Manual Testing IOT project

Relevant Test Categories and suggested Testing Types

First of all, we may agree that Testing makes sense to any project. In the end the project I'm working on has code, machines, backend and a frontend and, if these weren't enough, it's being used by Customers. The risk of a software defect exists and we have to do our best to reduce this risk by performing all the Testing tasks in the correct stage, with the best possible tools, Team set up and skills. 

Ok, but what Testing type is required? Among all the different Testing types, I use the functional and Usability ones as main. There are other types but in this project they are not part of my responsibilities. Which are some of the Testing categories I think are relevant?

• Communication ( validation)
• Gateway validation
• Function validation
• Components validation
• Others

What about Testing Types, which I think are important? If I have to rank, the top 5 would be:

Usability Testing. Usability testing is a method of testing the functionality of a website, app, or other digital product by observing real users as they attempt to complete tasks on it. The goal of usability testing is to reveal areas of confusion and uncover opportunities to improve the overall user experience.

Reliability and Scalability Testing. Reliability means making systems work correctly, even when faults occur. Scalability means having strategies for keeping performance good, even when load increases. Maintainability is in essence about making life better for the engineering and operations teams who need to work with the system.

Security testing is a type of Software Testing that uncovers vulnerabilities, threats, risks in a software application and prevents malicious attacks from intruders.

Performance Testing. Software Performance testing is the type of testing to determine the performance of a system to measure, validate or verify quality attributes of the system like responsiveness, speed, scalability, stability under a variety of load conditions.

Best Practices

Some of the above mentioned Testing types are just limitations for Manual Testers due to responsibility, knowledge or priority; although you may not be directly involved I personally think you can do other things rather than the ones you are directly involved and your input would be welcome. 

What are best practices?

• Gray Box testing should be used with IOT testing as it allows the design of effective test cases. This allows you to know the OS, the architecture, third-party hardware, new connectivity and hardware device limitation.
• Real Time Operating System is vital to delivering the scalability, modularity, connectivity, security, which is important for IOT.
• IOT Testing projects should be automated. To reduce repetitive manual tasks,execute it faster, and find defects earlier. It’s also Manual testers’ task to support this.

I hope now you can have a better idea of how Manual Testing fits into an IOT project. Obviously this is a mix of my experience and the theory. Other Testing categories and their priority will vary from project to project and according to Team set up.

I wish you luck on your current or next IOT project! 

*Photo by NASA on Unsplash