In the modern testing scenario, the developers and testers will find it increasingly difficult to release an app without verifying its performance on a comprehensive device farm. Device farms are essential tools for optimizing test execution for cross-device compatibility.
With this article, we will try to comprehensively understand the core concept of device farms. We will also elaborate upon the benefits of these farms and how to integrate them into the testing process. Finally, we will complete our discussion by analyzing some of the best practices that will help the developers and testers to optimize the test execution process.
Understanding Device Farms
At a very basic level, we can define device farms as a cloud-based service which provides access to a wide range of physical devices and virtual environments through advanced remote servers. These devices on the farms will include tablets, smartphones, and other hardware running on multiple operating systems and different software versions.
Using device farms, the testers and developers can run automated test cases on multiple devices at the same time. The implementation of this approach ensures that the apps function correctly across various platforms and user requirements.
Let us now improve our knowledge about the scope of device farms by analyzing some of the major reasons for integrating this advanced configuration:
- With the increasing diversity of modern devices, it’s almost impractical to manually test the functioning of applications on each of these devices. Instead, the developers can use device farms to access a comprehensive suite of devices for ensuring broad coverage.
- Using device farms, the developers can execute the test cases in a parallel configuration and on multiple devices. This implementation massively helps the testers to reduce the time required for the overall test execution process.
- Compared to maintaining an in-house device testing lab, device farms are much more effective and economical. This is because they eliminate the need to purchase and maintain new devices within the app-developing company.
- Since device farms are executed through cloud-based servers, the testers can access them from anywhere in the world. This inclusion massively helps to facilitate remote testing and overall collaboration between the teams.
Advantages of Using Device Farms
To further improve our knowledge about device farms, let us go through some of the major advantages of implementing device farms in a modern software development and testing scenario:
- Device farms provide the developers access to a huge array of devices consisting of different resolutions, screen sizes, operating systems, and other hardware configurations. This massive variety helps the application testers to thoroughly test the app, which may not be evident in an in-house setting.
- By using parallel testing, device farms help massively improve the test execution process. This is because, in a typical scenario, a test will take several hours or even days to complete. However, device farms can complete the entire process within a fraction of the time compared to individual testing.
- As we all know, testing on real devices helps to massively improve the accuracy of the test cases which is usually not present with emulators and simulators. This is because these software combinations often fail to capture the influence of various physical parameters like broken display, user interaction errors, or low battery.
- It is not only costly to set up and maintain a comprehensive in-house device lab, but it is also a resource extensive process. Moreover, the developers and testers have to invest a huge amount of time to constantly update this lab. On the other hand, with the device farm, the developers will have a pay-as-you-go model which will allow them to scale the testing efforts up or down depending on their requirements.
Integrating Device Farms into The Testing Process
To integrate a device farm into the entire testing process, the application developers and testers simply have to follow the steps given below:
1. Selecting the Right Device Farm
A simple analysis of the present market will show us that there are hundreds of device farms that are currently available. Each of these farms offer different features and capabilities. To shed more light on this segment, we have mentioned some of the most important options on this list:
- Using an AWS device farm, the testers can access a wide range of real devices which offer features like automated testing, remote access, and integration with popular agile methodology tools. Using an AWS form, the application developers can also implement continuous integration and continuous deployment within the testing cycle.
- Firebase Test Lab is Google’s native offering, which offers both real and virtual devices using a cloud-based device farm. It also has various unique features like extensive logging and integration with multiple Firebase services.
- LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that allows the developers to execute the test instances on more than 3000 different combinations of real devices, operating systems, and browser versions. The AI-orchestrated infrastructure of LambdaTest allows efficient test initiation and test execution. It also helps integrate features like automation testing, parallel testing, and comprehensive test reporting.
To further simplify the process of choosing your preferred device farm, you must consider factors like the number of supported devices, integration capabilities with your existing software, ease of use, and pricing options.
2. Setting Up The Testing Environment
After you have chosen your desired device farm, it is important to move on to the next step which involves test setting up the test environment for initiating and executing the test instances. While implementing this process, the application developers and testers will have to focus on the following parameters:
- The first step involves ensuring the test scripts are compatible with the device farm requirements. During this process, the application testers and developers also have to modify the test scripts to match the device farm’s API.
- While using multiple device farms, the developers will have access to various plugins or APIs for integrating them with popular CI/CD tools. Some of the common options in this list include Jenkins, Circle CI, or Gitlab CI. Using this integration, the developers can automate the test execution process depending on their present deployment pipeline.
- The final step in this process involved organizing the test cases into various suites depending on parameters like device types, operating systems, and required functionalities. The organization process will also help the testers to manage and execute the test cases in a more efficient format.
3. Running The Test Cases On Device Farms
Now, after you have successfully set up the testing environment, you have to start executing the test instances using the device farms. To further help in this process, we have mentioned some of the most important practices that you must consider during the test execution process:
Use the device farm’s capabilities to run the test cases in a side-by-side configuration. This approach will help the testers to reduce the overall execution time and also implement quicker feedback so that all the crucial bugs and errors can be easily resolved.
It is very important for the testers to remember that all the test cases do not have the same priority depending on their role in the core functioning of the app. So, it is important to prioritize the critical test cases and execute them first. This approach will ensure the most important functions are validated at the earlier stages of the testing cycle.
Finally, the developers and testers have to constantly utilize the monitoring and logging capabilities of a device farm to ensure the test cases are executed properly and return the desired results. Using the test execution logs, the application developers can easily track the errors in the app and address them during the troubleshooting process.
Best Practices for Optimizing Test Execution
Let us now divert our attention towards some of the best practices that can help the developers and testers to further optimize the test execution process while using a device farm:
- The integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning with device farms is one of the most trending practices in the present generation. The inclusion of this approach will allow the testers to prioritize the test cases, identify patterns, and predict the potential issues. The overall implementation will help make the testing process smarter and more efficient in the long run.
- We strongly recommend the application testers to integrate automation testing with the device farms to further streamline the execution of repetitive yet crucial test instances. Various popular automation frameworks like Appium, Selenium, and Espresso can be easily integrated with an online device farm. It will also help the testers to focus on other creative areas of the app project.
- We recommend the software testers to design the test cases to be modular and reusable. By implementing this approach, the testers can reduce the redundancy and make the test cases more maintainable. During this process, the testers should also focus on creating such test cases that cover user scenarios and core instances.
- It is important to regularly update and maintain the test suites for ensuring that they are relevant as per the changing requirements of the app development industry. During this process, the testers must remove outdated instances, update existing ones based on new features, and add new test cases.
- It is very important for the testers to constantly survey the target audience and understand the changing requirements. This data will allow the testers and the developers to constantly update the devices in the device farm and ensure that it is capable of catering their changing needs.
- Finally, it is very important for the application testers to utilize device farms for ensuring that they follow all the latest security and data privacy best practices. To implement this process, the testers can avoid uploading sensitive data to the cloud and implement virtual private networks for data transmissions. It is also important to choose a device farm provider that complies with the industry security standards.
The Bottom Line
So, keeping in mind all our primary discussion points, we can easily conclude that test execution using device farms is very important for ensuring cross-device testing compatibility in a modern device ecosystem. By using all the advanced practices mentioned in this article, the testers can ensure that they deliver a seamless and consistent user experience across all devices.
It is also important to remember that implementing a device farm strategy requires careful planning and execution. With the evolution of modern device standards, device farms will remain a very important component for implementing an effective testing strategy which will enable the organizations to deliver high-quality apps to meet the requirements of diverse users.
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