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STC-2013
Paras Ahi [email protected]
QA InfoTech Pvt. Ltd.
- B-8, Sector 59, Noida
- A-19, Sector 59, Noida
- Plot 190, NSEZ, Phase II, Noida,
- Tower C, 3rd Floor, DLF IT Park, Chandigarh
- 32985 Hamilton Court, Suite 121, Farmington Hills, MI 48331, USA
Importance of Interrupts in Smart Apps Testing
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Abstract
Smartphones are considered to be life’s best companion. People are dependent on their
devices for carrying out their day to day tasks. No one likes interruptions while doing
something important on their smart devices, whether they are chatting online, playing
games, listening to music or watching a video. There are many scenarios where an
interruption leads to poor mobile app experience and sometimes those experiences are so
poor that forces a person to sell their devices. So, the overall purpose of this paper is to let
a test engineer know about the importance of Interrupt Testing in Smartphone Apps testing
life cycle and to make a user experience enjoyable as always.
Importance of Interrupts in Smart Apps Testing
From a 5 years old kid using Kindle Fire to a 55 years old grandfather using his smartphone
we all are surrounded by a large number of smartphone devices. People use smartphone for
mobile banking, sending emails, creating presentations, listening to music, watching videos
and many more. What happens when an app doesn’t work well on a smartphone?
There is a survey taken by Compuware which shows consumer reaction to poor mobile app
experiences.
Figure 1 Source: Compuware
From the survey it is clear that if a user has a bad experience for a particular app then
he/she is not going to recommend it to anybody else.
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Smartphone App testing has been divided into 4 different categories:
1. End user
2. Network
3. Operating System
4. Hardware
Figure 2
Network:
In Network Testing we have 3 factors:
1. Communication
2. Data Exchange
3. Synchronization
Mobile Application
Ne
twork
Communication
Data Exchange Synchronization
Compatibility
Testing
(IOS, Android, Blackberry
Windows, Palm and Symbian)
Operating System
Hardware
Compatibility
End User
Usability
Performance
Interrupt Installation
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Figure 3
We all use Facebook, Skype, Viber and WhatsApp. These are the perfect examples of
Network Application.
In Network Testing we test these Apps for the three factors mentioned above on different
network conditions. Say different operators, Wi-Fi, 3G or 2G networks etc.
We also follow checklist for the network testing.
Table 1
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Operating System:
We perform compatibility testing of our Apps on various operating systems available these
days: iOS, Android, Windows, Palm, Symbian, Blackberry, Bada etc.
Figure 4
Hardware:
We perform compatibility testing of our Apps on various hardware configurations available
these days: Different screen sizes, resolutions, processors, RAM, gravity sensors and
accelerometers
Figure 5
6
End-User:
In End-User category we have perform:
1. Usability
2. Performance
3. Installation
4. Interrupt
Table 2
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Importance of Interrupt Testing:
While testing for a smartphone app do we really think about interrupts?
If, answer to this question is yes, then why people ending up selling their smartphones just
because they have a bad user experience.
For example,
I love listening to music. That’s why I bought a new smartphone few days back. There was
an issue with my device that whenever I play music on that and if it got interrupted with a
text message then music stops and I had to play it manually from the starting position. That
was an annoying behavior for me and I ended up selling my smart phone.
So if Interrupt testing was included in the test strategy then we won’t have such bad user
experiences.
There are different types of Interrupts. It can be in form of an incoming phone call or a
simple text message. What matters the most is how your App is handling the interruption.
There are many examples which are related to poor interrupt handling and Good interrupt
handling conditions. Here are few:
Interruption due to Incoming Phone Call:
You are playing your favorite game and got interrupted with an incoming phone call. You have 2 choices,
ether you connect or disconnect to the call but in both cases your app has already been interrupted.
Now, in this case your game should resume from the point it got interrupted, but if it got restarted (As
happened in my case) then it can be a bad user experience.
Figure 6
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Interruption due to Screen lock:
Screen locks are of two types:
1. Manual Using Lock Button
2. Automatic
Example 1: Manual Screen lock
Figure 7
I was sitting in a training session and I thought instead of writing down all the important points why
shouldn’t I record the whole conversation. I started the recording and for the purpose of battery saving I
locked the device.
After the training session I unlocked my device and found my recording stopped and it was stopped at
that particular moment when I locked my device.
That was a big loss to me and my smartphone was no smarter to me.
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Example 2: Automatic Screen Lock
Figure 8
I wanted to record the smiling face of this kid. I took my Blackberry smartphone and started the
recording. Now, just when kid was about to smile my screen get locked and I missed the moment as due
to automatic screen lock my video recording has stopped.
While the Blackberry’s testers tested their video recording App very well but the missed one scenario
that was related to automatic screen lock.
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Interruption due to Text Message:
Here are some of the examples where interrupt has been handled properly.
“Scenario is that you are listening to music and got interrupted with a text message”
Pause and Resume:
You are listening to music and when text message arrives, music pauses for a while and resumes back.
Fade In, Fade Out:
You are listening to music and when text message arrives, music volume Fades In (Decreased to 50%)
and Fades Out (Back to normal)
Vibration:
You are listening to music and when text message arrives, notification comes in form of vibration and
there is no impact on music playback.
Conclusion:
After seeing so many examples and observations we have concluded that as a test engineer we should
include interrupt in our test strategy.
We perform usability, performance, compatibility, installation and many more types of testing but these
scenarios of interruptions should be included on priority bases.
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Author’s biography:
Paras Ahi is working as a Software Test Engineer with QA InfoTech from past 2 Years and 3 Months.
He is a B.Tech of Batch-2009, Computers Science fromITM, Gurgaon (ITMU)
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Importance of Interrupts in Smart Apps Testing(Hereinafter called Work)
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Agreed Date Signed:Monday, September 16, 2013Signature*:
Lead Authors’ Name and Address (please print or type):Paras Ahi, QA InfoTech, Noida
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