As we approach the culmination of 2023, it’s time to take an opportunity and reflect on the wealth of knowledge that has transpired during a1qa’s online roundtables.
Let’s cut to the chase!
Unveiling the importance of a1qa’s roundtables for IT leaders
Recognizing the paramount importance of fostering a dynamic exchange of QA insights and best practices, a1qa hosts a series of monthly online roundtables designed for top executives.
These exclusive sessions help bring together diverse IT experts to deliberate on topical QA-related issues, such as quality engineering trends, test automation, shift-left testing principles, among others.
Analyzing QA trends helps business executives to proactively shape their QA strategies, ensuring they are in sync with the industry’s evolving landscape. While automation assists them in accelerating IT product’s delivery, enhancing its quality, and reducing operational expenditure.
Also, the attendees talked about the best moment for QA to step into the SDLC stages and methods to make the communication between Dev and QA more efficient.
The second quarter roundtables overview
This period was marked by three vibrant conversations:
“How to release a quality product within a limited budget” — C-level reps exchanged practical experience on mapping software quality expectations to a QA strategy and optimizing QA costs.
“A closer look at the field of automated testing” took center stage during the 3rd quarter, emphasizing how to derive more values from test automation supported by AI and behavior-driven development.
The fourth quarter roundtables overview
During the last quarter of 2023, IT executives have already engaged in two insightful conversations — “How to organize testing and increase confidence when starting a new project” and “Rough deadlines: how to deliver better results in less time.”
At the October event, the attendees revealed the best QA approach to choose to be confident in a project’s success from the outset, optimize ROI, and reduce business risks. The November roundtable helped the participants voice their ideas and share real-life cases on meeting tight deadlines without compromising software quality.
Thanks for being part of our roundtables in 2023!
To sum up
Our journey through the diverse and insightful roundtable discussions hosted by a1qa’s professionals with in-depth QA and software testing expertise throughout 2023 has been a testament to the company’s commitment to fostering knowledge, collaboration, and innovation in the ever-evolving landscape of IT.
From exploring emerging QA trends to delving into the nuances of automated testing, each session has played a pivotal role in helping IT executives shape future strategies.
Need support in refining the quality of your IT solutions? Reach out to a1qa’s team.
In 2022, 196.7 million Americans made purchases during Black Friday, and 87.2 million of them opted for online shopping.
Consumers are not just waiting for Black Friday and Cyber Monday sell-offs ― eCommerce sales reached $1.04 trillion in 2022 in the USA alone. Making millions, billions, or trillions during these periods is not a fantasy. Flawless operation of websites and mobile apps that withstand the visitors’ influx can make it a reality.
In this article, we’ll discuss 5 testing types, that help ensure high eCommerce software quality and outperform the competition during the wildest shopping weekend.
#1. Performance testing: Are you ready for a spike in shoppers?
The main driver of software failures during holiday sales is online traffic surges. The matter, of course, is that consumers anticipate Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping year-round. The most crucial question is, “Will my IT solution handle it?” That’s where load testing should come into play to identify critical system bottlenecks under required/peak loads as well as verify such aspects as response time, pressure levels, and the maximum possible load that the app endures.
Customers constantly refresh web and mobile apps’ pages (and 25% of users abandon them if the load takes more than 4-6 seconds), adding and removing goods from the cart. If the software is not stress-resistant, it fails to work under such conditions and may crash or lead to security issues. Here, stress testing helps assess the upper limits of app capacity as well as ensure the high quality of a CRM system used to process online orders.
#2. Usability testing: Glitch-free navigation and interface
Easy browsing, user-friendly navigation, handy catalog ― all of this helps cut down the time to figure out how the app works.
Usability testing detects weak points in UI/UX while providing an intuitive interaction with the eCommerce product. No one wants to spend hours trying to understand how an online store operates — as a result, people turn to rival platforms where everything is crystal clear. So, first and foremost, companies should focus on the system’s ease of use, which 97% of consumers consider their top priority, even over security-related issues (89%).
#3. Functional testing: Does the software meet business requirements?
Cyber Monday. Imagine that the consumer decided to purchase the newest robot vacuum cleaner model, placed the order, and clicked the button to get to the next page. But nothing happens. An awful customer experience is the only thing one receives on this day.
To help the client enjoy the shopping journey, functional testing is a must-have for your business strategy. Shopping cart, login systems, order placement and tracking, various payment options — all of these are equally crucial. Can the user utilize them as intended? Do they work correctly? Are they developed in line with the requirements? Functional tests help answer these questions and prevent the system from unexpected freezes and crashes.
#4. Cybersecurity testing: Are the payments safe enough?
In 2022, Kaspersky detected 38,596,555 phishing attacks targeting users of online shopping platforms while the average cost of a data breach reached $4.45 million. What to expect during Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year, in case your software isn’t prepared for attacks?
Source: Cost of a Data Breach Report 2023
Consequences of poorly protected web and mobile apps include loss of revenue, reputational damage, operational disruption, and more. But the main question: how to bypass it? In addition to general safety tests (to assess the overall security level), it’s vital to implement penetration checks — how does the software operate during an unauthorized intrusion?
And the security of online transactions ― the entire process from order placement to the payment itself should be frictionless allowing for complete protection of customers and their sensitive data, helping increase their loyalty and trust.
#5. Localization testing: Show your app to end users worldwide
During Cyber Monday and Black Friday, customers are reluctant to translate anything they are unfamiliar with or try to understand prices reflected in currencies that they are not accustomed to. An easy task for localization tests ― to meet the cultural and linguistic needs of the buyers and provide seamless user experience for various regions.
So, to delight consumers during holiday sales, businesses should consider reflecting all worldwide shoppers’ cultural features, values, currency, and other critical aspects and ensure that everything works properly. These are some types of localization testing that may be of help:
Compliance checks ― to validate that the application supports the formatting standards of a particular language and correctly displays currencies, convention rates, phone numbers, addresses, dates, etc.
GUI checks ― to verify any discrepancies between the localized content and the interface.
Functional checks ― to detect the glitches in system operation caused by localization.
And of course, do not forget to take one step back. When introducing new functionality, verifying the previous features is imperative to avoid possible software bugs and mitigate the risks. Since the regression tests are repetitive, companies may automate them, reducing testing cycles and redirecting human resources to more valuable tasks.
The ultimate QA checklist to ensure your eCommerce platform peak performance during Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Dive into our checklist and discover how meticulous QA helps enhance 12 pivotal software areas, allowing businesses to withstand the influx of shoppers during holiday sales.
To enjoy good deals and big profits during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it’s crucial to pre-test your web and mobile apps and make your QA strategy smart all the way from performance to regression testing.
In case you need professional QA support to prepare your software for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, reach out to a1qa’s experts.
eCommerce sales are steadily growing. While in 2021 the market size totaled $5.2 trillion, by 2026, it’s projected to reach $8.1 trillion.
As the number of digital shoppers increases (they comprise 33% of the population!), businesses strive to provide an unrivaled shopping experience.
The research by Baymard Institute shows that approximately 70% of people abandon their shopping carts due to an app’s poor functioning. And some of the competitors earn more.
With this article, we want to help you outperform them. Explore 7 types of testing to release defect-free mobile commerce solutions:
Functional testing to ensure flawless software operation
Functional tests help scrutinize that key software elements (main and description pages, product categories, shopping cart, search, filtering, sorting) operate like clockwork. They also allow spotting and fixing defects in the search bar, forms, and payment gateways before the launch.
With this type of testing, companies, provide enjoyable end-user experiences, and make sure that customers can navigate, select, and purchase items without roadblocks.
Perfomance testing to ease congestion
Have many of your consumers left your app because it was too slow?
90% of people abandoned websites in 2020. And the same is true for mobile solutions.
Fast-loading pages, images appearing on the screen in the blink of an eye, and smooth software operation under high traffic, especially during holiday seasons like Black Friday, are just a few usual buyers’ expectations. If you fail to fulfill these demands, 57% of users will choose to shop from a competitor.
Source: Retail Systems Research
Conducting performance testing aids to:
Check whether the system handles the target load
Verify the platform’s behavior in extreme conditions
Test the program’s performance under various network conditions (3G, 4G, or Wi-Fi)
Measure the software response times during page loads, search queries, and checkout processes
Assess how the app handles multiple users performing actions simultaneously.
Cybersecurity testing to prevent data breaches
73% of eCommerce companies interviewed consider security to be a major business challenge. It’s no surprise why, just look at this example.
A year ago, cybercriminals gained unauthorized access to SHEIN’s, the online fast-fashion retailer, payment systems and placed the credit card data of 39 million customers for sale on the dark web. The result? The brand’s owner was fined $1.9 million.
Virtual stores keep large amounts of private details about users, such as home and office addresses, debit and credit card data, buying history. Even a single breach can have devastating consequences.
