the intactness of the screen layout in different cases. Merging of synthetic data creation with data masking empowers the tester to deal with this problem successfully. The personal information is obscured while the synthetic test data is generated after actual comprehension of the business flow.

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Implementing DevOps Quality Approach – Different principles

Continuous testing and quality monitoring together with continuous test development based on TDD, BDD and shift-less, as well as shift-right testing are all crucial for DevOps quality. At the same time, performing quality checks at different points in the DevOps cycle is also the responsibility of everyone involved. For example, the emphasis at continuous build is to find if the build has the potential of interfering with the operation while validating usability and functionality has focused upon at continuous development. The focal point of continuous integration is to validate security, performance, usability. To ensure quality in DevOps, clear understanding of potential risks and priorities with respect to business performance and customer value is also crucial. Let’s take a closer look at some key aspects that drive an integrated DevOps quality approach.

An automated testing process and continuous quality monitoring:

These are related to the continuous build, development and deployment process. With a completely automated process of testing, every aspect (from test planning, test strategy, test environment set up to test data provision and test execution including functional and non-functional testing) is covered. Validation checks are performed with quality analysis tools while newly created/defined validation checks are automatically included in the complete set of existing quality checks. Based on instant user reports and production incidents, quality level of applications is monitored closely and continuously by setting up a quality automation framework.

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Importance of Mobile Application Testing

The coming of android and the open source infrastructure has brought about a revolutionary development trend. This has ushered in an age of mobile technology, wherein business activities, and customer interactions are driven out of mobile applications. As application development picks up pace and increases in complexity, mobile application testing has to match up as well. Here is a look at some of the important aspects of the testing phase, which determines the overall success and popularity of a mobile application.

1.      Test User workflow and functionality

A very important aspect of mobile application testing is testing the user cases for workflows and the basic functionality. A recent research into the bad reviews about mobile apps highlights almost half of the bad reviews can amount to the bad design of flow in the application. Ace mobile development experts understand that the client experience with mobile applications will be limited to the flow of functionalities and if that lags or hangs, there is bound to be a negative feedback from the viewers.

2.      Stress Testing of the Mobile Application

Most mobile developers and testers tend to stick to a module testing approach, wherein they just test individual parts of the mobile app. This might work well in theory, but the real and most accurate test of any mobile application should be under extreme conditions. Thus basing your testing strategy on mobile testing solutions which are able to create robust testing scenarios becomes crucial. Also, most such platforms such as SOSTA’s CloudTest would give testers the ability to tweak scenarios to create a stress environment. Parameters such as system connectivity, time out time etc can be altered to create stress test scenarios.

3.      Network is the Key

In accordance with the design of the mobile applications, thenetwork plays a pivotal role in the functionality and hence has to be given due attention to while testing. It is important to ensure mobile applications switch seamlessly from Wifi to 3G/4G networks while causing minimal impact on the user experience. Another important aspect is the offline working feature which most mobile applications today have been designed to support. Mobile application testers should ensure that the work folders in the application are synced seamlessly between the offline mode, and when the user connects to the network.

4.      Testing on Varied Hardware

A host of operating platforms and hardware devices are prevalently used by customers today, and as a mobile application developer, it is important to ensure that their applications work glitch free on all of these. It is thus important to incorporate hardware platform compatibility during the mobile application testing routines, for an enjoyable user experience.

The Essence of Agile Testing

Testing is an integral part of any development cycle. Initially, the entire process used to be step by step where after the codes were written by the programmer, the testing team would take over and a long back and forth cycle would begin. These days to shorten the development cycle new types of testing methodologies have been integrated. Agile testing is a methodology in which there is a continuous iteration of the development and testing throughout the software development cycle. As a result, both the coding and development go hand in hand with testing.

What is different with Agile testing?

With Agile, the buzz word is continuous. An agile testing company is into continuous development, continuous integration and continuous delivery while simultaneously doing a continuous delivery.  While this summarizes the entire concept of this kind of testing, it is important that we understand how it actually benefits a company. When many things happen at the same time, it helps speed up the process. Companies that have adopted agile testing services are able to deliver the product much faster. It is not just the speed that is of consequence here. Continuous integration and communication with the end user, developer and tester ensures that the product is as perfect as it could be. Earlier, companies would launch a product and after some time launch its newer version with more features and lesser bugs and continue to do so every few months till the product itself was phased out. With Agile testing, the companies are able to reduce the development cycles. This has in turn shown positive affects on the revenues. 

