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To maintain their competitive edge in 2024 and beyond, telecom companies have to stay ahead of emerging industry technologies. QA serves as a linchpin in this process, helping ensure the smooth implementation of innovations.  

In this article, we’ll take a look at the key telco trends for this year and explore a QA strategy to launch high-quality telco software in an era of unprecedented change. 

Navigating the trends reshaping telecom industry in 2024 

Trend #1. 5G  

Surpassing 1.5 billion connections by the end of 2023, 5G has firmly established itself as the fastest-growing mobile broadband technology of recent years. This statistic underscores the immense potential that 5G holds for transforming connectivity worldwide. By 2030, the GSMA professionals predict that 53% of the population will be using 5G, 35% — 4G, 8% — 3G, and 1% — 2G. 

Telecom trends 2024

Source: The Mobile Economy 2024 

The reach of 5G networks continues to expand across various regions from urban centers to remote rural areas while offering ultra-fast speeds, low latency, and high capacity.  

Moreover, the advent of 5G is driving innovation in various industries. In healthcare, it facilitates real-time remote surgeries and high-definition video consultations between patients and healthcare professionals. In entertainment, 5G delivers immersive virtual experiences that allow users to enjoy multiplayer games with on-the-fly responsiveness and minimal lags.  

As the adoption of 5G-enabled devices and services continues to grow, telecom companies should focus on ensuring seamless network performance, smooth operation of mobile and web applications and computing centers, and strong security to provide customers with the full potential of 5G technology. 

Trend #2. Broadband connectivity  

2024 marks a significant milestone in the expansion of broadband connectivity. Consumers are witnessing a proliferation of options for accessing the high-speed Internet driven by advancements in terrestrial wireline, terrestrial wireless, and satellite technologies.  

Nowadays, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite Internet are gaining momentum, particularly in remote regions. These technologies help offer viable options to traditional wired broadband services, bridge the digital divide, and extend access to previously inaccessible areas. 

Trend #3. AI-driven solutions  

AI-driven solutions are now becoming increasingly prevalent in the telecommunications industry, enabling operators to: 

  • Optimize network performance. By adjusting routing protocols and network topologies, AI-powered networks can adapt to changing conditions and traffic loads, ensuring consistent user experiences. 
  • Enhance cybersecurity. By analyzing network traffic patterns and identifying suspicious behavior, AI-driven security systems can proactively mitigate cyber attacks, protecting sensitive data and infrastructure from harm. 
  • Deliver personalized services to clients. By leveraging customer data and behavioral insights, AI helps telecom companies tailor service offerings and recommendations to individual preferences, increasing their loyalty and receiving more revenue opportunities. What’s more, with AI seamlessly integrated into chatbots and personalized AI assistance, they can elevate their client support. AI-driven networks enable efficient problem-solving and service sales without human intervention, minimizing operational expenses. 
  • Ensure predictive maintenance. With AI at the core, telcos continuously monitor the state of their equipment, analyzing statuses and identifying anomalies in network performance. By leveraging AI algorithms, they proactively resolve issues before they impact customer experience, reducing downtime and enhancing overall reliability. This data-driven approach allows them to predict potential failures and take proactive measures to address them with the hardware, including cell towers, power lines, and servers in data centers, ensuring seamless operations and uninterrupted service delivery.  

Driving successful adoption of telecom trends with the help of QA  

QA is indispensable to ensure the successful implementation of telecom trends and the reliability of IT products. Let’s explore key testing types, helping deliver high-quality telco software. 

All tests can be devided into two groups: 

  1. Functional and non-functional testing 

Performance testing 

Performance testing holds a pivotal role in guaranteeing the seamless operation of critical systems responsible for delivering telecommunications services. By meticulously subjecting telecom solutions to stress and load tests, companies can ascertain whether they are able to promptly respond to a myriad of subscriber requests. This involves scrutinizing both client- and server-side functionalities, ensuring that vital components, such as billing and CRM systems, efficiently receive and process requests. 

Performance checks help telco operators release highly reliable software while delivering exceptional user experiences and maintaining customer satisfaction. 

Functional testing 

Functional testing ensures that all features of telecom products work as intended. It extends to verifying applications designed for customers, user support systems (chatbots or live chats with operators), back-end software for telecom, data centers, CRMs, ERPs, and additional services (media streaming platforms). 

This involves testing various scenarios, inputs, and outputs to verify the correct behavior of the software. For instance, validating the functionality of invoicing processes. 

As part of functional testing, UAT helps ensure the seamless integration of new systems, modules, or integrated solutions within telecom businesses. While traditionally associated with third-party integrations, UAT testing extends beyond this scope to encompass newly developed systems or modules as well. 

The aim of UAT is to validate business requirements, verify functionalities, and assess user experience across various applications and platforms. For instance, in the integration of self-service portals and mobile apps, UAT testing enables QA teams to simulate real-world usage, such as managing accounts, viewing usage details, and paying bills. Additionally, it allows verifying the usability, performance, and security measures implemented to protect customer data and transactions. 

Security testing 

Security testing is paramount to safeguard sensitive customer data and safeguard against cyber threats, considering the extensive network and cloud infrastructure involved. Telecom companies should be highly vigilant about potential data leakage and breaches, as they handle end-user financial and personal information. Moreover, with numerous entry points into telecom networks, including interconnected software, like CRMs, billing, and operational systems, comprehensive security testing is a must-have. 

By conducting penetration testing, businesses simulate real-world attacks to identify potential weaknesses in telecom systems, such as weak authentication mechanisms or exposed network ports. 

To uncover entry points for cybercriminals and assess the safety posture of telco infrastructure, companies can introduce vulnerability scanning tools, including Acunetix, Burp Suite, and Nessus. 

Test automation 

Telco providers can automate any tests, but it’s more profitable to automate repetitive test scenarios, reducing manual effort and accelerating the QA workflow.  

To enhance testing coverage and efficiency, telecom providers leverage automated regression testing. By automating test processes, companies perform more tests in less time, significantly boosting coverage and accuracy while neutralizing the risk of human errors. These automated scripts can be reused repeatedly, optimizing overall testing efforts and ensuring comprehensive coverage across software updates, patches, and configuration changes. 

  1. Testing based on the product type 

OSS/BSS testing 

As OSS and BSS form the backbone of telecom services, it’s mission-critical to enable their seamless running. OSS/BSS testing encompasses a range of QA activities tailored to validate the functionality, reliability, security, and performance of telco systems, which are responsible for key functions, involving billing, customer management, and network operations. 

With OSS/BSS checks, businesses also verify the accuracy of billing calculations for various service plans and validate the CRM system to make sure that customer information or service requests are accurately captured and processed. 