Adopting cybersecurity testing is the way to identify vulnerabilities within the app as well as ensure all sensitive data is well-safeguarded against theft or unauthorized access.
Compatibility testing to provide consistent app experience
Shoppers access eCommerce IT solutions from an assortment of mobile devices, each running on different operating systems.
How to protect your solutions against all of that? That’s where compatibility testing comes in, allowing organizations to guarantee that the app functions smoothly across various devices, browsers, OSs, and their multiple combinations.
Integration testing to seamlessly merge software components
Mobile solutions for eCommerce often rely on interconnected components: payment gateways, customer databases, inventory management, order tracking, third-party APIs, CRM and CMS systems. To ensure that they work in harmony and the data is transferred accurately, we suggest focusing on integration tests to eliminate transaction failures and costly breakdowns in production. Good one if you have a goal to repeat visits and purchases.
Usability testing to enhance user experience
No one wants to spend endless hours looking for their desired items due to poor search functionality. An intuitive, user-friendly interface and navigation are imperative to keep buyers engaged and increase conversion rates.
With usability testing, businesses identify and rectify issues related to confusing layouts, cumbersome checkout processes, and unclear product descriptions.
Test automation to accelerate software releases
In the fast-paced world of online shopping every second can be the difference between a sale and an abandoned cart. Here, test automation becomes a valuable asset to expedite QA processes and release cycles without quality compromise.
To get more, adopt test automation during:
Regression testing — to verify that recent changes don’t break existing functionalities.
Performance testing — to mimic real-world scenarios with a large number of simultaneous users and evaluate system behavior under different loads.
Compatibility testing — to validate software operation across as many combinations of devices and mobile browsers as possible.
Our case in point
One of the leading US-based manufacturers of home appliances requested a1qa’s support in boosting its eCommerce software quality and accelerating time to market.
So, the team helped increase the number of potential users by 30%, assured the seamless integration of the ready-made payment platforms and correct distribution of taxes, and cut the time required for smoke tests by 90%.
To wrap it up
From the first click to the final purchase, these 7 testing types — functional, performance, cybersecurity, compatibility, integration, usability, and test automation— allow eCommerce businesses to prepare high-quality mobile solutions for prime time.
Do you need assistance in reinforcing your eCommerce software quality? Contact a1qa’s team for professional QA support.
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Do you like to “Wait”? Well, of course, no one does.
Imagine the families together in front of the screen. Hot pizza, sweet cocoa for kids, and… the beloved Christmas movie loads for minutes, crashes, or they can’t even log in to the streaming account. So, instead, youngsters watch Tik Tok, adults chat – the platform is switched off. No one likes to wait. This evening could have been a lot nicer.
Well in real life, let’s recall when Netflix subscribers who rushed to watch the 4th season of Stranger Things. In return for their excitement, all they saw was the platform crash.
The result? Churn. Netflix shares dropped by 65% due to losing more than 1 million subscribers in the first two quarters of 2022.
Factors to keep in mind to win the “streaming tussle”
The streaming market is growing offering an immense number of apps and platforms to choose from dozens of alternatives. Video streaming industry revenue alone is expected to reach $1035.87 billion in 2027 compared to $444.3 billion in 2022.
Source: Precedence Research
Is digital transformation to blame? Well, mostly. Cloud-based solutions, AI, ML, etc. — all these trigger the necessity to introduce innovations into streaming platforms.
During stay-at-home orders in 2020-2021, the demand for OTT services soared and is still incrementally growing, counting over 3 billion users worldwide.
As for preferred viewing platforms, the mobile channel is the most popular among end users, with 68% of U.S. viewers saying this is their first option.
The growing acceptance of portable devices in combination with an extensive range of high-speed Internet technologies such as 4G, 5G, and LTE accounts for the increasing use of video streaming.
With all said above, how to prepare your streaming platform for heavy loads to let your subscribers enjoy their cozy winter programs? Read further to know how quality assurance helps avoid similar challenges and maintain a customer base.
Top 5 testing types to fine-tune streaming solutions for Christmas
If there is no time to compose a QA plan from the ground up, it’s never too late to perform sharp QA activities in time for the winter holidays. Let’s find them out and discuss why they are worth applying.
#1 Performance testing
Considering all these parameters, QA engineers analyze the system under expected and heavy loads. Mimicking the activity of a given number of concurrent users helps find the upper limits of the load capacity, evaluate the system stability in the long run, and get ready for a large-scale influx of users.
#2 Functional testing
It’s all about testing the system within the pre-defined requirements and timely detecting software defects related to problems with logging in, subscription renewals, or subtitles and closed captioning. This enables a high-quality streaming solution, and end users not facing any problems on your streaming platform help you raise the rates.
#3 Cybersecurity testing
Working on a fee basis, some of the streaming platforms require users’ sensitive data that needs to be highly protected. By introducing cybersecurity testing, ethical hackers penetrate the system and search for possible loopholes to prevent the expensive fixing of data leakage. This is how companies strengthen customers’ trust and build a reliable long-lasting relationship with them.
#4 Compatibility testing
Millions of subscribers, various devices used for content consumption, billions of configuration options — all these scenarios reflect the streaming solution quality and its popularity among consumers.
Checking the platform against a wide array of devices, OSs, browsers, etc. makes it available pretty much for every user’s gadget with low risks of bugs in production.
#5 Usability and GUI testing
Sophisticated search options, inconsistent user interface, unresponsive menus and buttons, and advanced tech features may frustrate end users, especially less tech-savvy ones. So, it’s no longer enough to rely on good content only, businesses need to create exceptional customer experiences – here’s testing the platform for usability and simple navigation of help.
Final note
To prevent subscribers from lagging content, companies should care more about the quality of their streaming solutions.
Don’t let Grinch steal Christmas from your subscribers, contact a1qa’s experts to provide your viewers with a stellar performance streaming platform.
The article was first published on a1qa’s LinkedIn. To read more about trends, QA news, and tech, follow our LinkedIn page.
Unpacking web 3.0 testing
In the part 1 of the article, we touched upon the meaning of Web 3.0 and its benefits for businesses regardless of the industry.
By being an evolution of the Internet, the metaverse is a highly complicated three-dimensional world that needs to operate accurately to provide impeccable immersive experiences.
So today, we’d like to walk you through the 8 most significant software testing aspects for ensuring the sound operation of Web 3.0 software.
1. Performance
The metaverse is quickly picking up steam worldwide – the overall number of followers of Roblox, Minecraft, or Fortnite exceeds 400 million, while in less than 10 years, we’ll witness 1.4 billion mobile AR users.
Just imagine what will happen if they all access software simultaneously.
Will it cope with peak load and remain operable?
Will it be able to sustain such a load every day?
What load limits does it have?
Server- and client-side performance testing helps find any limitations and bottlenecks (including latency issues), as well as ensure high speed, stability, responsiveness, and scalability of the metaverse under peak load conditions.
2. Cybersecurity
When adopting the metaverse, companies can confront multiple, completely novel challenges related to its security.
For instance, vulnerability attacks to achieve desired access, avatars tracking the virtual location of users, identity frauds that ruin people’s reputations, NFTs hijacking attack simulations to steal financial data, and copying digital stores to deceive consumers, just to name a few.
With the help of penetration testing, vulnerability assessment, and social engineering, you can simulate diverse attacks to spot vulnerabilities and decrease the above-mentioned risks.
3. Functionality
Functional testing eliminates major and critical software issues before going live. It also ensures that features (for instance, authentication, payments, interaction with other users, proper work of audio and video, etc.) work as expected and comply with set requirements. Therefore, QA manual engineers apply from smoke to acceptance testing and validate defects to confirm that the reported issues are fixed.
4. Accessibility
The WHO states that there are 1.3 billion people across the globe with different disabilities. To offer an impeccable digital experience to all of them, organizations should confirm that the software meets global accessibility standards, such as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines or the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Therefore, we suggest ensuring that the metaverse provides audio or visual hints, has an alternative to controlling movements; the content is readable/easily understandable, and that everyone can successfully navigate the software.
5. Usability
Usability testing at the early implementation stage is the best variant to understand the ways real users interact with the software, what problems they face; assess how much time they spend on completing diverse tasks, and evaluate their satisfaction levels.
During testing of the metaverse software, the QA experts check whether the platform meets user expectations and is intuitive enough. They also identify flaws in interface design and logic, verify the simplicity of user journeys, make sure the quality of users’ locomotion is high, and more.
6. Integrations
To provide high interoperability of the metaverse and detect issues in the business logic of the software as soon as possible, it’s important to verify the quality of APIs.
Tests simulate end-user behavior, launch a chain of API calls, and help ascertain that APIs send requests and return the responses with the correct data.
7. Immersion
Immersion is especially significant for the metaverse ecosystem. If the level of immersion that the software provides is too high, end users are likely to experience cybersickness with unpleasant symptoms as headache, dizziness, eyestrain, nausea, etc. On the contrary, insufficient immersion will make it harder for users to fully delve into the metaverse.