Adopting Agile testing

When a company adopts Agile testing for its products, it is bringing about a change in the entire work culture. The teams which earlier worked as independent units and only passed on the product after it was finished up to a certain level now work as a cohesive whole. They have to implement strategies on every aspect of the work cycle. So right from how to approach requirement, architecture, design to coding and testing - all evolve to new heights. The teams now have to look at realistic time frames for delivery without getting trapped between the development and testing cycles. So the time schedules are adhered to. In fact, time is fixed before the scope is outlined. Quality and testing also are done on the basis of the new timelines. Instead of waiting for months to look at the product being developed, the next checkpoint is always round the corner for the team to evaluate. It is a win win process for all and therefore it is not a surprise that it is becoming popular.

Source: https://techarcisblog.wordpress.com/2016/09/12/the-essence-of-agile-testing/

How Does Software Testing Help Businesses?

Software testing is generally considered a cost source. Managers usually think of compromising with the quality of software testing to reduce its cost. And at times, they prefer to avoid it completely. Reason? They think that its contribution for building up revenue is not great. However, this belief isn’t true. In fact, Software Testing is very useful for optimization of business. It ensures fast system performance even under highest workload. 

Need of Software Testing

Applications and software are intended to facilitate different tasks within a business organization. If they fail to perform their tasks, organizations can not meet their goals. More often than not, badly tested software fail to provide required output efficiently. Such software also affect the scalability and performance.

Stiff Competition

Today, users are spoilt for choice, and companies face stiff competition. Thus, it has become imperative for all software to work fast and smoothly and deliver performance. If they do not perform according to the expectation of the users, they will switch to your competitors’ products in no time. 

There are a number of things that can help us understand the importance of SoftwareTesting for businesses. Some of them are given below:

Different kinds of Test

There are different sorts of tests that a software testing company conducts to ensure the required performance and desired results. Some of the tests are Load Test, Failover Test, Reliability Test, Stress Test, Targeted Infrastructure Test, Baseline Test, Network Sensitivity Test, Rendezvous Test, Volume Test, and Result Test. Thus, the product is evaluated on various parameters during software testing to ensure better performance.

Advantages of the Software Testing

Software Testing plays a vital role in adding more value by offering the highest quality product to the customers. It helps build your brand image and reputation. Providing high-quality products makes your customers happy. 

You can also escape several unpleasant experiences, thanks to QA & testing. If your customer is not satisfied with the product quality, you might have to take that product back. This whole process not only costs you time and money, but a part of your reputation is also gone.

Thus, software testing services are very important as they help you please and satisfy your customers. Moreover, they are also useful for reducing cost, increasing sales, improving user experience, and optimizing the business.

Why Mobility Testing is Imperative?

There was a time when the phone was a mere device that was kept in one corner of the room and had to ring in order to catch our attention. In fact in the initial days the computer was a device that was hardly used by a few. Now, they have become the basic necessities of life. They are no longer mere devices – they have become an extension of how we are – they are the windows to the virtual world. They have practically changed the way we think, work, behave, learn and even exist.

Mobile technology is here to stay and will change the future of the world as we know it. And we already know it. Let us not state what and how smart phones have become an integral part of our lives. Rather let us concentrate on Mobility Testing Solutions.

Types of Mobile Testing:

We can safely say that mobile testing can be categorized into 2 broad types.

#1 Hardware testing:

In this testing we are talking about internal processors, internal hardware, screen sizes, resolution, space or memory, camera, radio, Bluetooth, WIFI – in short everything related to the Smart Phone industry.

#2 Software or Application testing:

The diverse applications that you sue in your smart phone needs to be tested before they are launched in the market. And it is here that application testing or software testing makes its entry. There are certain aspects that you need to keep in mind here:

Significance of Mobile Application Testing

Mobility testing applications on mobile devices is more challenging than regular desktop testing. The significance and importance of Mobility Testing is huge. Let us go through a few of the reasons why mobile testing is a challenging affair:

• The market is full of diverse range of mobile devices with different screen sizes and hardware configurations which makes it difficult to test the apps. One has to test them in different OS before launching them.

• The configurations of each smart phone are different from the other.

• One has to deal with diverse and opposite operating software’s like Android, Symbian, Windows, Blackberry and iOS.

• Even the mobile network operators are different for GSM and CDMA versions.

• Frequent updates make it vital to check the apps at regular intervals in order to ensure that the application functionality is not impacted.