Migration testing 

It’s imperative to test the data and readiness of the system before moving to new OSS/BSS systems, such as billing or CRM platforms. This process involves migrating and validating large volumes of data to ensure seamless integration and prevent disruptions to routine subscriber activities. Additionally, it’s necessary to address security vulnerabilities and optimize performance to uphold uninterrupted subscriber activities. 

Cloud testing 

Cloud computing plays a pivotal role in modern telecom operations, enabling companies to scale resources up and down, such as networks and servers, as well as storage on-demand. Leveraging cloud infrastructure, telecoms can keep and process vast amounts of user data remotely, ensuring cost efficiency and global reach. 

Therefore, businesses can introduce cloud testing to assess the reliability, scalability, and security of telecom products delivered through cloud infrastructure. 

With cloud tests, operators can also confirm the security posture of cloud-based telecom solutions, including data encryption, access controls, and compliance with industry standards. 

To conclude 

The telecommunications landscape is continuously evolving. 5G, broadband connectivity, and AI-driven solutions are set to redefine this sector in 2024.  

To implement these trends with confidence and assurance, businesses can encompass a comprehensive QA strategy that involves performance, functional, OSS/BSS, migration, UAT, cloud, security, and automated testing. 

Reach out to a1qa’s team to get support in ensuring the high quality of your telecom software. 

In the first part of our article, we revealed how companies could obtain their business objectives by focusing on QA trends, such as:

  • Shifting beyond traditional test automation to maximize the benefits
  • Embracing Agile practices to strengthen competitive edge
  • Prioritizing value over speed to drive strategic business outcomes.

Let’s look at three more software testing methods that are paramount in 2024!

Trend #4. Adopt a security-first approach to fortify business resilience

With the average cost of a data breach coming to $16 million last year, 47% of the World Quality Report (WQR) 2023-24 respondents ranked cybersecurity as a top priority for 2024 to prevent potential system vulnerabilities and improve its overall reliability.

But sensitive data failures aren’t just about financial losses. In 2023, 88% of businesses faced reputational damage, 87% — encountered business continuity issues, 86% — lost their competitive advantage, and 79% — were unable to acquire and retain employees.

Source: Annual Data Expose Report 2023

So, what QA best practices can help companies cultivate a culture of safety awareness and mitigate the risk of cyber threats?

  1. Integrate security testing into the CI/CD pipeline to detect weak points early on and swiftly remediate them while reducing the expenses associated with addressing flaws in post-production. Additionally, it allows you to run automated tests on code changes, build creation, and ensure consistent testing across diverse scenarios.
  2. Implement comprehensive security policies, covering such aspects as password strength and rotation frequency, access control levels, safe document handling practices, and regular security checks. This assists in fortifying company’s defenses and promoting a culture of vigilance against potential threats. To quickly respond to cyber events, businesses should regularly update an incident response plan and test security protocols.
  3. Leverage DevOps practices to establish security perimeters and risk-free environments. This approach ensures continuous monitoring and mitigation of potential vulnerabilities, enhancing overall safety posture.
  4. Adopt security-focused code reviews to create robust processes, prevent loopholes in the software and systematically scrutinize code for weaknesses.
  5. Conduct regular security audits, including penetration testing, vulnerability and compliance assessments, to evaluate the effectiveness of existing safety measures, protocols, and software. As hackers develop new sophisticated methods to penetrate systems, it’s mission-critical to ensure that the audits are designed in line with the latest trends.
  6. Establish an education program to ensure employees adhere to security protocols and remain informed and vigilant.

Trend #5. Introduce cloud testing to improve software reliability

Eliminating the need for significant upfront investments in physical infrastructure, deploying applications and services faster, reducing time to market, scaling up or down based on demand — these are some of the core reasons why businesses adopt cloud servers.

As migrating to the cloud alone doesn’t guarantee system security and reliability, 82% of WQR respondents consider cloud testing a must-have. It is indispensable to validate the functional and non-functional aspects of applications in the cloud environment and ensure they withstand unexpected outages and cybersecurity threats. Companies may also introduce migration testing to guarantee seamless data transitions, prevent downtime, and exclude information losses within the cloud.

The final choice of a testing strategy depends on specific business needs, existing infrastructure, budget considerations, and the desired level of control. For instance, 58% of organizations selected a hybrid option due to cost optimization in 2023.

Trend #6. Stick to QA sustainability to minimize environmental impact

In the pursuit of technological excellence, the imperative to align quality engineering practices with environmental sustainability stands as a crucial trend.

Recognizing the escalating impact of IT on the planet, 97% of companies actively integrate sustainability into their QA processes to prevent environmental harm (WQR). While 2,016 C-level executives surveyed by Deloitte have acknowledged that it also has a positive impact on brand reputation (52%), customer satisfaction (44%), and employee well-being (42%).

So, how can organizations seamlessly weave sustainability into their QA practices, ensuring a commitment to environmental responsibility across the entire software development lifecycle? Below are some recommendations to follow.

Tip #1. Develop and track comprehensive sustainability metrics for the organization

Having clear sustainability KPIs enables companies to quantitatively assess their efforts, identify areas for improvement, and demonstrate progress toward reducing their overall environmental footprint.

Tip #2. Adopt test automation

Test automation can significantly reduce the environmental impact of software testing by streamlining and optimizing the QA process. While creating automated scripts may initially require energy, the long-term benefits include minimized manual intervention, resulting in lowered energy consumption associated with human-operated QA activities.

Tip #3. Implement eco-friendly test environments

Leveraging eco-friendly solutions, such as virtualization, containerization, and emulators, aids to reduce the need for physical hardware, decrease energy expenditure, and contribute to a more sustainable software development lifecycle. Thus, businesses promote resource efficiency, reduce environmental impact, and foster a culture of eco-conscious QA practices within the company.

Tip #4. Rely on shift-left testing

By shifting testing earlier in the development lifecycle, organizations identify and address issues sooner and can reduce resource utilization by minimizing the need for extensive testing later on.

In a nutshell

To stay competitive in a fast-changing business landscape and attain the desired outcomes in the coming year, companies may rely on critical QA trends: shifting beyond traditional test automation, embracing Agile practices, prioritizing value over speed, adopting a security-first approach, introducing cloud testing, and sticking to QA sustainability.

By integrating these practices into their processes, organizations meet the evolving demands of the IT market, reduce operational expenditure, accelerate software releases, and boost CX.

Connect with a1qa’s team to get professional QA support tailored to your specific needs.

When you are reading this, 83% of enterprise workloads are already in the cloud, according to Forbes, while SaaS contributes to 37% growth in revenue of software development vendors.

SaaS model has definitely influenced on changing the classic development processes and shifting them to the cloud. And it’s the right time, as hyper-digital transformation and the lockdown consequences made many companies accelerate releasing time for their software products, so they had to introduce new approaches and innovations into their IT strategies.