The QA specialists ensure that while working with the metaverse, users don’t experience any discomfort and can fully plunge into the virtual world.
8. Localization
The QA teams focus on localizing the metaverse to provide end users with access to content in their native languages and make sure it’s tailored to the cultural specifics of their homelands. For that, they verify texts embedded into graphics, figures and currency, voiceover, subtitles, make sure that graphics and colors comply with the specifics of the target region.
Considering that the metaverse is a new, while at the same time a rapidly developing market, companies should often verify the quality of existing functionality.
Manual testing only can be challenging and time-consuming. To decrease overall testing time, optimize QA costs, increase test coverage, and reduce the probability of human error, organizations can make use of automated QA workflows.
Conclusion
Web 3.0 provides great opportunities for businesses from multiple industries due to decentralization, smart contracts, AI, advanced connectivity, semantic upgrade, better engagement, and uninterrupted service.
However, this technology is still rather complicated and challenging to introduce. To ease the process and ensure seamless digital experiences, companies can supplement the development activities with need-driven quality assurance – from functional testing to test automation.
A significant jump in the number of players occurred during the isolation of 2020, boosting the revenues in digital gaming to $174.9 billion in the same year. Today, over 3 billion people play video games to combat boredom, escape the real world, make new connections, and even learn new skills.
As the number of players grows, so does the role of QA to safeguard game integrity, fulfill end-user needs, and build their trust. Therefore, the question arises: how can an effective QA strategy help you release a first-rate game, be it on PC, console, or mobile devices?
We’ve got you covered: in this blog, we’ll walk through the reasons why quality assurance is a must and unveil testing types, helping deliver exceptional game experiences to consumers.
The pivotal role of QA for video games: 3 reasons named
Let’s delve into the reasons why QA plays a critical role for the gaming industry.
1. Optimized costs
By implementing QA early in the development phases, organizations track and eliminate defects before they cause any damage, like constant crashes or failed in-game purchases, and avoid expensive post-launch expenditures.
Just look at this case: due to high anticipation, CD Projekt SA compromised on quality to meet the release schedule of Cyberpunk 2077. The game failed due to dozens of bugs, which damaged the studio’s quality-first image. Fixing the issues cost the company almost $1b.
This kind of a misstep can be prevented with professional QA.
2. Advanced gaming experience
A buggy game is unlikely to be enjoyable for players, instead, it hinders gameplay, causes irritation, and generates a bunch of bad reviews. As a result, it tarnishes a company’s reputation, erodes loyalty, ultimately reducing revenue.
QA helps turn things around. By meticulously identifying glitches and technical hurdles, organizations ensure an immersive environment, fine-tune gameplay mechanics, and prevent lags and disruptions. All these contribute to an uninterrupted experience, keeping users engaged and enhancing their retention rates.
3. Improved safety and reliability
In-game vulnerabilities are of value to cybercriminals, allowing them to steal internal currencies, expensive digital items, and private information. According to Akami’s State of the Internet report, cyberattacks on player accounts and gaming companies increased by 167% in 2022.
Through quality assurance, businesses uncover injection points, reducing the risk of fraud and preventing cheating and unauthorized access.
7 core testing types to release top-notch, engrossing games
To deliver a high-quality game and provide an unsurpassed first impression, organizations can apply 7 critical types of testing.
1. Functional testing
Before the game goes live, businesses need to ensure that it meets the stated specifications and runs smoothly. Functional testinghelps trace out issues related to audio and video, design, basic game mechanisms, and payment gateways, as well as errors in installation and launching.
2. Performance testing
In June, PUBG’s concurrent players reached over 376,000. Consider the high performance required to keep the game from crashing!
To ensure flawless operation, businesses should conduct stress testing. Since a sudden surge of users can lead to slow functioning, data losses, and security issues, it demonstrates how the game operates beyond its projected capacity.
Load testing, in its turn, allows checking the overall performance and identifying the maximum number of simultaneous players.
3. Cybersecurity testing
The global gaming market is estimated to reach $384.9 billion by the end of 2023. As the industry grows, so does the risk of cyber incidents.
Source: Statista
In 2019, cybercriminals discovered a vulnerability in Fortnite and gained access to 80 million accounts. They stole virtual currency, eavesdropped and recorded conversations, and used players’ credit cards to purchase items. No one wants to get in a similar situation, right?
So, how to mitigate such hazards? Through robust cybersecurity testing, businesses uncover weaknesses in cyber defenses, ensure sensitive data protection, prevent hacking and cheating, and safeguard in-game transactions.
As part of cybersecurity, compliance testing helps make sure that the game meets industry regulations to increase user trust and avoid hefty fines.
4. Compatibility testing
According to the Statista Global Consumer Survey, 54% of adults prefer playing video games on smartphones, 35% — on game consoles, 32% — on PCs or laptops, and 25% — on tablets.
To provide an unrivaled experience to all consumers, the organization needs to test compatibility across platforms, operating systems, and browsers.
As people use a wide range of hardware configurations (different phone models, graphics cards, processors, and memory sizes), it’s also critical to guarantee that the game runs smoothly on various setups without crashes.
5. Localization testing
To make the game enjoyable for players across the globe, companies should prioritize localization tests. It allows the adaptation of the content to the cultural nuances of different regions and ensures the translated version of the app is consistent and clear.
Localization QA helps identify bugs in these three aspects:
National: incorrect currencies, calendars, metrics, number formats, and symbols.
Visual: improper fonts, truncated characters, and placement of graphic elements.
Functional: misleading commands and links, corrupted audio or text.
6. Usability testing
Consumers expect to spend a minimal amount of time figuring out how to navigate the game. After all, who would want to waste hours on it?
To make sure that players can effortlessly dive into the game, QA teams may suggest adopting usability testing. This helps identify glitches in the user interface, controls, mechanics, and menus, providing engaging experiences with no interruptions.
7. Test automation
To speed up QA processes, release a high-quality game faster, and stay one step ahead of the fierce competition, businesses often opt for test automation.
It’s especially beneficial in the long run as it reduces QA expenditure, saves efforts on repetitive tasks, and facilitates regression testing that is vital to make sure the newly added features haven’t affected existing functionality.
Closing remarks
As the gaming industry continues to grow and evolve, one thing remains constant: the pivotal role of QA in helping optimize costs, deliver advanced experiences to players, and improve software safety and reliability.
To make the game stand out in the IT market, businesses may conduct 7 core testing types: functional, performance, cybersecurity, compatibility, localization, usability, and automated ones.
Searching for QA support in releasing top-performing video games? Contact a1qa’s team.
The global Web 3.0 market size is projected to reach 81.5 billion by 2030 — we are witnessing how organizations shift smoothly from Web 2.0 to its advanced version, Web 3.0. But what is Web 3.0, and how is it practiced in today’s world?
Within Web 3.0, companies offer AR spaces and virtual worlds for holding meetings, providing medical care, educating, and socializing. For example, in 2021, Nike opened a Roblox-based showroom and has attracted almost 7 million consumers since its release.
However, as Web 3.0 products are highly sophisticated, businesses should take exceptional care about their quality.
In this guide, explore the benefits companies attain with Web 3.0 as well as 4 testing types that allow moving flawlessly to Web 3.0.
Migrating to Web 3.0: benefits to reap
Combining a range of novel technologies, including AI, ML, IoT, and blockchain, Web 3.0 promotes better human interaction and improved user experiences within dimensional worlds.
Compared to Web 2.0, primarily characterized by a multitude of cyber hazards, lack of proper security, and total control by large companies, Web 3.0 brings more powerful benefits for both organizations and users. Let’s take a closer look at 5 of them.
1. Enhanced privacy
One of the alarming issues with Web 2.0 is the lack of safety, resulting in digital threats such as cryptojacking, DDoS, SQL injection, malware, DNS tunneling, and man-in-the-middle attacks (MITM). It certainly has a detrimental effect on the company’s reputation and depending on the industry, the average cost of a data breach may vary: for healthcare, it reaches $10.10 million, for financial — $5.97 million, and for technology — $4.97
Source: Cost of a Data Breach 2022 Report
In July 2022, hackers stole personal data (social account and property information, addresses, policy numbers, bank reports) from KeyBank’s customers via a third-party insurance vendor. The damage totaled $5 million. This can probably highlight the pivotal role of comprehensive software testing to verify the security policies and tools of both the organization and its providers.
Due to the decentralized nature of Web 3.0 and embedded blockchain mechanisms, hackers find it much harder to penetrate the network.
2. Customized experience
Web 2.0 is filled with intrusive advertising that does not always meet the needs of end users, pushing them away. AI algorithms of Web 3.0 allow detecting end-user preferences, adapting to them, and providing personalized offers.
3. Data ownership
Nowadays, global corporations, like Facebook, Microsoft, or Amazon, collect consumers’ personal data to sell it to advertisers, making billions on it.
