Why Mobile Testing is different?











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The number & type of wireless applications planned for the company & the mass market of users is growing every day. With each of these types of applications, a few factors to be taken in to account when testing the performance of operation, users & performance requirements. Any nice tester knows that being attentive to fundamentals, which may include:


• confirm functionality & baseline characteristics
• Checking the design & proof of idea solutions to user requirements at the beginning of the development cycle
• testing under strictly controlled conditions to validate the executable code against the design in the work of the latter stages of the development lifecycle
• Compatibility Testing of all known, the projected changes in the application & hardware configurations where the application will run
• Exposure of the whole method or application to unexpected events, failure by databases, networks or applications, or unpredictable user behavior
• submit the application to volume, loading conditions & stress to evaluate the performance limits of their design capacity & actual measurement of the performance limitations
• decide whether the application or the method not only meets the requirements of formal design, but also whether they may use & answer the (perhaps illegal) needs of its users.
Not all of these factors are within the scope of all contracts for the check, but a nice check plan will at least keep them in mind to make any assumption about the extent of visible proof.
When it comes to wireless-enabled applications, however, there's factors that need the testing strategy to be modified significantly in order to make positive that hardware & application elements of the solution under check is appropriate for your target surroundings & users.
A strategic approach to check mobile solutions takes in to account a few unique features for the mobile paradigm:
• the increasing complexity of new handheld devices
• greater sensitivity to security & load related issues wireless infrastructure
• increased complexity of the scale
Increasing complexity in handheld devices
Perhaps no other area within the field of mobile computing has changed as fast as the display gizmo. The first handheld computing gizmo to recognize a actual market was the Apple Newton, introduced in 1993 & well loved - but only 200,000 people. Since then, this space has evolved to the point where there's literally thousands of different combinations of hardware devices, application capabilities & wireless networking. In fact, the handheld computing platform has become a way more complex element of the global network of mobile service itself, the whole network architecture, applications of a generation ago. Specific features of handheld gizmo that makes wireless computing challenges include:
• Gizmo firmware & variety: Today's devices not only have the firmware, but an operating method, browser, & even a layer of application execution time (in the case of Java or BREW-enabled rings). Recently, some expensive & the client that affect quality issues for users of mobile telephony have been related to the firmware or operating method errors on cell rings. Tests of compatibility between these layers, as well as wireless network interface, it is essential to implement a mobile service with no issues.
• Support for multiple interface standards, & representation: gizmo manufacturers are moving away from network rings to the dual or tri-mode phone able to supporting multiple networks. &, despite the recently announced M-meta-standard services, applications delivered in HDML, WML, WAP 1.2, WAP2. 0 & cHTML & xHTML continue to need tests focused on the display gizmo.
• Support for embedded base: imagine the desktop applications that were forced to be compatible with Windows 3. 1, Win95, Win98, Win2K, Windows Me & Windows XP - in addition to Macintosh. A similar challenge faced by developers & testers of specific applications for mobile rings & PDAs with various versions, older application.
• New paradigms in the client application platform: the client application on a network connected to a PDA or mobile phone that was two times comparatively simple, most processing was completed in the WAP network or custom platforms mobile server then rendered on the client through reduced speed, the text - based interfaces on the gizmo. With the advent of PDAs & mobile rings are highly functional, rich environments & client implementation of persistent information store, the proof becomes more complex.
• New security challenges: with the ability to download applications & execute code on the gizmo is the corresponding risk associated with user authentication, enterprise information & transaction security as well as viruses & other malicious code. The new power of the mobile screen increases the necessity for testing & verification of security mechanisms, both in their own devices & network infrastructure.
Increasing complexity in mobile networks
Page was two times defined as a one-way short text messaging & cell rings provide analog voice services only. Today, the page can be two ways, using lots of different types of networks (digital cellular, PCS, packet radio, etc.) & offer the kinds of messaging services, two times reserved for private networks for businesses. Also, no more cell rings, with changes in signaling, transport & information switching techniques add complexity.
Over the next two years, all major regions of the world will undergo an evolution of the network that moves through a series of technological improvements in the way of the second generation (2G) networks of third generation (3G). Along the way, they will now offer low-speed networks (9.6 Kbps), circuit-switched services using dedicated channels to cell rings & wireless modems processed at high speed (up to 2 Mbps), packet switching systems with direct digital interfaces. They will witness changes teams radio base stations, deployment of overlay networks & new architectures & communication protocols (including IPv6, by order of the 3G standards), & the implementation of the signaling protocol gateways & applications to move information between carrier networks & public / private Internet-based infrastructure.
Changes in handheld devices must comply with the synchronized global change, & verification of services from finish to finish will be a challenge even for those with appropriate access to testing facilities in the country. Mobile applications will also must survive cellular network or delivery issues are bound to arise & the inevitable fall mid-session back to slower, second-generation networks lack the features of the 3G signal.
Finally, the development of piconet technologies such as Bluetooth & Wi-Fi (802.11b) will soon lead to the deployment of networks & access points for these unlicensed radio bands, & the inclusion of batteries in the devices of their protocol . For wireless applications, verification of interoperability will only be a challenge. It is simple to see that both functional & performance testing of mobile applications before deployment is a necessity for companies whose customers have come to expect a seamless user experience, even while mobile.
Safety, Performance & Scale
While networks & business applications have invested money & time in recent years to strengthen its infrastructure so they can manage the security & performance challenges, lots of of these issues have not been surpassed in the world of mobile services. So far, the lowest treatment & information warehouse functionality handhelds, along with the dearth of willingness of network operators to open more control of wireless infrastructure have kept in check security issues, for better or for worse.
However, concerns about the strength of security mechanisms WAP (Wireless Transport Layer Security, WTLS or), for example, has impacted the adoption of enterprise user. tiny devices without the processing power to handle the strong security methods such as RSA 1024 & SSL & the risk of loss & theft: the challenge of implementing & testing security on mobile devices is inherently different from other client devices. The move toward more robust operating systems such as Java, will bring more support both to improve security such as SSL & IPSec
& the risk of increasing the safety of base processing gizmo & information warehouse. Security concerns will only increase with the availability of extended enterprise information on the gizmo.
Similar concerns relate to the expected increase in the scale of deployment of mobile applications, which will be much greater in the future than anything seen to date in the mobile information arena. handheld Internet-ready throughout the world are becoming ubiquitous as content providers or enterprises can be reached from lots of parts of the world. Therefore, it will become increasingly critical for companies & mobile service providers similar to thoroughly check to make positive that levels of performance both in the mobile network infrastructure & applications are still acceptable.

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