Compatibility: What dictionary says about Compatibility: Ability of the things to live/exist together without problems.
How should testers read this: Ability of the programs/Software to be used together without bugs.
Testing: The Most familiar word for the testers.
Compatibility + Testing:
To test ability of the programs to be used together without bugs. It should be performed during both functional and other non-functional testing because an application’s functionality can vary depending on the computing environment the application is run on.
Basically, Compatibility testing is conducted on the application to evaluate the application’s compatibility with the different browsers, Hardware configurations, Operating systems, etc.
Why compatible testing is required? Emerging application platforms and operating systems means that applications should run on more than one platform to expand their reach and usage.
1. Too Many Browsers (Cross-browser testing): Today we have many browsing clients in the market, Microsoft Internet explorer, Google chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera, Mobile Browsers & also browser versions keep updating very frequently without the awareness of the end user.
So we need to check the visuals of the web page should render correctly in all/required browsers with different versions. Web based Application/software should look perfect at least with the most common browsers.
2. Functionality: To check whether the client side functionality is working correctly with Cookies, Java script, pop-up blockers.
3. Various Hardware & Operating System (Cross-Platform Testing): To check whether the app works fine with the different combination of the following:
Different Hardware Configurations
Different Operating Systems / Platforms
Various Network Environments
Various Computer Peripherals (Printers, Zip drives, USBs, etc.)
4. Customer Satisfaction: This allows greater forecast of the application’s ability to reach a wide audience.
Without it, a potential customer’s confidence in the application could deteriorate based upon the un-expected results of the application with different configurations. Consider Facebook website – This should work on all browsers (including mobile) and in all OS (in all configurations). Other =wise people will not be happy.
5. To stay in Business and ahead of competitors: Improves the application’s market reputation & makes it more competitive in the market.
Guest Article by Gaurav Dhiman