Comparing Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0, the latter allows end users to become the only owners of their sensitive information, choosing who to grant access to.
4. More efficient search
Today’s search engines don’t always operate smoothly and don’t always deliver the right results. As an integral part of Web 3.0, the semantic web doesn’t focus on keywords, but on the meaning of words and on the digital context. This helps users to easily find necessary information as the web pages are better sorted.
5. An advanced immersive experience
Immersive capabilities erase the boundaries between the physical and virtual worlds. AR/VR technologies create new ways of interacting with people, goods, and services.
For instance, due to Web 3.0, 95% of healthcare organizations provide patients with distant assistance, which is twice as much as it was before 2020.
eCommerce companies can also offer their buyers a unique shopping experience regardless of their location, which means an expanded client base and more profits.
A comprehensive QA guide: migrate to Web 3.0 with confidence
As the metaverse, AR/VR technologies, blockchain, and Web 3.0 products are intertwined, it’s crucial to apply the most suitable QA strategy. We suggest following a QA guide that includes cybersecurity, performance, accessibility, and usability testing to smoothly move to Web 3.0 and deliver high-quality software to end users.
1. Cybersecurity testing
Since Web 3.0 is a complex concept, checking the security of its core aspects is a must.
It’s vital to conduct penetration tests, vulnerability assessment, and social engineering, helping simulate attacks and identify bottlenecks that can tarnish reputation and affect customers.
Being an intrinsic part of Web 3.0 software products, blockchain transactions can also be exposed to malicious attacks and viruses, thus requiring the early detection of loopholes. The lack of security measures may result in large financial damages, like what happened to the cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb which lost around $30 million in coins as well as the customer’s trust.
2. Performance testing
High speed, stability, and scalability are top priority aspects for today’s applications, and the same is true for Web 3.0 solutions. According to a survey by Unbounce, 70% of consumers said that page load speed affects their decision to purchase items.
The same scenario can be prevented by introducing performance testing. Try to imagine how many people can connect to a metaverse, but the question is, can your solution handle that load? In order for Web 3.0 apps (especially for AR and VR) to operate like clockwork, the company needs to identify all possible latency issues and ensure high speed, stability, responsiveness, and scalability of the software under both normal and overload conditions.
3. Accessibility testing
Since most Web 3.0 solutions combine virtual, augmented, and physical reality, companies should analyze from the ground up if people with disabilities can easily use them.
Therefore, organizations should ensure that the app offers special features, like captions and audio/video hints to provide an inclusive and easy to navigate IT solution for absolutely all customers.
By applying accessibility testing fulfilled in accordance with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and other standards, companies verify whether:
The alternative movement and control methods work properly
Consumers with eyesight impairments can perceive visual elements and available content
The headset triggers discomfort for certain groups of users (e.g., those who wear glasses).
4. Usability testing
If the Web 3.0 software product is too immersive, it may cause negative experiences, like motion sickness, eyestrain, headaches, and fatigue.
To deliver an intuitive and user-friendly app, companies apply usability testing. This helps identify virtual and physical balance, problems related to the end-user interaction, and failings, such as players falling through windows or getting stuck in other objects.
To put it short
Migration from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 helps businesses enhance privacy, customize end-user experience and provide data ownership, efficient searching, and advanced immersive engagement.
Adhering to a QA guide, embracing cybersecurity, performance, accessibility, and usability tests, may assist organizations in releasing competitive Web 3.0 solutions and delivering a flawless digital experience to consumers.
When you are ready to boost your Web 3.0 software product quality, contact a1qa’s team.
61% of end users expect the app to load in 4 seconds or less, and 53% of them abandon the software because of its slow start or other mobile-related issues (crashes, bugs, or freezes). This is one of the reasons why companies may need to focus on mobile app testing, helping produce IT products with the minimum number of errors.
In the article, let’s explore everything about mobile app testing: its significance and software aspects that are mission-critical to verify to launch a high-end product.
Why do you need mobile app testing?
Just have a look at this considerable leap. With the rapid proliferation of smartphones, tablets, fitness bands, smartwatches, etc., the number of app downloads reached 255 billion in 2022 compared to 204 billion in 2019. By the end of 2023, it’s predicted to hit 299 billion.
Source: Statista
Mobile apps have definitely become the hub of many industries. For example, eCommerce mobile IT solutions allow shopping online, instantly getting information about the latest promotions, and visiting several stores simultaneously within one click. Users are often impatient and want everything at once, so slow loading and bugs that prevent stable operation may form a negative impression.
Let’s also take the media industry. A clear example of our lives in today’s fast-moving world — whether in the car or on the plane, we use mobile apps to watch news and videos, listen to the radio or music, and write a few lines to friends or relatives. And to catch up with this pace, mobile apps literally need to fly.
To make sure they work as intended and meet customers’ needs, businesses adopt mobile app testing, as it helps enable trouble-free apps operation at any time, under different loads, and across multiple platforms.
Mobile apps testing: what to check?
Unlike web products, mobile ones are much more complex, containing a plethora of functions and more advanced methods of interaction, such as touch actions (e.g., scrolling and swiping) and voice functions (e.g., Siri), which require their constant verification.
Along with that, QA specialists should check the software in different situations: with and without connection or when it’s unstable as well as when switching from one network to another. After all, mobile apps work offline as well. If not testing all these cases, then it may result in numerous errors during the exploitation phase.
Let’s take a closer look at 6 main aspects of mobile solutions that are mission-critical to test to produce a high-quality product and get ahead of the curve with it.
Aspect #1. Functionality
What do people usually do when finding a bug in a mobile app that prevents its further usage? According to the Dimensional Research, 80% of customers won’t use faulty software more than two or three times.
To ensure that the IT solution works in line with the requirements and behaves as intended, companies implement functional testing.
Aspect #2. Performance
Nothing makes end users more excited than stability, especially when it comes to the IT solution performance.
Performance testing allows checking how the app copes with the regular and increased loads, and how it behaves when millions of consumers concurrently carry out online transactions. This is especially true for eCommerce and eLearning solutions to ensure smooth running during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or just an online lecture with a huge number of students.
Aspect #3. Compatibility
Incorrect display of the interface in different device versions, out-of-screen text, and inconsistency with other smartphone apps — these are some of the defects that arise when using the same software across various platforms. With compatibility testing, QA specialists eliminate these issues and ensure seamless functioning of the IT product across a bunch of devices, operating systems, browsers, and internet connections.
Aspect #4. Usability
97% of users believe that user-friendliness is the most critical quality of mobile apps. Companies may achieve this via usability tests, which are aimed at checking the convenience of software usage and navigation as well as the correct operation and display of all its elements.
For instance, if the company produces an eCommerce app, it’s core to verify the menu layout, product catalog, buttons, and other elements. Are they arranged conveniently? Can the user intuitively find them and perform the necessary actions? If so, then it may be a sign of good software usability that is able to satisfy customers’ needs and provide them with a positive user experience.
Aspect #5. Cybersecurity
Be it a financial, educational, medical, or other kind of an app, they all collect tons of data (addresses, phone and credit card numbers, and even health-related data). With the rapid shift of processes to the online space, more and more personal data is now stored on the web.
With cybersecurity tests, companies ensure strong protection of the software at all levels, eliminate leakage of personal information, and assure compliance with industry-specific and other international standards, such as OWASP, HIPAA, PCI DSS, etc.
Aspect #6. Interruption
Does the app behavior change when interrupted by notifications, messages, incoming calls, and connected or disconnected networks? This is where QA engineers turn to interruption testing, helping make sure that the software handles various types of interventions. Without it, unexpected interruptions may cause interface crashes, data loss, software breakdown, etc.
Test automation to optimize mobile app testing processes
Some tests are too tedious and time-consuming to perform them manually. To meet the project deadline and accelerate the IT product release, test automation is imperative.
Let’s take cross-platform tests, which are indispensable for mobile apps to ensure their smooth running across a variety of devices. It will take an eternity to check all possible combinations manually — thousands (if not millions) of them. In such cases, test automation greatly hastens QA processes.
Performance testing is also a candidate for test automation (to check response time, scalability, speed, etc.). By automating performance tests, experts generate situations with millions of customers who are simultaneously using the software to see if it handles such a heavy load. A typical case of most eCommerce, financial, and eLearning solutions.
Closing remarks
Online shopping, consultations with bank employees, studying from anywhere, just socializing and entertaining — these are some of the reasons why we daily use mobile apps.
Businesses, in their turn, should take exceptional care about their IT solutions quality to provide consumers with the best experience possible (and test functionality, performance, compatibility, usability, cybersecurity aspects, and more).
In case you’re looking for professional support, reach out to a1qa’s experts to fine-tune your mobile app testing strategy to perfection.
Would Amazon, eBay, or AliExpress be who they are with inconvenient UI, poor design, a plethora of crashes, and no ways of executing transactions?