In the long run it becomes imperative to offer Mobility Testing Solutions so that there is no bug in the product. The presence of bugs can result in monetary loss, huge legal battles with the brand image getting affected in the long run. Hence, one cannot overlook the importance and significance of this type of testing.

There are many service providers out there in the market that offer this service. TechArcis is one of the leading testing solutions providers. When it comes to quality control and quality assurance they come second to none. No matter whatever your testing queries are, just drop us a mail or give us a call. Our experts are there to help you out anytime.

Why your mobile app testing never turns out the way you want? Why?

Why your mobile app testing never turns out the way you want? Why? Challenges, and plenty of them. Some have to do with the way testing is carried out, while others are a result of superficial factors like new devices, market competition etc. Let's analyze some of these challenges, which result in the failure of companies on the mobile platform.

Read More: Why your mobile app testing ISN’T working the way you want?

Test Automation and Internet of Things: How automation testing can be beneficial for IoT application?

As Internet of Things (IoT) gets set to connect about 50 billion devices by the year 2020, quality assurance and testing teams in software development companies begin revamping their testing strategies to fit into the IoT.

The environment in which IoT operates requires a different approach when it comes to testing methods and strategies. Automation has emerged as the most critical component of IoT and most testing methods are being designed to make the most out of it. Software development companies have paced up the rate at which they deliver software services alongside updates and patches hence the need for automation testing becomes even more important.

TESTING FOR INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) – How is it different?

Read more here : Test Automation and Internet of Things

 

Testing in the Internet of Things

These days, we are surrounded by the Internet. It is not just our laptops and mobile devices that are connected to the World Wide Web, but also everyday objects like our TVs, washing machines, cars, and watches. Essentially, our lives are more interconnected than ever before, thanks to the Internet of Things.

The IoT wirelessly connects a range of embedded devices with the Internet infrastructure. And by 2020, this connected world is predicted to expand to 20.8 billion connected devices! This is certainly going to lead to a huge data influx.

Whenever things are connected to the Internet, it is to achieve greater comfort for the user. (This is not always the case so far, but theoretically, that’s the goal.) Embedded software and mobile systems have made their way into our lives and become an integral part of our routines. For a smooth link, it is important that these devices function flawlessly. With such a huge amount of data being exchanged, there is a great need today for testers who understand how to test in the IoT.

Testing devices that are part of the Internet of Things is a little different from testing other machines or programs. As IoT becomes mainstream, you’ll have more application domains than ever before. The basics have to be in the right place—for instance, the performance of the software, the linking of various physical devices, the collection of data, and security all have to be tested to perform under different variables. Testers will need to think beyond the standard device and sensor testing; they’ll have to devise ways to deal with the additional complexities that come with big data, such as great volume and velocity.

What sets the Internet of Things apart from other systems is the way users are an integral part of how it works. Consequently, it is important to test the element of human interaction. Classic integration testing will not suffice. “Test by customer” should become a key step in your testing plan, and you must be ready to provide quick fixes.

The human element encompasses physical aspects, such as the size of the device; the sensory experience, i.e., the reaction to color, touch, and sound; and data and details about the user. It also includes the way environmental variables, like geographical locations and weather conditions, affect the system.

There is another nonquantifiable element to this aspect of testing: the value system. Users from different locations have different cultural values, which means their perceptions and mindsets also may be different. One system cannot work satisfactorily for users across the globe. Testers need to put in extra effort to understand the user base.

IoT and its testing are still in the nascent stage. The network and the processes for testing it will see a lot more development and refinement as technology evolves.

TechArcis and Perfecto Enter into a Strategic Partnership

The Quality Assurance and Testing firm TechArcis has announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with Perfecto, the leading name in providing mobile and digital experience.This alliance between the two companies will be a boon for organizations that operate in the realm of smart phone and cloud computing.  Together, they will be able to address all the mobile testing needs the organizations might have.  These include testing the apps as well in real time environment.

Read more here : TechArcis and Perfecto Enter into a Strategic Partnership

What All should you Test in your Healthcare Apps?

Technology has touched all aspects of our lives and healthcare is no different. Now at the touch of a button you have access to anything that you wanted to know about eating healthy, staying healthy, doctors and their availability etc. Whatever you can think of, related to, healthcare is now available in the form of an app.

A developer designs an app based on the ideas that he has. However, before this app is launched in the market, it needs to be tested and made foolproof. So, if you are looking to enter the healthcare field with an app, there are some things you need to test in your app.

