Configuration and Compatibility Activities in Software Testing Company

Oct. 17, 2012 - PRLog -- The purpose of configuration and compatibility test cases is to evaluate complete functionality from a high level for most features and from a lower level for any feature, which can cause errors.

A clear line between the configuration and compatibility testing is often lacking. Configuration testing is aimed to identify errors that can occur when crossing certain software and hardware, and compatibility testing checks if the application will behave in a similar way with other combinations of hardware and software.

The purpose of configuration testing – ensure that the application runs properly with so many configurations, as possible. In any of these cases the application must be performed in such a way, that is expected by the user.

The participation of the entire software testing company (http://qatestlab.com /) with experience is necessary for the selection of right set of configuration and compatibility test cases. The best approach is to gather all the problem areas and ask software engineers about the weaknesses of the configuration and compatibility scenarios. Compatibility and configuration testing should begin after the first phase of functional testing. In some cases, the configuration and functionality testing may be performed simultaneously.  

A good test strategy for configuration and compatibility test planning requires the implementation of the following tasks:

1. Analyze the share of the market. Concentrate major test efforts on those browsers, servers, which are mostly used by your target audience.
2. Analyze the software on the server and client side. Determine how different settings of the environment affect the behavior of the application.
3. Analyze how server generates the content and how browsers interpret, modify and reproduce it.
4. Try to save time. Start testing on common platforms, gradually deepening and expanding them.
5. Increase efficiency. Where possible, try to automate frequently repeatable tasks.
6. Share the experience. Collect test documentation. It can be useful to other participants of the test process or to the similar projects.
7. Analyze the interaction between the software and hardware components on the client and server side.

Compatibility testing provides a reasonable assessment of the risks by testing combinations crossing the available software and hardware, thus offering a significant insight into the key issues of risk.

Equivalence class analysis requires experience, exploration, knowledge of the technologies, used in the web-application and its environments, and thoroughness. The basic idea of the equivalence class analysis is to group common components to the identical classes.

Prior to testing, it is desirable to present the results of the equivalence class analysis to the project team. The results should indicate which equivalence classes were defined and what software and hardware represents a specific class.