Bearing in mind that literally any of the client’s interactions with the software influences CX, CX affects the profit of the company, the size of the customer base, the number of loyal end users, and more. And in some situations, dramatically. For instance, once having some bad experience, 1 in 3 consumers can stop using your products.
In the article, find out 4 bad examples preventing your users from enjoying their eShopping experience and form negative CX and never repeat the same mistakes.
CX in eCommerce: why does it matter?
According to Statista, 44.5% of global businesses perceive customer experience as a key competitive distinction.
While the Coveo study highlights that after having some bad experience two or three times, 73% of customers prefer abandoning the brand and its products.
Still not convinced? Then take a look at this — the Emplifi research shows that customers are eager to pay 5% more if they obtain a great experience. So, boosting CX is becoming one of the top priorities for retailers, but how to achieve it? At least, don’t make these 4 mistakes, which we will tell you about below.
Mistake #1. “Usability is the last to care about”
How many customers would Amazon have if its users could only use it in old versions of Google Chrome, or they could hardly find the cart, or the catalog was located at the bottom of the page? Probably not that much, considering that 94% of users form their first impression of a brand based on the app design and its usability.
Bringing usability testing to the forefront helps provide a seamless experience, as it allows studying customers’ behavior, goals of using the product, and motivation. You get this — you better understand which app’s features are mission-critical to bolster in order to boost CX.
So, what to do?
Check UI. To ensure that the user easily interacts with the product via different app pages, visual components, displays, menus, buttons, etc.
Test user-friendliness. To promote easy and efficient use of the IT solution, e.g., checking that the customer can intuitively add an item to the shopping cart without unnecessary steps, find a catalog, or just create a personal account.
Verify UX. To monitor how consumers perceive the IT product and what experience they gain when navigating it.
Mistake #2. “Why do I need to focus on IT product performance?”
In 2021, 59% of customers chose online shopping during Black Friday over offline deals.
After all, who likes endless queues? If so many people prefer using mobile apps for making purchases, of course, companies keep them running steadily. During peak loads like big sales, Cyber Mondays, pre-eve periods, apps have so many reasons to crash, and many consumers leave empty handed. What a nightmare! Performance testing is exactly what helps provide stable functioning of the IT solutions and assist the customers in getting a positive experience during highly-peak periods.
Delving deep, performance tests vary and help achieve different goals:
With load testing, QA engineers evaluate whether the eCommerce app handles the intended load.
With stress testing, they track the behavior of the system under heavy loads.
With configuration testing, experts check the effect that software and hardware changes in configurations have on the overall performance.
With stability testing, specialists verify performance during long-term testing with an average load level.
With volume testing, they estimate the work of the IT product with the increasing amount of stored data.
If you need to check the stability of the payment systems (especially relevant for scenarios when a large number of customers make online payments simultaneously), then performance testing is also the case.
Mistake #3. “I mostly ignore end-user security”
eCommerce applications collect arrays of private information, including personal customers’ data, credit card numbers, addresses, etc. In distant 2014, hackers penetrated eBay and accessed 145 million end-user accounts and even reached employee credentials that opened them the door to corporate records.
Protecting sensitive consumers’ and enterprises’ data is essential to both end users and organizations themselves. According to the Mobile Security Index Report 2021, among the most common consequences of mobile-related compromise are loss of sensitive data (56%), reputation damage (37%), loss of business (19%), etc.
Source: Mobile Security Index Report 2021
If you are able to establish a safe environment for its consumers within the software, you foster greater experiences. For example, contented clients become brand advocates, contributing to expanding the customer base.
With a solid cybersecurity strategy at the core, businesses provide privacy of all end-user data, prevent cyberattacks as well as help customers gain confidence in their total security.
To detect major vulnerabilities, adopting penetration testing (one of cybersecurity best practices) might be the way. By acting as cybercriminals, QA engineers imitate their activities and implement methods of system hacking to find app pitfalls. By identifying weaknesses in advance, the company ensures that no data is leaked when the app goes live.
Mistake #4. “I don’t rush, so no need for test automation”
Pre-COVID19 time. Consumers go to offline stores, and online versions of shops are a fallback option for emergencies. Do you remember those days?
The pandemic completely changed our lives and the ways business is done, of course. Everything digital! And now, many companies’ growth largely depends on online products, especially when it comes to retail. Consumers’ habits do also change (and vary from day to day). One of the most common demands is getting everything ASAP. That’s why companies are looking for ways to release software faster but without quality compromise.
How to keep up with today’s breakneck speed of delivery and customers’ behavior changes (all while delivering the eCommerce software more quickly)? We suggest test automation as a help.
The State of Testing Report 2022 highlights that only 11% of companies have NO test automation in place. And that’s clear for eCommerce software as well — reduced testing time, sped up launch, increased test coverage, decreased costs, optimized QA processes.
By smartly adopting automated testing, companies quickly respond to market changes and guarantee flawless software operation— so highly-needed demands for staying ahead of the competition.
eShopping apps are complex and consist of many elements: catalog, shopping cart, payment system, registration forms, etc. They constantly update, requiring ongoing testing in order not to miss a critical bug in production. And it’s tedious to do this manually. To keep up with the high retail market pace, businesses focus on automating QA processes to reduce the costs for testing and focus efforts on the new features to make them of the highest quality.
Summing up
To boost eCommerce customer experience, tech giants take exceptional care of their software and all its elements.
Adopting usability, performance, cybersecurity, and automated testing helps businesses provide end users with a flawless online shopping journey.
In case you need assistance in ensuring game-changing CX, feel free to contact a1qa’s experts and have a guidance session on the matter.
Lockdowns, digital transformation, massive migration to the online space, changing trends and end-user needs…All this makes companies and enterprises from the media and entertainment industry re-image their business models and embrace novel software development approaches to stay at the top of the competition.
Being limited to harnessing various outdoor entertainment activities, people seek options on the Internet. Alongside applications of day-to-day tasks performing, an extensive range of media and entertainment solutions optimized to modern requirements has emerged.
During 2020, the businesses with mobile apps at the core focus became leading ones, as App Annie’s State of Mobile 2020 report indicates. The pervasive usage of portable devices is also reinforced by the worldwide stay-at-home period. People are more and more involving in digital entertainment, namely gaming, podcasts, audio streaming, and many more.
Within such a high demand for media and entertainment applications, ensuring flawless operation is a silver bullet. How can companies deliver impeccable software products and meet customers’ needs?
Software testing is a way out. Get to know in the article our insights on:
Tendencies of the industry
QA as a must-have for media and entertainment solutions’ development
A comprehensive software testing pattern for media and entertainment.
A new personalized era of media and entertainment
Within the modern market’s tenets and changed customer behavior, end users are geared towards enjoying media experiences uniquely adjusted to their personal preferences, contexts, and schedules.
Now, digitally empowered users want to exert greater control over what content to watch and when. This paves the way for developing software products in conformity with consumers’ wishes and needs. However, there is no one-size-fits-all way of how to gratify all the end users.
Companies should implement novel solutions that help make one’s media space personalized. Amid such innovations, AI algorithms are handy to gather personal data, process it, and provide consumers with new content.
People are more and more rejecting traditional TV bundles and harnessing specific ones through various over-the-top media services. OTT platforms, like Netflix or Hulu, have become a trend in recent years. Statista’s report indicates 74% of US consumers had a video streaming subscription in 2019, and that is an increase of more than 20% in four years.
Further parameters of the shift to active individualized consumption can be seen in the elevation of the smart home building. The core figure here is a smart speaker. Noteworthy is its usage is growing by leaps and bounds. By 2025, 75% of the US households will have a smart speaker in utilization, as Loup Ventures forecast highlights.
As they proliferate, smart speakers can become a conduit to the new frontiers for competition in the burgeoning industry of voice-related media, namely podcasts, music, and news.
Video games, especially eSport, take a substantial part of the media and entertainment industry. Assembling thousands of players and watchers, mobile gaming is becoming a new pillar of the eSport business. It also contributes to a huge jump in live viewership numbers for mobile eSports that have increased by 600% in 2019compared to the previous year.
Therefore, the media and entertainment sphere encompasses almost every person, and to make end users feel confident in their media experience, IT solutions are to be tested appropriately.
Why test this non-life-threatening sector?
Many companies believe an application not dealing with someone’s health or money doesn’t require proper testing before going to production. Despite the field’s non-responsibility for lives and non-guidance to certain standards, as eHealth and BFSI industries follow, the media and entertainment sector is one of the most complex ones. Within an extremely high market competition, it embraces dozens of content types and an extensive range of devices.
According to PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2020-2024, revenues of the global media and entertainment industry are rising steadily that means it is getting harder to be ahead of the competitors.