Read more here : What All should you Test in your Healthcare Apps?

Agile Automation Testing - Automation in Agile Methodology

As more and more businesses are embracing agile development and testing, automation has become the norm of the day. For cutting down the time of development and time to market, automation has emerged as a critical component as it helps maintain agility throughout the development cycle where various teams cooperate and collaborate, with an emphasis on continuous improvement.

Let’s take a look at how automation plays a key role in Agile environments.

Read more here : Role of Automation in the era of Agile

Load Testing in Agile Environment - Do You Know it All

Load testing in agile environment is being extensively used in most software development scenarios in order to help developers to respond to changeability. However, the industry still withholds certain misconceptions about load testing. Think you know it all? Read on to be amazed!

Importance of performance testing in Agile Methodologies

Most developers and code testers prefer load and performance testing in agile development methodologies over traditional approaches as it proffer opportunities to access the direction all through the development lifecycle. Moreover, there are certain benefits of using agile methodologies,listed below:

• The widely accepted approach to development significantly decreases testing costs of the software
• It helps developers to build the right software by rectifying the bugs during initial stages
• It empowers load and performance testing teams to incessantly plan their release to optimize its value right through development, enabling them to be as competitive as possible in the market.
• Specialized problem solving units with well - Load testers - are entities which receive inputs through sensors and act on through effectors.

Some important attributes which must be followed during load testing in agile environment are mentioned below:

• The involvement of active user is imperative
• The testing team must be allowed to make decisions
• Requirements develop, but the timescale remain fixed
• Step-by-step release and iteration
• Gathering requirements at high level; visual & lightweight
• Complete focus on the incessant delivery of products

Read more: http://techarcis.com/load-testing-in-agile-environment-do-you-know-it-all-2/

6 Ways to Improve Performance of Distributed QA Teams

It is quite common for organizations to have multiple product lines. Take the case of Microsoft. The brand is massive – Windows and Office being the two biggest product lines. Each product line has plenty of associated applications to deal with, and needs a dedicated sprint cycle and release cycle. This goes deeper in terms of inherent dependencies. The same could be the case with your organization. Your QA team could be spread across multiple product teams with equal divisions. And to top it, they work 10 hours ahead of your time zone! To ensure effectiveness, you have even set up a Scrum team that actually works in different time zones.


However, at the end of the day, some questions still shade your mind- How to maintain consistent communication link with QA team that is distributed? How to make sure Scrum environment is giving effective outcome? Are there any innovative processes that QA Testing Solutions Provider can take help from to attain their objectives?


Well, we have compiled a list of 6 ways to improve performance of your distributed QA teams.


Read more - http://techarcis.com/6-ways-to-improve-performance-of-distributed-qa-teams/

Script-less Test Automation – Is it Really Script-less?

Script-less automation, this term is most popular nowadays in the world of test Automation. The companies who have such script-less automation tools / frameworks promote that it allows the business users to comfortably automate the business scenarios without having much knowledge on the tools and their underlying languages. So, is this approach really script less? Does the importance of technical automation testers have come down? Is there no demand for more experts in the test automation tools or the underlying programming languages? Not really.

Let’s understand what is this scriptless automation all about and how is it helpful in present scenario of test automation. Script-less automation is an abstraction layer over and above the Application Under Testing (AUT) and the automation testing tool, which consists of the hundreds of functionalities perform various actions on the AUT to test the applications. These functions may be common technical functions like “Open”, “Close”, “Save”, “Minimize”, “Maximize” or other common arithmetic functions which we perform. These can also be specific to the AUT, to test the functionalities on the applications – like creating a user, modifying a user, adding roles, opening an account, editing the details, closing the account etc. Though these script-less tools have several inbuilt functions/actions mainly keyword driven, but still we need the Test Automation experts to create new functions/actions or modify existing ones coupled along with the abstraction layer. Basically script-less frameworks/tools screens over and above all of these which may help the end-user or business user to automate the test cases.

Read more: http://techarcis.com/script-less-test-automation-is-it-really-script-less/

Is It Time to Say Goodbye to Manual Testing?

Automation helps you save time and make ideal use of your resources with constant and ongoing test executions. However, there are certain testing scenarios where automation does not prove handy.

How important are these scenarios? Is automation great enough to warrant making manual testing a thing of the past?

Over the last few years, the prestige of testing has increased, with particular stress being laid on software automation testing. What is so special about automation that teams and organizations find so desirable?