Considering such a progressive impact, the IT market is witnessing a surge of SaaS-based applications. The more solutions emerge, the greater demand is generated by businesses.

The measures that companies should undertake to retain customer bases and entice new users reducing their moving to other IT products include implementing proper SaaS testing.

In this article, we’ve gathered 9 QA factors that may help organizations strengthen competitive advantage and keep the leadership in the market. But let’s start with some SaaS peculiarities required to know before executing checks.

SAAS-BASED SOLUTIONS: 4 REASONS TO TEST

No wonder that this delivery model has led to increasing competition in every application category. Statista indicates that in 2020, the overall number of SaaS-based products has grown by 12% since 2015.

Source: Statista 

That means companies need to be ever more vigilant about providing quality experiences. The reason why businesses opt for SaaS is in its numerous benefits encompassing specific features.

Reason 1. Smart scalability

The option of changing software capacity promptly by request allows tenants to save costs on using cloud services. What’s more, SaaS vendors harness autoscaling mechanism that diagnose the current users’ amount and configure the software according to resize needs.

Reason 2. Regular and rapid updates

Within tight relationship with a SaaS provider, all the solutions’ defects and changes pass through it. As a rule of thumb, the processes of bug fixing and making modifications are fast and frequent. Therefore, one should define a robust QA strategy to optimize running a blizzard of test scenarios at short notice.

Reason 3. Multi-tenancy

SaaS opportunities to use shared cloud resources makes it affordable for a range of various organizations and streamlines software support. Within the approach to provide access to multiple customers, each tenant’s data is isolated and remains invisible to other subscribers. However, a vast number of connections to one vendor may cause difficulties with compatibility and integration. In this very case, improving APIs’ quality can be an escape solution.

Reason 4. Adjustable architecture

One more ground why companies choose SaaS is the ability to customize and specify settings perfectly matching business needs. And this requires thorough supervision, as an inappropriate operation of an IT solution may cause drawbacks after adding some changes that can provoke a growing churn rate.

Therefore, within these specifics, SaaS testing is more complicated than cloud and on-premises apps testing gathering a greater demand and a more profound attitude to QA activities.

9 POINTS TO GET UPSCALE SAAS-BASED SOLUTIONS

To provide a one-stop handbook on performing SaaS testing successfully, a1qa’s experts have prepared a list of 9 QA facets needed to cover the full testing scope and avert going live of bug-prone software.

1. Functional testing

Verifying all levels of connections between IT product components including units, their integration, and system testing, QA specialists check proper operation of functionalities. Noteworthy is that ordinary requirements encompass a myriad of cases tailored to miscellaneous user scenarios. Checking numerous configuration combinations make testing more exhaustive.

2. Performance testing

While on-premises apps are oriented at users’ environment, customer experience in SaaS-based products can be affected by other people. Thus, performance checks are essential — executing stress and load tests, QA engineers identify the upper limits of software capacity and evaluate its behavior under an expected number of concurrent users.

3. Interoperability testing

SaaS-based products entail flawless operation against different browsers and platforms as a prerequisite. Before carrying out interoperability testing, a QA team estimates the most preferable browsers and platforms and distinguishes ones used by a lower number of customers to exclude them. With verifying every browser or platform, QA specialists cover the full scope of testing configurations and provide seamless software operation for a wide range of users.

4. Usability testing

Intending to decrease the churn rate and make a long-term relationship with end users, companies strive to enhance customer experience with convenient app usage at the core. By providing straightforward information architecture, smooth workflows and interaction as well as visual readability and adequate response of generally used functions, one may satisfy consumers with a user-friendly application.

5. Security testing

Within sensitive data, SaaS-based solutions need to enable highly secure storage and disposal of information. Embracing miscellaneous accounts and roles, these applications require thorough validation of access control. To identify vulnerabilities and dodge data breaches, QA specialists perform penetration testing searching for possible bottlenecks.

6. Compliance with requirements

Winning the competition also assumes meeting worldwide standards. Depending on the industry, there might be a need to conduct software testing to comply with HIPAA checklist for eHealth products, OWASP safety recommendations for any-domain web and mobile apps, GDPR for enabling secure data storage and transfer worldwide, and much more.

7. API testing

Connecting with customers’ platforms and other 3rd-party solutions, API testing is a must amid organizations delivering SaaS products. With that, instead of using default user inputs and outputs, QA engineers execute positive and negative scenarios of calls to the APIs and analyze the responses of system interactions. Such approach allows making sure in advance that an API application and a calling solution work in a proper way. It mainly concentrates on the business logic layer of the software architecture.

8. Regression testing

Once having implemented a new functionality, it requires verifying that recent amendments haven’t impacted the developed features. Being an elaborate and cumbersome process, SaaS regression testing incorporates a range of test cases involving all testing types mentioned above and more.

a1qa has experience in delivering comprehensive QA assistance with solid regression testing. Get to know how our QA engineers performed software testing and streamlined assuring quality of the SaaS platform for public housing authorities.

9. Test automation

Alongside optimizing the immersive amount of QA activities and being a great time-saver, automated testing brings such business benefits as cutting QA costs, accelerating time to market, increasing team efficiency, and more.

Test automation is a pivotal element of the CI/CD pipeline that also may facilitate SaaS testing. With the concept of “release early and often” in the heart, it assumes continuously performing checks allowing delivery of faultless software in a strict timeframe avoiding expensive bug fixing.

SUMMING UP

Once having decided to build a truly bug-free SaaS application, there is a need to add SaaS testing in the IT strategy within its specifics including wise cloud resources consumption, prompt updates, multi-tenancy, and customization.

By introducing QA tips from the a1qa’s list, one may improve solutions’ quality, get required business and operational values, and decrease churn rates.

Get hold of a1qa’s experts to improve the quality of SaaS-based products.

In line with digital transformation, the demand for new technologies is growing by leaps and bounds. Businesses are geared towards more independence in the IT sphere, so it’s no longer enough just to support the product – its advancement is a big deal.

One of the ways to suit the requirements of the rapidly evolving market is data migration to the cloud with a secure and well-tuned transfer process at the helm. Otherwise, it can trigger severe repercussions for both production and company.

In this article, we will unveil topical quality issues of data migration and unleash cloud testing potential for business development.

Is it worth starting data migration to the cloud?

Prompt tech market evolution forces businesses to harness new technologies and strengthen their IT apps.

By using cloud computing, organizations not only streamline workflow but also get additional competitive perks. We’ve put together 5 advantages the business can gain in this case.

