In today’s competitive environment, it is critical that the software or products released to buyers reflect true value for money spent to purchase or use the product. Comprehensive product testing aids in the development of high-quality, and cost-effective products. Different software tests are performed at various stages of software development, as well as testing on the finished product prior to its release. The testing is done to check that the end product has a competitive advantage in terms of quality, compatibility, cost, and delivery before it is released on production. Compatibility testing ensures total customer satisfaction by determining whether the application performs or operates as expected for all potential recipients across multiple platforms. This non-functional testing is done to ensure that a system, application, or website is compatible with other objects such as latest web browsers, hardware platforms, users, operating systems, mobile devices and networks among others. It is carried out on the application in order to assess its compatibility with various environments. It can be carried out either with the help of automation software or by manually.
Need for Compatibility Testing
Compatibility testing ensures that software applications released are of high quality and compliant with all hardware, software, operating systems, platforms, and other variables. Compatibility can be ensured by using compatibility testing, which checks for defects before delivering the product to the end user. This testing determines or demonstrates that the product satisfies both of the developer’s and end user’s specifications. This consistent or high-quality product enhances the firm’s credibility and pushes it to success. It’s also true that high-quality products boost sales and marketing campaigns while also delighting customers. Furthermore, a rigorous compatibility testing effort guarantees true compatibility across multiple computing environments. Moreover, completely dynamic compatibility testing ensures the software’s usability and reliability, which is critical prior to its release.
Types of Compatibility Testing:
Forward compatibility testing and backward compatibility testing are the two forms of compatibility testing.
- Forward Compatibility Testing: Forward compatibility testing ensures the software is compliant with newer or future versions.
- Backward Compatibility Testing: This method of testing allows you to see whether an application created for the most recent version of an environment still works in an older version. That is the testing that is done to see how the hardware/software behaves as compared to previous versions of the hardware/software.
Compatibility testing may be used for a variety of purposes, including:
- Operating Systems: Testing on a variety of operating systems, including Linux, Mac OS, and Windows.
- Browsers: Testing in a variety of browsers, including Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox,, Safari, Edge, and others. Browserstack, Crossbrowsertesting.com, Browserling, Browsera, Browsershots and others are some of the most popular cross browser testing tools.
- Other System Software: Testing web server, networking, messaging tools etc.
- Mobile Applications: Testing on a range of mobile devices, smartphones, and networks.
Few of the most common bugs in compatibility testing
- Differences in the look and feel of the user interface
- Font size adjustments, as well as alignment problems
- Changes in CSS design and colour, as well as problems with the Scroll bar
- Tables or frames that are missing
Let’s take a look at the process of compatibility testing.
- Define the range of environments or platforms that the app would most likely use first.
- To understand the expected actions in various configurations, draw the platforms, software, and hardware.
- Create a testing environment.
- Begin testing on a variety of platforms, devices, and networks.
- Take notice of the actions and report the bugs in a logical order.
- Correct the flaws.
- Re-evaluate the app
Finally, it is valid that the end user can test the product on various platforms or other factors, and they may discover bugs in the application that are unworthy of quality. It is critical to test the application on all of the above-mentioned functionalities in order to avoid certain problems and to release high-quality products. As a result, compatibility testing is an integral part of the application testing process.
Most businesses nowadays prefer to outsource their testing so they don’t have to maintain a team of testers or a wide variety of testing hardware and software.
Expertise of TestDel in the Field of Compatibility Testing
TestDel’s robust compatibility testing services cover a wide range of operating systems, browsers,hardware, models, configurations, and monitor resolutions etc. We also offer an end-to-end cross-browser test automation solution, complete with a Selenium test automation system and integration plug-ins.
To learn more about TestDel’s testing services, contact us today …