I have shared my insights in my complete article. You can read the complete piece on =>> https://www.techwell.com/techwell-insights/2015/10/it-time-say-goodbye-manual-testing

Metrics and Measures to Find the True ROI of Test Automation

Products and new features roll out in competitive market demands shortened quality testing cycles and time to market. With today’s new age applications, performing tests manually like regression testing and running the test cases multiple times can be laborious and time consuming. And one cannot compromise on the quality of the end product at the same time. So, automation in testing arena plays a vital role and become inevitable in IT industry. By way of automation, these test cases take lesser time to run the regression testing cycles.

Automaton regression testing not only results in saving time but also costs, especially if the test cases don’t change frequently and regular test cycles are required. Regular maintenance activities like patches or upgrades over the application’s lifetime can result in working features to regress; meaning regression cycles can be run for any change which happens in the environment. But having said all that, automated testing cannot be beneficial at all the times. We need to analyse the situation in terms of ROI and see where the automated testing is truly benefiting us.

Read more here : http://www.softwaretestingclub.com/profiles/blogs/metrics-and-measures-to-find-the-true-roi-of-test-automation

Why is Root Cause Analysis Extremely Important?

When developing a product, while it is extremely difficult to maintain quality of the product due to its complexity and shorter time to market, it is also important to keep the cost low to stay competitive.It becomes essential for the software developers to consider variousaspects while developing any product. Though, all the guidelines are abided, problems still arise in the software in form of defects. There are several factors for the defect to arise and product to fail such as, human factor, communication failure, poor design logic, unrealistic development timeframe, lack of skilled testing, poor coding practices etc.  Besides this, the difficulty intensifies if the same defects recur during the development cycle of the products either new or enhanced versions. The solution lies in conducting the root cause analysis of the defects and then taking corrective actions so that they don’t recur.

What is Root Cause Analysis?

At the very basic level, root cause analysis is a methodology used to find the underlying cause of the defect. As it signifies to product development, Root cause analysis is a systematic procedure for putting the defects in categories and analysing them before release, after the release or both. WhenRCAis performed properly, it shows the points in the development cycle that are causing the main and recurring defects. Root Cause Corrective Action (RCCA) is when corrective actions are applied to solve the problems that occur during RCA. The corrective actions are carried out far upstream in the procedure as possible, as catching failures upstream prevents rework, saves time and money by not letting the problem to take place.

How Root Cause analysis helps reduce recurring defects?

Firstly, the defects are logged and documented. Secondly, the defects are reviewed and analysed using the root cause analysis techniques. But before Root Cause analysis is performed, a Pareto graph is outlined to show the defect type with highest frequency of occurrence which becomes the target. An example of defect classification in a Pareto graph is shown below:

According to the Pareto graph, the category for which the highest numbers of defects are found should be paid attention to at first.

The Root Cause Analysis of a defect follows the below key principles:

• Minimizing the defects to improve quality: the analysis must lead to making changes in processes which help prevention of defects in the early stages and ensure early detection.
• Utilizing local and third party expertise: the people who really know what went wrong should be there to analyse processes along with third party experts. A good debate ensures all possibilities are taken care of, analysed and the best possible action is taken.

With these guidelines, defects are analysed to find their origins. A collection of these causes will help in conducting the root cause analysis in effective manner.

Why Root Cause Analysis is extremely important?

 

The main benefit of RCA is that it finds the fundamental errors in the development process, enabling teams to enact right measures to fix the problems and stop them from recurring ahead. Hence, there is lesser rework and fewer defects in the final product.

1. Reduced cost: the cost of fixing defects increases later the defects are found in the development process and if a defect makes it into the final release, customers may never buy the product again, resulting in loss of revenue to the firm.
2. Identify failure: It points RCA is mainly helpful for teams that think they have apt development and QA procedures but still face recurring defects. Obviously, something is broken but what, why and where are the questions that need to be answered. RCA helps answer these questions and find the real (root) cause of the problem and not just the obvious (direct) cause.
3. Improve safety and reliability: As root cause analysis helps reducing the number of defects in future, it can be mainly beneficial to firms in quality critical industries where product reliability and safety are mainly important.
4. Enhance time to market:  On finding the root cause of a defect and taking the subsequent corrective action, releases of the product take less time in testing and the product is released in the market sooner with lesser uncaught defects.

The benefits of adopting the Root Cause Analysis process to prevent defects are enormous viz. reduces development time and cost, increases customer satisfaction, reduces rework effort thereby decreases cost and improves the quality of the product.