  1. Round-the-clock access. Now employees are not strictly dependent on the office as cloud storage allows working at any time and any place leveraging 24/7 ecosystem availability.
  2. Total scalability. By choosing cloud, companies can up- or downscale their computing resources thus adjusting the services depending on their needs and objectives.
  3. High data security. Concomitant process security is noteworthy as information can be restored easily due to data backup.
  4. Accelerated adoption. Software and hardware resources can be reconfigured into new information systems and business services in less than no time.
  5. Cost-effectiveness. Companies pay only for the services and capacity they use. There is no longer a need to purchase special equipment and applications for the maintenance of a data center.

Since you have dealt with a cloud provider, you don’t need to hire technical support specialists providing reasonable budget allocation.

Remember it’s not a walk in the park

Despite all that said, data migration can be risky and stressful.

A solid and comprehensive strategy should be built in advance. All points are to be covered, starting from choosing a cloud provider and ending with data transferring. Profound knowledge of all migration steps can help IT managers eliminate business risks and losses.

Another silver bullet is data integrity. A comprehensive supervising of data transfer ensures its accuracy and consistency to avoid possible future misunderstandings.

The biggest issue in moving data to the cloud is the security of the transfer process. The threat of losing access to information and data breach owing to high susceptibility to various attacks may emerge.

Long transmission time is another challenge. It is not easy to predict how much time data migration can take. The connection speed may slow down due to network problems and hardware limitations.

Because of improper planning, many organizations’ budgets suffer from unanticipated costs. According to the Flexera report, respondents estimated expenditures at 27%, while experts suggested – 35%. Data should be divided into parts and migrate gradually, so you need to consider that beforehand where the data will go, to what extent, and in what order.

Data migration challenges

Salvage transition with cloud testing

Companies gather information for decades, and when the data migration time comes, its volume may be unprecedented. Thorough testing can ascertain the quality of the delivered product and ensure that sensitive information won’t leak.

Business needs and project peculiarities determine the choice of a particular testing service.

Functional testing

The engineers review feature by feature and verify whether it complies with the set requirements, integrates seamlessly with the corporate environment, and meets users’ expectations. Also, they check the correct operation of API, data connections, and all information in new storage for compliance with a previous one.

Test automation

By leveraging its best practices, QA specialists scan internal and external vulnerabilities and evaluate compliance with set standards optimizing resources, easing the workload, and eliminating the human factor.

Security testing

IDC’s survey showcases nearly two-thirds of organizations see security as the biggest challenge for cloud adoption with prevailing hacker attacks.

Solid data protection may be enabled by harnessing more powerful software. However, occasionally users uncover their credentials by accident so that the responsibility falls on the company. Two-factor authentication assuming several steps of login can help avoid such cases. For instance, firstly utilize username and password, secondly — a special code sent over SMS.

Security during data transmission is one more layer of cloud protection. Reliable providers should use traffic encryption with HTTPS protocol and SSL certificate to prevent data interception.

Performance testing

The team examines the virtual environment for its resilience to stress and load, endurance, and network latency to detect weak points in its capacity and scalability.

Denial-of-Service attacks (DoS) are common among malicious users. Multiple simultaneous requests to the computer system force it to use a huge amount of resources that eventually cause server overload. Thus, customers are cut out of using the cloud service. Distributed or DDoS attacks are more frequent and are executed from multiple points. Organizations rarely can withstand them.

Only a cloud vendor can assist in setting necessary protection tools and services. Having numerous data channels with a high bandwidth that are geographically dispersed, the cloud provider counteracts to malicious activities. The company filters the traffic using special analyzers and then delivers legitimate traffic to the client’s service.

Bottom line

A shift to data storage in the cloud became an across-the-board need within the advent of the informational age. It brings a range of benefits, including access from any location, cost-effectiveness, and scalability. On the contrary, its implementation is rather challenging and requires investments, including time and money.

A solid transfer plan, comprehensive cloud testing, and providing a high level of security can allow you to be confident in new storage format and information privacy.

Need consultation on data migration? Feel free to contact our experts.

Digital consumers are impatient when speaking about fulfilling their wishes as quickly as possible. The companies that process such requests faster than competitors do enter their list of top brands.

By being recommended to other customers, the businesses are actively growing and obtaining the desired outcomes, including increased market share, cost reduction, profit growth, etc.

For the digital consumer, it does not matter how the company grants these wishes. But many businesses have already realized that adaptation to the requirements of customers is easier when going through the process of digital transformation.

Today, we will focus on what trends and strategic amendments can help the company pass it with fewer difficulties.

Digital transformation strategy components

Each successful digitalization story begins with creating a strategy. It is no longer enough to invest only in the implementation of new technologies, e.g. connecting social networks to a website or creating a chatbot.

Digital transformation implies a significant change in the business model as well as mindset, starting from the product itself and up to improving customer service items.

Before following digitalization, make sure you have taken into consideration the customer experience issues and adaptation to the upcoming changes.

Boosting customer experience

Step-by-step work on managing CX increases the satisfaction and loyalty of current and potential clients and reduces the risk of their outflow.

Digital transformation rethinks the customer experience paradigm. Now, companies should invest in technology that helps accumulate, analyze, and apply clients’ data.

Rethinking the CX model

In addition, any company that is entering the global market should be aware of the importance of generating end-user loyalty concerning its software product. Internationalization and localization of software can ensure successful adaptation of the application to work around the globe. Have a look at what is important to consider when testing such an IT solution in the article by the a1qa expert.

Quick adaptability to the new conditions

Broadly speaking, adaptability is the speed of businesses’ changes. The company has to clearly understand its plans in the market and follow the latest trends. But introducing innovation without a clear understanding of the benefits to a business can be really harmful.

Adaptability also refers to locally tailoring a product to various formats of its usage. For example, not all companies have adapted their websites to mobile phone screens, although since 2017, mobile traffic exceeded that of the desktop.

According to a study by Oxford Economics and SAP, 93% of senior executives surveyed believe that digitalizing a business is critical to survive in the market.

The basis of digital transformation are cutting-edge technologies

For some time, leadership in the market can be preserved with no innovations adoption, but not for long. Read below about technologies that can help to stay afloat and ahead of competitors.

Internet of things

The internet of things (IoT) has become a new stage in the development of the digital world. The main feature of IoT is that there are fewer people online compared to the number of things. According to a Gartner study, the number of things connected to the Internet in 2020 will be over 21 billion items.

IoT connects the objects around us with a global network, where they exchange information and work with no human intervention. How can the IoT technology benefit to a business?

  • Helps keep track of all business assets. Sensor control systems and detectors quickly identify problems while the system independently takes measures to eliminate them.
  • Rapidly identifies problems reducing potential business profit losses.
  • Generates online analytical reports.

Within the IoT trend, digital twinning is used to digitally reflect a real physical object, process, or system and indicate how to increase their efficiency as well as track the technical health and create new technologies.