Source: PwC Global Entertainment & Media Outlook 2019-2023
Now, alongside improving content quality and increasing views and subscriptions, it is crucial to ensure IT solutions’ flawless operation to allure more customers. As the market contains thousands of options, end users have become more fastidious in choosing entertaining applications.
A seamless user experience and immersive content are the core concepts of media and entertainment business success. Software testing helps get confident in the delivery of upscale and competitive products providing end users with an impeccable digital entertainment journey.
Even strict budget and time constraints can’t prevent QA introduction. Due to Agile methodologies at the forefront, software testing adjusts to the circumstances and stays on guard of the IT products’ quality.
Applying holistic QA to soaring numbers of customers
Software testing is all about spotting defects sharply, enhancing IT solutions’ quality, and maintaining their adequate level. Alongside its apparent purpose, QA assists in deriving desired business objectives. Within the main media and entertainment goal of expanding consumption, quality assurance can help to reach it through proper and thorough testing services.
Improved CX is a cornerstone of media and entertainment business success, so a1qa’s experts recommend performing a comprehensive QA bundle.
Functional testing. Flawless and accurate operation plays a pivotal role in any-industry applications. By executing a full scope (from smoke to exploratory testing), one can timely detect errors and verify novel functionality didn’t affect the developed features.
Usability and GUI testing. Design and user-friendly interface are other aspects of end-users’ involvement. Usability testing results provide 360-degree visibility into how the customers see your applications and an understanding of the journey they want through the products.
Mobile testing. As there is a tendency to use portable devices, it is lean to introduce mobile testing encompassing cross-platform and cross-browser testing. Harnessing real devices ensures glitches don’t appear on customers’ phones or tablets. Providing complex QA assistance to a developer of online casino games, a1qa leveraged 110+ mobile devices to cover all possible defects and guarantee consummate UX.
Performance testing. With due regard to massive media and entertainment solutions usage, the number of consumers is steadily growing. Software behavior evaluation under an expected load, the upper capacity limits identification, simulating users’ actions — these all are about ensuring flawless real-life user journeys. However, performing some testing types is not enough. In order to get a high-end IT solution and stay at the top of this competitive market, companies should consider how QA processes are carried out. Keeping in mind all the extensive expertise, we do believe they require to be optimized and adjusted to modern working approaches.
Shift-left testing is one of the progressive strategies in an Agile world. Putting testing activities at the very project start, companies can avoid expensive post hoc defect fixing and provide a robust ground for thorough testing. Also, within a heavy workload and frequent releases, businesses should be faster while maintaining high software quality. Automated testing is a way out. Alongside streamlining testing processes and freeing up manual QA engineers, it contributes to QA costs reduction and time to market acceleration.
Summing up
The world is getting more and more personal, and the media and entertainment industry is no exception. Despite the field doesn’t deal with health or finances, it is more complex assembling thousands of users.
To reach a win-win solution between them, companies should consider trends amid consumers and innovative approaches to work. AI, OTT services, eSport, and voice streaming are getting more pervasive. Through a proper testing bundle and up-to-date working strategies, one can derive desired business outcomes and deliver upscale solutions meeting end-user needs.
Get hold of us to have a talk with a1qa’s experts on how to provide media and entertainment applications with stellar operation and improved CX.
More and more often companies tend to opt for testing the user experience of their software – be it a mobile app or a desktop solution. UX is crucial, no questions asked.
However, the most interesting part of it is the following: in many cases, what organizations think to be the object of UX testing, is not about this at all. How come? Let’s find it out.
What is UX testing?
UX, or user experience, testing is the process of checking various aspects of the software product to determine the areas of weaknesses during its interaction with the customers and to improve them. Navigation, checkout process, UI elements are among the issues that should be in focus of UX engineers.
This testing type has become very popular nowadays, and many business owners believe it to be a goldmine that will help boost sales, drive more traffic, improve brand loyalty, or achieve any other business need their software is expected to achieve.
Why isn’t UX testing a panacea for all ills?
UX testing is a good thing to do. However, there’s something we’d like you to think over. If your website receives 50 visits per month, or consumers delete your app seconds after they’ve installed it, you’re probably not ready for user experience testing yet.
Focus on what is more relevant for you now and shift your attention to conducting testing types that your software product needs more.
4 testing types to carry out instead of UX testing
Performance testing
Are you sure your app is perfect in terms of speed and stability? How long does it take to load the data and how many concurrent users can it handle?
To find the answers to these questions, apply to performance testing engineers who will detect the performance issues that can lead to poor usability and will advise on possible improvements.
Localization testing
Is your software product available in multiple languages and regions? That’s great! Many global brands have now understood that the only way to go worldwide is to introduce their businesses to locals in their native language.
To make sure that the language and other components – data formats, currency used, color schemes, icons, symbols, and many more – are truly local, opt for localization testing. It will help you ascertain that your software will be correctly perceived by a user from any region.
Compatibility testing
Today, compatibility testing is crucial owing to the diversity of platforms and hardware in the market. If you’re not 100 percent sure what operating systems and devices your users prefer, you should ascertain your software is working fine across the variety of them.
While performing compatibility testing, QA engineers can detect issues with the UI, differences in font size and text alignment, problems with a scroll bar, broken tables or frames. Any of them can damage user experience and make the consumers abandon your software choosing the competitors’ one instead.
Full-cycle testing
To decide on the testing type you may need is not that easy, as it seems. Full-cycle testing is a solution that will likely fit any app.
It starts with the software requirements elicitation. In this stage, the testing team focuses on the business, architectural, and system requirements to figure out if they are testable.
Then go test planning and preparation of test documentation stages. Tests are executed on a regular basis. QA engineers check the quality of the newly developed functionality and run regression tests to make sure new features haven’t broken the already existing ones.
Investing in testing at the very start of the product SDLC (or even earlier) will bring you the biggest value. The professional QA team can help you deliver the software product that will be functioning properly with no critical glitches leaking to production.
But still. What about UX testing?
After you’ve tested your software and made sure it functions smoothly, runs on all the devices of your interest, loads fast, and speaks your users’ language, you’re ready to run it through a series of UX tests.
This strategy of how to accurately choose the testing type will help you deliver a world-class product.
Once properly tested, the software can help improve customer experience, and word to mouth will make the product advertise itself achieving a competitive advantage in the picky market.
In 2016 IDC Health Insights reported that 40% of the US healthcare providers scaled up their IT budgets. The expanding budgets attribute to the development of top-notch cloud solutions and clinical applications, including EHR/EMR solutions, patients’ engagements portals, revenue cycle management and other medical software.
Given the constant growth of the medical IT market and high quality requirements, healthcare solutions need a smart approach to eliminate any inconveniences, pain points before the software will be blamed for irrevocable mistakes.
Based on a1qa almost 15-year experience in software testing for both ISVs and healthcare suppliers, we share our tried and tested tips to ensure that the solution is reliable, secure, well-performing and provides the required user experience for healthcare professionals, patients, administrative personnel and other parties involved.
Main points of testing reference
With the great variety of medical software solutions on the market, any of them should be mobile-friendly, secure, convenient, possess a user-friendly interface. Localization to all target markets or the world’s mostly used languages wouldn’t go amiss as well.
Healthcare IT testing strategy should include:
1. Functional testing
Healthcare software products provide complicated functionality that directly impacts humans. Therefore, assuring that the software functions as it was meant to – step number one for QA vendors. It makes no sense to go any further if the surgeon won’t be able to check in to the app from the operating theatre to inform about the need of the blood transfusion.
2. Performance testing
The app should respond fast. In the medical context, it’s not a passing fancy, but a necessity. Timely load and performance testing according to real-world scenarios and load metrics will guarantee the app won’t fail when it’s needed most and will handle as many concurrent users as it was developed to.
3. Vulnerability assessment and penetration testing
Healthcare software deals with confidential personal health information. And this information has become a target for high-profile cyber attacks. Back in May 2017, tens of thousands of computers at hospitals and GPs across the countries in Europe and Asia were hit. The malware blocked access to blood results, patients’ history and prescription files on a PC until a ransom was paid.
Kaspersky Lab estimated that 45,000 attacks had been carried out in 99 countries before the virus spread to the USA.
If anyone doubted about the importance of the security testing, 2017 dispelled them. Testing healthcare IT products for vulnerabilities is a top priority. Fortunately, QA providers have a legal framework to rely on.
HIPAA is the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that makes provisions for safeguarding patients information.
At a1qa, we assign medical software security testing on HIPAA-certified engineers who are fully competent to handle patients’ information to ensure its security.
4. UX testing
Usability testing is a crucial step within a healthcare setting. What does it have for a quality assurance team? First of all, it brings about the necessity to identify all roles of the software users, and develop diverse test cases to cover all user scenarios. A tester should be careful and meticulous to gather the right data and interpreting it in the correct way.
