Compatibility Testing- A Key Factor In Digital Transformation

With the explosion of digitalization around the world, it is crucial to meet the expectations of the users. An app or software should be responsive in every environment and perform flawlessly on all platforms. To conform to such criticalities and ensure that the software or app has impeccable performance on all browsers, platforms, and devices, compatibility testing must be done. 

In the next decade, the software testing budgets will continue to grow, as the digital transformation will continue to slay in the coming years. As “Digital” is inevitable, it makes it vital for us to learn more about compatibility testing and how it will contribute to improved customer satisfaction and more business revenue. 

With digital transformation, compatibility testing has become challenging, yet essential to successfully run software on diverse platforms. As the users are not confined to a single platform, it is vital to check the performance of software across different operating systems and devices. 

Benefits of Compatibility Testing during Digital Transformation

To attract more users and keep them glued to your app or software, it is mandatory to go beyond their expectations and make functionally successful apps that can work smoothly on different operating systems and devices. Responsiveness of any application is very critical and compatibility testing is done to ensure the same and fulfill user expectations and achieving functional success while working on diverse operating systems and devices. Entrepreneurs and developers target to achieve a continuous, seamless, and non-disrupted relationship with their users.

To gain a competitive edge over their business rivals and attract more users for their apps and software, enterprises are focusing on developing apps that are accessible to smart-phone and desktop users. Compatibility testing investigates and ensures that the application performs, without failure, to meet the user expectations across diverse browsers or devices. It helps in detecting irregular network conditions and errors, which could lead to serious performance issues. Also, the app must remain responsive to key operating systems, devices, and browsers. 

Compatibility testing is advantageous in augmenting the basics of digital transformation, in the following ways:

• Quick Fixing of Errors 

While dealing with mobile and web applications, it is beneficial if we identify and fix the performance issues as soon as possible. Difficult areas should be timely spotted and corrected before the app launch. It will prevent working on time-consuming tasks at a later stage and reduce the cost of fixing issues. Compatibility testing helps in producing high-performing apps, without enormous budgets. 

• Improved Productivity

With escalating user demands and growing business requirements, with digital transformation, compatibility testing plays an important role. To increase the productivity factor and keep the users engaged, the fundamental demands of the users should be met and the users should have a positive experience beyond their expectations. Compatibility testing ensures that the app is upgraded and capable to deliver well-tested products with enhanced quality.

• Better Software Quality

To compete and rise above your business rivals, it is necessary to develop high-quality software and apps. Compatibility testing helps in better problem analysis at initial development phases and attribute to the improved and better development process. The developers can work on the issues to deliver good quality software products. The scalability, stability, and usability of the app can be checked and validated through compatibility testing for various operational configurations and diverse platforms. 

Categories of Compatibility Testing

As we know that we check the performance and compatibility of apps with different scenarios, we can put Compatibility testing into various categories, as mentioned below:

1. Hardware Compatibility Testing – for assessing the accuracy and compatibility with various other hardware set-ups   
2. Software Compatibility Testing – for assessing the compatibility with different types of software
3. Operating System Compatibility Testing - for assessing the compatibility with different operating systems, like Windows, UNIX, and MAC
4. Network Compatibility Testing – for assessing the performance against different network parameters such as operating speed, bandwidth, and capacity
5. Browser Compatibility Testing - for assessing the compatibility with different browsers such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet Explorer
6. Devices Compatibility Testing - for assessing the performance against different devices like scanners, USB devices, Bluetooth devices and printers
7. Mobile Compatibility Testing - for assessing the compatibility with the operating systems of different mobile devices like Android, iOS, and many more
8. Software Version Testing - for assessing the compatibility with various versions of the software by developing a version compatibility test 

Types of Compatibility Testing

Testing during the digitally transforming world needs to validate if our app or software is compatible with older versions of a platform or will work seamlessly on the emerging platform versions. For this, two types of compatibility testing are performed by testers:

• Backward Compatibility Testing – it checks if the new app or software works smoothly with the older versions of various platforms. It is more predictable and easier as the team members are aware of all the involved variables.
• Forward Compatibility Testing - it checks if the new app or software works with the latest, emerging, and newer versions of various platforms. This testing is quite challenging as the testers may miss out on some unexpected variables.

To sum up

Compatibility testing is essential to resolve major issues like problems with CSS colour and style, inconsistent display of content, navigation problems, problems with the user interface, alignment issues, changes in font size, problems with the overall presentation of the app or software, etc. In the world of rapid digital transformation, Compatibility testing is of great value, to deliver flawless apps and software to the end-users.