Here we provide a success story on how this concept was applied to our project.

a1qa was contacted by a company that develops, manufactures, sells, and services analytical equipment for the scientific community to ensure high-quality levels. The system under test consisted of three components: the main processing center, lab, and real devices for water quality indication that were connected to the lab.

To conduct performance testing, the QA specialists would have required to launch the whole laboratory with hundreds of computers and devices. To reduce testing time and save QA budget, a1qa specialists developed a simulator for real devices, which helped mitigate risks and accelerate time to market.

Cloud technologies

In 2009, cloud technology represented 5% of the global IT market ($17 billion). Furthermore, in 2014, business investments in cloud technologies were amounted to over $175 billion. There is no secret that this indicator continues to rise.

Cloud technologies provide convenient network access to the information fund and allow several teams to work on a project at the same time.

According to the forecasts of the international research and consulting company IDC, cloud services will be actively used in 2020 and after. This can allow companies to work anywhere and anytime.

In five years, more than half of the businesses are expected to develop 90% of cloud-based and microservices-related applications. IDC encourages them to think about it now and start working with open-source software communities.

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) has significantly improved the quality of business processes by quickly managing large amounts of information, accelerating the pace of goods production and task execution, and improving the product-user experience.

For humans, the technology has a familiar and understandable embodiment of the voice assistant. Starbucks is a good example of a company that uses AI to work with clients. Alexa’s cloud-based virtual assistant has become a waiter on the Starbucks network. A user may request: “Alexa, let Starbucks make my coffee.”

AI-based digitizing will require serious financial investments. In order not to lose money in vain, the process of introducing AI technology should begin with the definition of business goals.

Machine learning

Machine learning (ML) is one of the most sought-after technical areas for business. The main idea of ML lies in the self-training process based on a given algorithm.

This technology helps create a new line of new goods and services faster, increase the attractiveness of products for the client, and identify the patterns of user behavior.

How to use this technology? For example, some telecom companies have learned to predict the desire of customers to access a service using machine learning. The client receives an offer before directly applying for it. The user saves his time, and the company gains profit.

Big data

By now, people have formed almost 40-44 zettabytes of information, which is expected to increase by 10 times by 2025 according to The Age of Data of 2025 report.

The concept of predictive analytics is closely related to this big data helping identify patterns and algorithms in it. It is especially relevant for e-commerce brands allowing analyzing information about customers’ behavior and identifying the likelihood of purchasing in the future.

This year, predictive analytics is expected to be an investment for improving customer experience technologies.

Fast and accurate information processing creates new business opportunities. Though, it is important to remember that working with big data is always related to information security issues. The data leakage can result in million-dollar losses for companies and invaluable damage to their reputation.

To protect the brand from such major losses, you can apply to our experts to conduct accurate big data testing.

Blockchain

The analytical company Gartner called practical blockchain one of the strategic trends for 2020. Now, this technology is badly scalable and is adopted in experimental and small projects. According to the experts, by 2023, practical blockchain will become fully scalable.

By helping reduce costs, increase the speed of money transactions, and provide a more secure data transfer from transaction participants, analysts recommend thinking about implementing blockchain in the businesses in 2020.

Technologies used for digitalization

Bottlenecks of digital transformation

It is worth realizing that digital transformation remains a multi-level and multifaceted process. Although introducing advanced technologies is an investment in the future, one can bring the required profits when searching for new business solutions. Nevertheless, digitalization has its downsides.

While being over-enthusiastic at the start of the transformation, the incorrect ROI definition can also be a key mistake. The world has already seen the launch of ambitious projects and companies seeking to become leaders in digitalization, which resulted in money loss.

Another common mistake is when the businesses create a new division and turn it into a deeply integrated company. Innovations designed for good ROI become a financial burden for companies in the present situation.

What mistakes should be avoided in addition to the two named before? For example, starting the journey of transformation for the sake of transformation to support the trend. It also might be an imprudent decision to ignore the creation of a unified strategy with the chaotic usage of tools and approaches.

The process of ensuring the quality of software products is equally important. Timely testing helps release bug-free software and take care of the customers’ loyalty providing the necessary business outcomes.

Conclusion

Being an ongoing process, digital transformation is rapidly gaining momentum. The companies have to select the needed types and tools based on the specifics of their business. By using new technologies, brands continue to grow and gain a competitive advantage in the market.

However, the path of digital transformation includes some risks as well. In the case of neglecting to build a coherent strategy, choose the right toolset, and ensure software quality a company can lose its profits.

Soon, businesses can face problems of successfully existing outside the digital space. Step-by-step implementation of this process can help stay on the wave.

Are you thinking about integrating the digital transformation into your business? Request an expert consultation to do it right.

Software testing has expanded substantially from the manual approach since the 1980s. As much as the testing activities aims are altering, the QA experts have to expeditiously adjust to the numerous software testing sphere transformations.

The testing discipline will carry on augmenting. Accordingly, we’ve rounded up the top 11 tendencies that will determine the future of testing in 2019 and beyond.

Here’s what we suppose QA professionals need to focus on to stay ahead of top technology progress.

Internet of Things testing

IoT is one of the fastest developing technologies in the modern world. The latest World Quality Report (WQR) revealed that the number of IT respondents that somehow deal with IoT had risen from 83% in 2017 to 93% in 2018.

IoT devices and applications with the connection to the internet are to be tested for security, usability, and performance. Most IoT developments include such technologies as Near Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) to connect and enable communication. All these make IoT gadgets vulnerable to network-related threats that should also be recognized by QA engineers.

Artificial intelligence in testing

According to the Gartner’s 2018 CIO Survey, 1 in 25 CIOs has implemented artificial intelligence in their companies. Google, Facebook, Microsoft spend billions on artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives.

Obviously, AI will grow further and it has its own role in testing as well.

AI can definitely streamline the process and make it smarter. AI-powered software testing can recognize the code changes, analyze them, and launch tests to make sure there are no mistakes. As of today, AI is widely used in test automation.

But in the future with the adoption of AI-powered testing, manual testers will be able to move forward their routine tasks, perform more of exploratory testing, thus reducing costs and bringing more value to the business.

In general, AI will change the profession of software testers and turn them all into test automation specialists.

But of course, this won’t happen overnight and the impact of AI on software testing is yet to be observed.

Increased adoption of Agile and DevOps practices

In DevOps, software testing starts from the very beginning of the software development lifecycle. As a result, most of the defects can be recognized at the earliest and the high-quality application will make it to the market sooner. This approach enables Continuous Delivery and Continuous Integration.

No surprise, 30% of the WQR respondents claimed these methods to be a significant aspect of their today IT business strategy.

