Yes! Internet, connectivity, and wireless connectivity are three irresistible things for all of us these days. And with the introduction and advancement of smart devices into our daily lives, the popularity of the internet and connectivity to different devices is becoming more popular and unstoppable. Before we jump into any definition and details of the IoT (Internet of Things) QA Testing, we got some interesting stats for you.

One report mentions that about 79% of US households, on average, utilize at least one connected device daily. Means people are hugely dependent on these devices, and quality performance in them definitely matters. These connected devices can be your cellphones, smartwatches, TVs, tube lights, and more.

Even the 5G is going to advance the IoT and applications. The shift has just begun, and a lot of evolution is yet to come shortly. Organizations on and around the internet need to take IoT Testing seriously. In this blog, we’ll discuss and throw light on IoT QA Testing, its importance, and how to implement it.

What is IoT?

The full form of IoT is the Internet of Things. It’s a network with devices, vehicles, appliances, or more connected electronic devices. In other words, it’s a connection of embedded devices (identifiable) with the apparent Internet Infrastructure. These connected devices communicate and transfer massive data and also upload it to the cloud. Now, there are some standard or common components for an IoT device they are as follows:

• Sensor
• Application
• Network
• Datacenter (Backend)

Then what is IoT Testing?

It’s so natural that we expect so much out of anything when we spend money on tech, specifically. And doesn’t it annoy us as consumers if a device doesn’t work as it supposed to? Well, yes! That’s why QA is so vital in everything. And so, there is separate IoT testing in place to fix any potential issues in IoT devices.

Challenges in IoT Testing

1. To check the effectiveness and functionality of these IoT devices, the testing teams perform IoT Testing. As discussed above, the dependency on these applications is paramount, so there is an absolute need for better, faster, and error-free services. This testing type gives that outstanding quality and control over several interconnect IoT applications.
2. IoT Testing mainly revolves around networks, operating systems, analytics, devices, processors, platform, and standards. But before that, let’s emphasize some of the critical challenges and considerations while doing IoT testing.
3. These applications run with multiple real-time scenarios happening in conjunction, so it becomes so complex to test at times.
4. We have discussed earlier that these devices communicate and transfer a tremendous amount of data. It poses many security questions because it is critical to test these devices with passwords and different credentials. In reality, the security concerns associated with connected devices are enormous, that the engineers and testers have to be very sure.
5. With the vastly growing number of IoT devices, testers need to adopt different techniques and platforms. (it can also be considered as an opportunity to learn more and more)
6. There are other complexities like battery life, memory capacity, processing power, bandwidth, etc…

Let’s learn more about its six testing types in detail.

1. Compatibility Testing:

Through an IoT system, several devices can be connected and used for several purposes. All those devices possess different software and hardware configurations, which means the possibility of different combinations is broader and broader. Hence keeping the compatibility of them in check is too crucial and a must in any IoT system.

2. Usability Testing:

Users may use so many devices with varying shapes and forms. If usability is ignored or And with that, the user-friendliness and ease of use become overriding factors. It’s predominant to do keen usability testing is to achieve solid user-friendliness, flexibility, and more.

3. Reliability and Scalability Testing:

It is salient to understand how a user interacts with your devices where there is a possibility for a plethora of interactions. The scalability and reliability testing helps you make better design changes and building and IoT test environments.

4. Security Testing:

What happens in an IoT environment is, there is a lot of data accessing happening. Hence, it’s imperative to ensure the user’s data security (check a user via authentication). And having a data privacy control as well as good security testing in place will help everyone.

5. Data Integrity Testing:

In a way, IoT is all about data, so you want to be extra careful every single time. This particular test determines if the data is not corrupt, correct (satisfying specific rules), and consistent.

6. Performance Testing:

These IoT devices do well in the market if they have seamless connectivity and communication, which can sometimes be hard to achieve. Simultaneously, Performance Testing can give you a good idea of what needs to be bettered (for an excellent connected user experience) before entering the market.

Best practices for effective IoT software testing

1. To design a compelling test case, use Gray box testing with IoT testing.
2. It also allows you to know the architecture, third-party hardware, hardware device limitation, and operating system in detail.
3. Prefer to automate IoT Testing.

Summary

We are living in a hyperconnected world. And the Internet of Things occupies most of that hyperconnected world. According to McKinsey’s report, the number of installed IoT devices will increase to 43 billion by 2023. So, we need more glitch-free devices. Thus, IoT testing is an IoT is a growing industry. There are so many reasons why you should prioritize doing IoT testing. Starting from how smooth the device’s experience as to how safe (hacker-proof) the device is, everything must be monitored.

And a robust IoT is a reliable solution to address all these challenges. Implementing and initiating these steps mentioned above will surely help you achieve a legitimate quality of IoT devices. Apart from what we discussed above, there can be many other effective ways to IoT testing, but what’s more important is taking these types of testing seriously, showing discipline, and being consistent.

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