5. Assessing localization quality
It’s hardly possible to find a hospital where all the personnel and all patients belong to one nationality and speak a common language. To address the language issue, most developers strive to make their medical IT solutions international. Therefore, internationalization readiness and localization quality should be tested as well. It will guarantee that the app can be reliably used from any location by the representative of any linguistic group (the target one, of course).
6. Focus on mobile experience
Mobile devices have hugely impacted various fields, including healthcare. The mobile experience has transformed many aspects of clinical practice. Healthcare professionals have gained aid in patient management and monitoring, health records maintenance and access, and many other routine but still very important, tasks.
Therefore, testing specialists should pay special attention to assuring quality of the mobile apps. Selecting right suite of real mobile or/and wearable devices, developing accurate test cases and simulating real-use conditions are one of the most important steps to successful testing.
Domain knowledge accumulation is a must
Strong technology expertise is required to perform informative testing. However, domain knowledge is also very important. Healthcare is a highly regulated domain. Moreover, it is prone to constant changes. To be knowledgeable, we recommend testing specialists study reliable sources of healthcare information, online magazines, regular in-filed reports, etc.
Summing up
The constant growth of IT investments by healthcare vendors signals the need for testing providers to practice medical software testing with the focus on domain regulations, security, performance, usability, and attention to mobile experience. And only a highly professional team with an eye to detail will help to eliminate all the bottlenecks before the software will be delivered to final users.
Today we’ve shared the basis of our medical software testing approach. To learn how we implemented the comprehensive approach in practice – click here.
Stay tuned to find out more testing insights from a1qa team.
If you are not happy with how well your e-commerce store is selling and you have no idea in terms of what shall be done about it, here is the list of issues composed by Head of Web Testing Department at a1qa, Elena Yakimova, that are likely to prevent your customers from making a purchase.
1. Your website is underperforming
According to the study conducted by the University of London, 90% of users would stop using an app if it is underperforming. Performance – whether it’s pages taking too long to load or browsing being slow and difficult, or maybe the pictures won’t display – is the top frustration of respondents.
2. The functionality of the website doesn’t respond to the customer’s needs
Despite the large variety of e-commerce websites and products they offer, all of them share the core functionality: search, list of products with the detailed description, product range filters and sorting, shopping cart, customers’ reviews. If any of this is missing or doesn’t work as expected, the customer will stumble and feel dissatisfied.
3. The payment process takes long and orders can’t be easily returned
Do you ask your customers to register before making a purchase? How long does it take them to complete the transaction? Is there a try-before-you-buy option? Do you offer various payment methods?
All these issues are very important and should be taken into consideration when developing a customer journey mapping. Keep it in mind: today’s users aim to get things done as quickly as possible.
4. The content of the website isn’t adapted for the target audience
60% of consumers will stay more positive about a brand after consuming content from it. Obviously, if the content isn’t localized to the customer’s region, it will pose extra difficulties and user experience will be damaged.
5. The website doesn’t work in the client’s browser / device / operating system
Customers will use different browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, IE, etc.), devices (desktops, laptops, smartphones, etc.), and OS (Windows, UNIX, Linux, Mac, etc.) to access your e-commerce website. To satisfy them all you have to make sure the website runs smoothly in any combination.
By the way, mobile users are five times more likely to abandon the site if it’s not optimized for mobile. 83% say a seamless experience across all devices is somewhat or very important.
Obviously, the stakes are high for any business that depends on its website or mobile app. Addressing professional testers may help to get rid of the numerous shortcomings. Tech-savvy testing engineers will perform comprehensive testing to make your website deliver maximum value.
How can solid testing help?
A few seconds between clicking on the link and presentation can impair the use of the website. Performance testing will help answer the following questions:
Is the product ready for launch?
What is the maximum load the system can stand?
Why is the system’s performance low?
What are the bottlenecks?
Can the system stand the everyday workload?
How many concurrent users can the system handle?
Specialists will use performance testing tools to measure the average performance, detect all reasons that prolong the final presentation of your web page to the customer, and find out whether your website will survive the peak loads. By the way, in case you’ve missed it: here is the article on testing e-commerce before the peak loads. It’s well worth a read too.
Every user covers his or her way before clicking a Pay button. To make this journey successful, a UX testing specialist will get into the customer’s shoes to complete all the steps and check them for inconveniences or ambiguities.
No e-commerce website functions without payments. After all, this is what allows users to purchase the desired items. Different payment types should be verified, e.g. Credit Card, Bank Transfers, Paypal, etc. Also, QA engineers should check whether the credit card details are stored securely and there will no data leakage occur.
Localization testing is an indispensable part of the e-commerce testing. If you think that localization is translating, you’re only partially right. Taxes, product returns and refunds, financial transactions, currencies must all be localized. And again, software localization testing specialists should take the responsibility.
Complex cross browser testing and adaptation for mobile are highly important for the e-commerce project. The professional software testing team will set up the right environment to test the product against relevant software and hardware combinations.
As you see, there’s a lot of work required to create and maintain an e-commerce website that will generate income. To make your customers come back, it’s vital to provide them with a user-friendly, fast, and informative e-commerce. Don’t neglect testing. It will help reveal all the drawbacks and timely eliminate them.
a1qa has a great experience in assuring the quality of websites. For example, this is the case study of how a1qa team assured the quality of the UK biggest fashion and home goods online store.
Contact a1qa today to make your e-commerce endeavor successful!
“Is domain knowledge required for software testers?” was the question once we bumped into on Quora and the one that was right to the point. At that moment one of our QA teams was assuring the quality of the large software product from the pharmaceutical industry. It proved to be experienced, to excel in we needed not only comprehensive technical skills but also very strong domain knowledge.
From our experience, we’d like to share some tips with QA engineers who can also get involved in testing pharma and want to excel. In short, this article will be your first step and a guide on your pharmaceutical knowledge quest.
To those who are new to pharmaceutical industry: 4 basics you should know before stepping into testing
While this knowledge may be irrelevant for testers directly, it helps perceive the spirit of the industry.
Pharmaceutical companies develop, produce, and ship drugs for medication.
The main business objects of pharma companies are brand medications, medical devices or generic drugs. (Generics – drugs that are equal to brand-name products by nature and the difference between the two is not medically significant).
Pharma companies are subject to numerous laws and regulations regarding patenting, testing and ensuring safety and efficacy.
Pharmaceutical market growth is driven by emerging markets such as China, Brazil, India.
As for our case, the customer realized the importance of both high-quality assurance and knowledge transfer. With this in mind, he conducted constant knowledge sessions to teach us, testers, the business context of the product development and the basics of the industry in general.
Before testing, you should also be aware of the main issues facing the industry. Taking them into account, you will show your competence to the customer and share his main concerns.
The time to get a product to market is taking longer, thus shortening the patent exclusivity period.
Companies are struggling with the drugs pipeline.
Major companies are facing generic competition.
Cutting costs (headcount reduction, introducing lean techniques) is the key topic across the industry.
8 tips for testing pharmaceutical software
Tip #1
Test accuracy and relevance of the data and numbers entered into the system. A slight change in numbers may result in significant changes and defects. Since the pharma software deals with medicine, incorrect data can have very serious consequences (wrong dosage, for example).
So, you have to pay a lot of attention to data verification. Pay attention to the following: for American customers – the dates need to be American format, and of course for European customers – European format. For example, 3.5.2017 in France will be read as the third of May, 2017. In the USA – the fifth of March, 2017.
Tip #2
Don’t forget to learn the requirements of the environment, regions, and languages the software should be tested against. Keep in mind that there are different operating systems locales in different regions and communication protocols may function with errors.
Tip#3
Usability testing is very important. It’s vital to identify the type of personas who will use the system and test it according to their usage scenarios. Nurses, physicians, patients expect different functions from the system. Any inconvenience in these scenarios is critical. Think from the users’ perspective to find all the bugs.
Tip#4
Take into account FDA guidelines. Food and Drug Administration provides guidelines for mobile and web healthcare applications for medical devices. For example, there are strict criteria for functional tests passing or failing.
Tip#5
Naming matters. You will most probably come across different medicine known under different names or differing in one letter only. Make sure they are all spelled correctly, as this can also result in very severe consequences. We checked all the names on the EphRMA website. Ask your customer about the reliable source of such information.
To be on the safe side, check the list of medications with those legally permitted in the target countries.
Tip #6
Devices play a big role in pharmacy management systems. For example, bar code scanners. Their usage has to be tested because medicine can’t be delivered to patients without them.
Tip #7
In case you’ll have to work with emulators, check the emulators first to make sure that the defects you’ll come across have arisen due to poor integration.
Tip #8
Pharmacy systems always communicate with other systems, e.g. payment systems, insurance systems, and welfare systems. These systems will confirm or reject the transaction, so communication has to be consistent and reliable. In short, integration and thorough performance testing is a must.
So these are the basics of the pharma domain and our tips to perform comprehensive pharma software testing.
Have you ever verified the quality of healthcare or pharma apps? Don’t hesitate to drop us a comment!