There’s nothing path-breaking about saying that the Agile and DevOps adoption tendency will keep on gaining momentum in 2019.

Big Data is getting bigger

Data can be very beneficial to organizations. Given its proper quality, of course.

Volume, velocity, variety – these are the 3 V’s that characterize big data. Considering the exponential growth of big data generated, software testing engineers will have to continue keeping their eyes on its quality.

With the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation has come into effect on May 25, 2018, more attention should be given to data privacy. And while GDPR is only focused on Europe, many companies outside it stated they would change their data policies accordingly to keep good relationships with their customer base.

Test automation (yes, again!)

Test automation has been the key trend in testing for more than 15 years already. It is hardly surprising that the purpose of QA automation has fundamentally changed – the point is to make a high-quality product as opposed to saving the resources.

68% of the World Quality Report respondents said test automation improved the test coverage compared with the previous year when the percentage was lower by 17% and by 28% since 2016.

In other words, the contribution of QA automation in companies increases. It has undeniable pros in cost savings, removing defects, transparency testing expansion. Test automation guarantees high-grade software is delivered.

And as test automation guarantees a top-notch quality of the software, its tools will be used further to perform both functional and non-functional tests. Testing engineers will concentrate their time and efforts on running experiments and exploratory tests rather than perform routine testing.

a1qa has developed an open-source framework – Aquality  Automation. See its main benefits at the short overview of the presentation done by test automation engineer at the 9th traditional a1qa conference.

The open-source way

Manual testing will stay

Regardless test automation is becoming more popular, manual testing has much to say to the industry. There’re still some spheres like design and usability, which require manual efforts. So yes, manual testing will stay longer with us.

Performance engineering & performance testing

We’ve heard it multiple times that very soon performance engineering will replace performance testing. What’s the difference between them?

Performance testing is about preparing and executing tests, while performance engineering is about understanding how all parts of the system work together and designing its best performance.

However, performance testing is not sharply falling behind the performance engineering. According to the World Quality Report, performance testing conducted in cloud environments has grown by 14% since 2016.

Delivery cycles will get shorter

DevOps, test automation, constant improvements in communication flow have one common goal – speed up releases.

In pursuit of willingness to take a proper place in the market and provide high-quality software organizations enlarge budgets to shorten delivery processes and quicken releases.

Of course, this puts (and will put in 2019) additional pressure on QA departments and make them find imperfections and supply the finished products more frequently.

Open-source tools will prevail

Easily accessible, resilient, and free of charge – open-source products are precious and extremely helpful for IT business.

Though they don’t give a sense of security. However, frequent usage by the community helps to discover and eliminate bugs faster than you can imagine.

Cloud will get more popular

The WQR survey mentions only 27% of all applications are non-cloud based. Today cloud computing is the groundwork for other tendencies like DevOps and IoT.

The public cloud is becoming more popular – its percentage in the number of clouds’ types has got higher by 3% since 2017.

The tendency goes further – respondents prefer to use different cloud service providers, so we see the multi-cloud popularity growing.

Running tests in the cloud has its many benefits: minimum efforts required (you don’t need your own infrastructure to perform mobile and web testing), simple accessibility, and high versatility.

Security testing becomes more crucial

With the broad use of smartphones, tablets, computers, and other devices, one’s got used to relying on them for transactions. It has made security testing more crucial for every company to store shared or accessed data safe and deter security violations.

The survey states, it has grown up by 10% since 2016. Since the confrontation between security and privacy continues to grow, this testing will remain an urgent necessity for many companies.

Summing up

Forewarned is forearmed. Considering all these tendencies, organizations and businesses have time and opportunities to implement industry best practices creating unique QA approaches and ensure the impeccable quality of their solutions.

Last time we started comparing Cloud storage security and touched Amazon AWS advantages and shortcomings. Today software testing engineer Anna Andreeva is going to provide you with Windows Azure description.

Windows Azure

Although recently Windows Azure provided only cloud “platform as a service» (PaaS), introducing series of updates made Azure to be a full-fledged cloud infrastructure to run applications on Windows Server and Linux.  Independent performance testing showed that Windows Azure is far ahead of its competitors, thereby strengthening the leading position. So, what is included in the security package?

  • Mutual SSL-authentication. All internal traffic is sent in encrypted form, which prevents information outflow, even if it is intercepted.
  • Management of certificates and private keys. Mentioned certificates and keys are generated by a separate mechanism, which is not available from the application code. They are encrypted and stored in a secret repository. There is a possibility of an additional password protection.
  • Principle of Minimal Privilege. Custom applications running on virtual machines with minimal rights, which complicates any kind of attack, since their implementation requires escalation of privileges.
  • Data access control. Windows Azure has a simple model for managing data access. For each client’s account secret key is generated that is used to gain access to the vault, tied to this account.
  • Isolation of Hypervisor, host OS and the guest virtual machines. Client virtual machines Isolation is critical for safe sharing of disk space. Hypervisor and the root OS are responsible for isolation of guest virtual machines In Windows Azure.
  • Packet filtering. Hypervisor and the root OS filtering unsafe packet traffic.
  • VLAN Isolation. Internal data transfer is organized so that all traffic when moving from one network to another is verified by router. That protects data from listening and getting external traffic into the internal network infrastructure.
  • Removal of outdated data. To ensure a high level of security after the removal the platform checks and removes all references to the purified resource. All copies are also erased by means of scavengers.

It can be seen from the description that the security mechanisms offered by the providers, aimed at protecting domestic architecture – hardware and client VMs.

And this is natural, since for provider it is important to prevent further attacks in case of illegal capture virtual machine. i.e. access to root operating system, unauthorized listening of other client machines traffic or getting information stored on disk. The process of developing cloud web application does not differ much from the development of applications written in a regular PC. So all web application threats remain relevant in the cloud, and that is why customer is responsible for protection and secure configuration.

Summing up, the use of cloud infrastructure has a huge advantage. Stability, availability, flexibility – are the most important criteria for successful implementation of the project. However, the issue of safety here is also worth acute me as “old fashion” ones.

The artilce Cloud Storage Security: AWS Vs.Azure by Anna Andreeva was published in Network Computing online edition, you can read the full version here.

Today  the use of cloud-based storages is becoming more and more popular. Indeed, why should you care about  buying and configuring the server, ensuring its physical and virtual stability, if instead you can actually afford to buy any number of virtual machines and change their quantity depending on the influx of visitors to your resource. The article by Anna Andreeva, security testing engineer.

Cloud providers allow you to get fast access to all the necessary equipment for virtual work both small sized and enterprise applications with complex business logic and numerous services. In addition, development process of cloud web application does not differ much from applications written in a conventional computer. Definitely, it is convenient. Especially if you must run the project in the short term  and it’s difficult to predict  the number of users. In such cases, cloud “infrastructure as a service» (IaaS) is convenient which offered by a dozen of eminent providers.

