Wearable App Testing Truly Forces You to be an End User

11 Sep

Wearable App Testing Truly Forces You to be an End User

It is important for a tester to be an end user advocate and emulate end user scenarios in testing the product – this is no new wisdom for a software tester. However, how many of us actually follow it diligently and apply this sensibly in our work environment is a million dollar question. Simultaneously, the digital industry is undergoing a huge shift – technologies are changing (wearables, virtual and augmented reality are all increasingly being embraced) , mobile is becoming omnipresent both in enterprises and amongst end users, newer applications are flooding the market, non-functional attributes such as performance, security, usability are becoming core – again you may ask what is new about all of these.

Technologies such as wearables certainly force create this scenario where the tester needs to think and act like an end user. Think of a wearable that is to measure your sleep parameters. It is not going to be possible for you to fully test for all possible scenarios in a test lab (unless you have a resting ambience recreated in your lab J). This is just a simple example of wearable app testing that calls for real world scenarios to test. Think of the endless possibilities in which wearable application testing needs to happen in real time and the combinations are mind boggling.

Certainly we are seeing an increased trend where end users are also being roped in, for realms such as these. But the important thing is that the tester cannot just walk out of the scene with core scenarios that were tested in a standard 9-5 office hours’ environment. He/she will have to read a lot, think a lot, ideate a lot, connect with users a lot, interact with design and dev team a lot, for only then realistic and an optimized set of test scenarios can be arrived at and to that extent, wearables app testing will be a paradigm technology that shapes a tester’s role for the better, for the future ahead.

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About the Author

Rajini Padmanaban
As Sr. Director of Engagement, Rajini Padmanaban leads the engagement management for some of QA InfoTech's largest and most strategic accounts. She has over twelve years of professional experience, primarily in software quality assurance. Rajini advocates software quality through evangelistic activities including blogging on test trends, technologies and best practices. She is also an active speaker in conferences run by SQE and QAI STC. Her writings are featured in TechWell, Sticky Minds, Better Software Magazine and the most recent is a book she co-authored on crowdsourced testing, published by Taylor & Francis in Sept 2014. She can be reached at rajini.padmanaban@qainfotech.com