In the last article on mobile apps testing we’d like to tell you how we tested on our own accord Pokémon GO that became a smash hit in 2016.
It should be immediately noted that we performed testing at the beginning of August, immediately after the game was released to the market. To date, many of the defects have been fixed. But the objective of the article is not to list the relevant defects but rather what to focus on while assuring quality of mobile apps.
By the way, we recommend mobile testers to test the existing apps from time to time. It helps hone the outside-thinking and investigation skills.
So, last year in July we downloaded the app to our smartphones to immerse into those times when at school we collected Pokémon pogs and rushed home to watch Ash and Misty’s adventures.
While testing we discovered that the games has its fair share of bugs and glitches. What have we found out?
First, we gathered all the information we could about the product.
What did we know about Pokémon GO?
Multiplayer online role playing game.
Free-to-play.
It uses real location information to encourage players to search far and wide in the real world to discover Pokémon.
What else? We also knew that the app was mainly targeted at the users from the USA, Australia and New Zealand and was built on the Unity game engine.
It supported iOS 8 and 9 versions and Android 4, 5, 6. Keep it in mind that testing was conducted in August, and it was still a month before iOS 10 was released.
It’s an important moment that testing on tablets wasn’t required as the app wasn’t adapted to tablets.
To detect user’s location the app would use the GPS module and constant internet connection so these functionalities also had to be tested.
Having analyzed the info and the available statistics we made up a list of the following test configurations:
For iOS we included the devices starting from iPhone 5.
Android devices were more numerous. This was due to the vast number of versions of the system and various devices popular in different regions. We also managed to check the app on 5 different screen resolutions.
What defects did we find in Pokémon GO?
For a number of reasons, such as no access to the app backend (the customer is hypothetical) and no opportunity to get the scope of test data (and test geolocation) we could hardly detect all defects. But even those that we were able to detect would have been enough to compile a multipage test report.
All the defects we grouped according to their severity level:
Blocked defects:
Authorization Failure. It seemed like every second user of the Pokémon GO faced this issue. And it wasn’t not clear whether the problem’s roots lied on the client’s or server’s side.
Another frequently reported bug took place when the user tried to create the in-game character. The mistakes of the indistinct nature prevented users from starting the game.
Critical defect:
The so-called three-step glitch. Pokémon GO is the augmented reality game. It tracks the nearest monsters and the user has to catch them. Initially, the steps printed next to the Pokémon would show the user how far the monster was. Thanks to the three-step glitch this feature became useless. This glitch showed Pokémon in the vicinity as always being three-steps (three paw prints) away, no matter how much you should walk.
As well experienced testers we proved all the defects with screenshots.
Major defects:
Broken UI. Relaunching the app or clearing the cache would resolve this issue.
No in-game characters and Pokémons images. However, by some indirect indicators we guessed that they should be there.
AR mode issues. It turned out that many users couldn’t use the mode. We guess that the essence of the problem was connected to the software and hardware specifications.
Some average defects were related to the application several functions. Catalogue challenges, frequent camera issues and GPS module problems spoilt the monster-catching experience.
Moreover, there were minor defects that would rather make user smile than swear. For example, UI defects (look at the screenshot below) and the opportunity to exceed the number of items in the inventory.
Shall the customer be real, we would have generated the detailed bug report and product quality report. We would also perform another iteration of testing.
Pokémon GO became widely available in July last year and generated $200 million in revenue within 30 days of launch. The game surpassed Candy Crush Soda Saga, the top grossing mobile games of all times.
However, it was unable to keep up the momentum and in September already more than 10 million users stopped entering the game. The reasons are many, but the detected defects can be among them. Who knows how many users would have preserved their loyalty to the game but for all these bugs?
That’s it. We’ve taught the theory and tested the app. We hope you’ve enjoyed the read and will take advantage of it.
Any questions left? Welcome to the comments!
The article by Nadia Knysh was published on RCR Wireless News. Read the full version here.
Think like a criminal
One day, my friend “lost” money in her own apartment. She couldn’t find it anywhere, so she asked me where I would search for money if I were a criminal who had broken into her apartment. She figured thinking like a criminal would help us think to check places we may not have otherwise considered. This approach stuck with me. I decided to follow it every time I test a new application.
For instance, when testing an app for purchasing medical services, I thought of my grandma. She is so nimble and able to do several things at a time, and she does them fast. She can text and bake an apple pie simultaneously, but that doesn’t always mean she’s giving each activity her full attention. Thinking of my grandma doing those things, I did the same with the app. Not paying attention to graphics, I quickly filled in graphs of the app I had to test. I did it roughly and inattentively. Doing it this way allowed me to discover a major bug; a paid medical app was allowing clients’ consultants free of charge.
When testing a voice-surfing app, I pretended to be a teenager who always listens to music on his smartphone. It was a challenging task, but it helped me find bugs.
Usability is key
There is no doubt such tests as security and performance are extremely important, but I’ve found usability to be the top priority. Even when a tester doesn’t have a direct task to improve usability, he should always keep that in mind; usability-thinking is something that should penetrate every test. When you help make an app intuitive, everyone benefits. When you have a great performance app but it takes a user a couple of hours to cope with its settings to reach the stated performance, it’s a failure.
Thinking “like criminals” and finding as many bugs as possible, applications are being improved every day to make them more usable. This is how we not only push civilization ahead, but also maintain peace and calmness among the new generation of Homo tapiens.
If you missed the first part of the article, read it here.
Torbjörn was chairman of SAST Stockholm for three years and is now chairman of a local chapter of SAST. He has written the book Essential Software Test Design as well as many blog posts and an e-book on visualisation. He believes in lifelong learning, visualization and team power and is currently studying UX.
a1qa: Torbjörn, can you please explain how mapping user experience improves software development?
Torbjörn Ryber: If we want to solve the real user problem, we really need to understand how users think, feel and act. I believe that we are far too eager to find solutions before we have understood enough and thereby not solving the real problem or at least solving it in sub-optimal way.
a1qa: Since you do UX consulting you must have a personal viewpoint that this is essential to persuade developers to think of usability? In other words, what are the most effective ways of making people care of usability?
Torbjörn Ryber: I do believe that systems are built in order to solve people’s problems. And in order to solve the problem with the user in mind we must have solutions that are effective, efficient and satisfying. Much research shows that using IT-systems makes people sick – I do not think that is OK. I do not want to be known as someone that builds things that make people break down and cry because they have to spend hours every day trying to find out what they are supposed to do in that stupid system. I talk about this constantly not only to developers but to everyone involved in the process.
The fact is that not even the customers understand the importance of user experience and are not willing to pay. The Swedish site has a lot of excellent material that I think helps people understand the importance of usability.
a1qa: Usability testing can be performed applying different methods. Which method you think is the most efficient?
Torbjörn Ryber: I have done testing for a large part of my 20 years in the IT-business and one of the major reasons I have started with UX is that usability testing used to come really late in a project, it was like the last thing you did before production. Guess how eager the developers were to make last minute changes based on the results of those tests. So I really like the agile approach of testing early and testing often.
As for method I have had most success with think aloud sessions when real users try to solve real problems. I try to keep it easy, short and to the point. Three users per function area will give you a pretty good idea of what the major problems are. The goal is that the test actually takes place and that we do something about the problems we find. I like to have developers and designers watch the sessions live or recorded – that is a really learning experience.
Most important of all – we cannot test quality into the product, we need to work hard in the beginning to understand the users and design accordingly. We will fail repeatedly so it is much better to fail early and often when it is cheap. Steve Krug has written a wonderful little book on how to get started called Rocket Surgery Made Easy. His method is a great start. Here is a picture of a session inspired by Krug.
a1qa:Where do you think usability testing brings QA in several years? Maybe, it might entirely change the approach to development?
Torbjörn Ryber: I really do hope that UX – User experience – will be understood as the powerful and important tool it is. It is much more than just usability. A central value that testers bring is to validate that we have built the right system. We have been far too focused on verifying single functions and complicated rules. That is only a part of what we should do. I see the tester role being more specialized – some will be working with UX, others with automation.
The important thing is that we bring value to our work. It is a bit absurd how much focus many spend on regurgitating old testing folklore about testing phases, stages, templates and roles instead of trying to keep up with the multitude of new brilliant ideas there are today. The certifications for tester and requirement analysts seem to have forgotten the progress of the last twenty years or so. Take instead for example the power of visualization. That is a key part of my own work regardless if I am doing Interaction design, requirement analysis or test design.
Books like Dan Roam’s Back of the Napkin and Mike Rohde’s The Sketchnote handbook are great places to start, not to forget my own piece of work Essential Software Test Design which has a strong focus on visually modelling the problems. If you are interested to read more about this I keep a blog. There so much more to say that do not fit into this rather short interview.
Torbjörn thanks a lot for the interview and the viewpoint you shared. We hope to talk to you again.
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