However, how safe it actually is to store your data in the cloud? After all, if the server is not in the next room  and  the door is locked with a key, someone definitely has access to it – at least network provider staff.

How safe is the transmission of data from client to the cloud storage? And back? That’s what two most popular providers offering cloud infrastructure are saying about their safety.

Perhaps,  the most famous provider of cloud infrastructure is Amazon EC2, which has long been a leader among competitors.

What the customer gets when entrusts the product to Amazon?

  • Multilevel security. Security mechanisms implemented at several levels:  for host operating systems, virtual instances and virtual guest OS, as well as firewalls and API calls.
  • Hypervisor. Amazon EC2 uses a modified version of the Xen hypervisor, which can significantly improve the performance of virtual machines through paravirtualization. And access to the CPU implemented with separate privileges:  Host OS has the highest level (0), the guest OS – level 1, and the applications have the least privileges (level 3).
  • Isolation instances. Multiple guests can be deployed on one physical machine. Although instances do not have direct access to the physical disk, they are given the virtual data storages.  In order data from different applications do not influence each other in the case of disk space liberation, information from each of the storage units is automatically deleted (the value is set as zero). Memory is not returned to the pool of free memory until the reset process completes.
  • Security of the host OS. Multifactorial authentication system is envisaged for administrative access to the hosts management.  If an employee no longer needs in such access his account canceles.
  • Host OS security. Support of  security here lies entirely on the development team, as provider does not have access to both  – the instances and guest operating systems that are installed on them. It is in fact a strong side in the context of application security (provider can not get the customer’s data) but also creates  potential vulnerabilities for attacks.  Configuration errors can potentially give attacker access to applications, data, and even entire virtual machine.
  • Firewall. By default, all firewall’s  ports are closed. This means that the customer himself must vividly  open the ports for incoming traffic. Amazon provides the ability to split  the levels of access groups (Security Groups).
  • API access. API calls to start or interrupt instances, change firewall settings and other functions signed by a secret key (Amazon Secret Access Key). Access to API is impossible without it. In addition, the API calls are encrypted using kriptogafical SSL protocol.

Read the second part here.

The artilce Cloud Storage Security: AWS Vs.Azure by Anna Andreeva was published in Network Computing online edition, you can read the full version here.

Network Computing provides IT community members with in-depth analysis on new and emerging infrastructure technologies, real-world advice on implementation and operations, and practical strategies for improving their skills and advancing careers. The journal is appreciated by IT professionals globally.

Cloud storage: pick the best option

The modern enterprise workplace includes an abundance of mobile devices and computers that generate a serious need for safe, accessible, and convenient storage and sharing of data. Cloud storage provides the flexibility of accessing files from anywhere in the world, with the benefit of knowing that important documents, images, videos, and other data and software are securely stored and available at all times.

Cloud storage is used both by IT professionals and simple users for saving all kinds of data and exchanging information. Large companies are experiencing a heavy increase in demand for this technology for internal documentation and nomenclature storage. While it is not difficult to check the price per gigabyte and the level of security each option offers, the trick is to find an optimal combination of these and other factors that are important to your business. It is ultimately up to IT manager to prioritize these criteria and communicate them to users.

To read full articles click here.

Popular American online IT magazine “Network computing” published a1qa engineer’s Pavel Andreev “Cloud storage: Pick the best option” article on May 14.

When describing cloud services I tried to give you all the pros and cons. Now, I want to offer some issues to think over before buying an account at a cloud platform. First, which is better: cloud service or a real device? In fact, from a tester`s point of view a REAL device is always better. But how it looks like from the financial side? Let`s compare the prices depending upon the project category, workload, and terms.

Option 1. 10 hours per month

DeviceAnywhere offers 10 hours per month with one hour costing 18$ + 100$ registration fee. Perfecto Mobile is a bit cheaper – 17$ per hour. As a result:

  • If you need multiple devices, non-standard platforms, medium environment quality, get a package at 170$ in price at Perfecto Mobile platform (in case it is not enough, think of package comprising 10 hours at 250$ in price);
  • If  you need multiple devices, non-standard platforms, and you have free means for a good tool, then package at 280$ by DeviceAnywhere is your option;
  • If you have NO requirements to the number of devices. It`s better to get an inexpensive Android model and a Windows Phone, as they are always necessary.

Option 2.  50 hours per month

Need 50 hours per month for efficient work flow? Then you should choose between DeviceAnywhere account – 16$ per hour + a fee; and a Perfecto Mobile account – 15 $ per hour. Let`s see what we get:

  • 900$ account at DeviceAnywhere versus 750$ Perfecto Mobile account. If you have NO free means, then the Perfecto Mobile account is a good choice. If you HAVE means, than it`s obviously better to choose Device Anywhere account
  • Yet the pricing for the accounts is equal to the price of a new iPhone. Maybe, it`s worth buying a real device, if a company still doesn`t have it. But the requirements define everything,and when a company needs a complex like “iPhone 4S + iPhone 5 + iPad mini + iPad 4”, cloud services is definitely a way out.

Having analyzed the numbers and various options, I would like to say that cloud services are better to use in case of lack of real devices.  The prices for the accounts vary from 1440$ to 72600$ depending upon the hours, number of users and duration of use.

When applying to cloud services REALLY worth doing?

  1. You are engaged in project that requires minimum time, e.g. a week or even one working day; and the tests are exercised upon a platform that your team is unfamiliar with. OR, the test should be run upon multiple device models, which are of little interest to your company. In case like this, think first, how the test like this can be held in such short time AND why did you get engaged in project like this? Afterwards, if there is no other way out get a paid cloud service account (DeviceAnywhere showed the best effectiveness).
  2. A project presupposes testing within some region or mobile operator (like American Verizon). If the client hasn`t found a vendor with real devices connected to the operator, then apply to cloud services with no hesitation, a paid account is a right choice.
  3. In case you face a strong need to buy some specific device in some special region, first of all check the device availability. If the device is really impossible to buy, and it`s unavailable in the support service; think of a paid account on one of the platforms. Though keep in mind, that Perfecto Mobile and DeviceAnywhere are not the museums of ancient devices, so no one can guarantee that it`s a solutions to your problem.
  4. If a client developed an app specially for the newest device model, but it`s not on sale yet, and the deadline grows closer. Then, first check the device availability at the cloud platform device park, if they have it – buy an account.

Eventually, except some situations of force majeure, it is always better to widen the company`s device park.  Mobile cloud services cannot compete with real devices; both in price and in testing environment quality.

Anyway, if the project budget won`t get hurt much in case of buying a paid account, and 10 minute trial sessions is not a problem – it is reasonable to apply to a free account on DeviceAnywhere platform while testing websites and small mobile applications.

So in a nutshell, keep in mind that tests always show better results on a REAL device.

American company Keynote Systems is a developer of cloud monitoring services. DeviceAnywhere platform includes complex solutions for mobile app testing and automation of testing processes, along with development, analysis and certification processes.

In the end of 2012 DeviceAnywhere served more than 2000 devices including smartphones and tablets, having real time connection to mobile operators of US, Canada, UK, France, Germany and other countries. The company cooperates with Dell, Salesforce, Google and Microsoft.

Among the services that DeviceAnywhere offers are:

  • Application and web-sites manual testing run upon the company`s devices
  • Web-site testing upon multiple device with URL input
  • Application testing supported with outgoing and incoming text messages
  • Calls and messages exchange among several virtual devices
  • Full control under device operation process (physical and virtual keypad, touch and slide functions, g-sensor, device restart, battery disconnection)
  • Operation upon unlimited number of devices simultaneously (fee per hour)
  • Fast screenshot export
  • PC keyboard text input
  • Scalable picture form device to PC
  • Control over audio/video quality (important for slow internet connection)
  • Test case manager, business paper organizer
  • Automation script creation and processing upon several devices (Enterprise package)

Trial service version offers unlimited free connection to the limited park of devices consisting of 10-15 devices, each session lasts for 10 minutes. In trial version you may work on platforms: iOS (iPhone 4S, iPhone 5), WinPhone (Nokia Lumia 710) and Android (trendy smartphones by Motorola, Samsung and LG).

The picture is quite distinct – imaging and colours are clear, text is readable. When watching HD video you may face some hovering.  I haven`t met negative feedback on the service, devices are responsive to every user action, though a bit slower than real smartphones. All the devices operate correctly, without malfunctions in the testing process. Talking about disadvantages, I`d like to point out that you can`t upload apps through Market/Store, when using free version.

In fact, I`d like to say cloud service DeviceAnywhere is a perfect and (even irreplaceable) free tool testing web-sites imaging and running Smoke tests for small ready apps. To hold more profound and serious testing, you need to buy a paid account, that has an increased device park and no 10 minutes sessions. Despite of all platform advantages, think before buying a paid account.

In the next article I`ll give you some points to think over before buying a paid account.

Perfecto Mobile is an Israeli based company, one of the biggest ones in the domain of Cloud Services. Main company`s product is SaaS MobileCloud platform, which includes MobileCloud-Interactive, MobileCloud-Automation and MobileCloud-Monitoring services. This tool package is a universal system for application testing and monitoring.

Applying to MobileCloud platform you can perform real-time testing of smartphones, phones and tablets. Company`s park of devices includes more than 500 devices, operating on Android, Blackberry, iOS, Symbian and WinPhone platforms. Almost all devices have real a connection to US mobile operators (at&t, T-Mobile, Verizon), UK operators(O2,Orange, Vodafone). Devices are also connected to Indian, Canadian, Israeli and other mobile companies.

Making this research I singled out such advantages of Mobile Cloud platform as:

  • Full control over the device (real and virtual keyboard, touch and slide functions, accelerometer, turn in/off functions)
  • Possibility to make calls, send text messages, access to the internet (devices work have access to price plans)
  • Automized procedures of app installation, incoming calls, incoming text messages, file upload, information input from OS clipboard and laptop keyboard
  • Recommendations about device utilization in different countries
  • Simultaneous automation testing on several devices
  • Device sharing

Nevertheless, real-time operation with MobileCloud services is far from being ideal. First of all, you have only 60 minutes to use trial-version (this is the time-limit for non-paid account), and while this 60 minutes you face certain challenges like:

  • Long response time
  • Indistinct (often unreadable) image
  • Constant device interaction failures (cannot process data/touch function challenges)
  • Hot-functions do not operate upon most of the devices ( incoming call and text messages simulation)
  • Constant device malfunctioning (screen turns off, restarts, loses data, reports about mistakes)

Working in trial session you have only 5 devices in your disposal: 2 iOS (iPhone 4S and iPad 4), 2 Android devices (Motorola Droid Razr 4.0.4  and Samsung Galaxy Nexus 4.2.2), and a Blackberry 9860, though even in trial version you often face malfunctions.

In the whole, I can say that, even though MobileCloud platform offers multiple tools and possibilities for mobile testing, lots of malfunctions make the process of testing quite challenging. Mobile Cloud platform is really expensive in comparison with other services. That is why before choosing between real devices and MobileCloud you have to weight all the pros and cons – calculate expenditures, critical issues and lack of devices.

In my next blog post we`ll talk about DeviceAnywhere project, article comes out on next Tuesday.

The author of this blog post, Pavel Andreev, is an experienced tester and QA manager at a1qa. Pavel is a talented QA engineer, with 6 years of working experience. During this years published articles in several magazines, like “Power electronics”. Pavel has a bachelor degree and fluently speaks English. Being a well-versed specialist, he knows every shoal of mobile functional testing and offers an experienced-based insight in mobile clouds services.

The issue of acceptable application functioning becomes more and more essential in mobile testing industry. Various platforms, operating systems, screen sizes and mobile devices complicate the process of app adaptation and cause new issues. Thus mobile cloud services become popular for mobile device testing. Nevertheless, multiple questions arise. As for efficient use you are to know how the cloud services function, which service is better and are they really valuable?

It worth saying that applying to cloud services you get a great package of functions that simplify and optimize mobile app testing, among those you can find:

  • Remote use of mobile park devices;
  • Big choice of devices with different screen sizes and functioning on different platforms, operation systems;
  • One-click function imitation (incoming call, incoming messages, connection loss etc.);
  • Establishment of mobile testing environment: logging, screenshots and one click video record.

These functions offer you considerable advantage for mobile testing. To be specific you can:

  • Test devices that haven`t come out to market yet (for example, devices made only for the US);
  • Work with most popular devices, which launch delays in some regions;
  • Work with outdated devices, which are of no buying purpose in company`s devices park;
  • Work with real connection to foreign Telecom operators (at&t, T-Mobile, Verizon, Vodafone etc.);
  • Work with various types of internet connection (Wi-Fi, 3G, LTE, Edge, GPRS);
  • Test mobile apps without need of buying expensive devices.

Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages when you operate with cloud services:

  • Low connection speed;
  • Weak device response;
  • Constant server and device glitches;
  • Expensive subscription for  paid-for-service.

Today among the world the greatest domain companies stand Israeli company Perfecto Mobile (MobileCloud project) and American Keynote Systems (DeviceAnywhere project). Wondering which to choose? In these article series we`ll have a detailed insight into the both services.

Next article of Cloud services for mobile testing comes on next Tuesday.

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