Crowdsourced
profiling and testing

presented by Giorgio Natili


Mobile tea #4

Rome, 22 may 2013

Title

about me


e-mail: g.natili@gnstudio.com
twitter: @giorgionatili
blog: webplatform.io (coming soon!)
community: codeinvaders.net

Agenda

  • Crowdsource testing:
    • how it works
    • pro and cons

  • Apps testing and profiling:
    • Types of testing
    • Profiling
    • Key challenges

  • Overview of the crowdsource testing platforms
  • Workflow integration

Crowdsourcing


  • The practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people (i.e. the crowd)

  • Obtain great results with a small effort by a a group of individuals

  • Crowdsourcing is an online, distributed problem-solving and production model

Types of crowdsourcing


  • Crowdvoting
  • Crowdsourcing creative work
  • Crowdsearching
  • Crowdfunding
  • Crowdsource testing
  • Many others...

the landscape



crowdsourced testing


or for brevity


crowdtesting

THE CROWD

Crowdtesting

  • A way of testing software based upon crowdsourcing

  • The tests are executed by testers from different countries

  • Testers are not hired as consultants

  • Most of the testing platforms are clouds based

  • Testers are usually paid per verified bug

  • Tests are executed on real platforms and are more reliable

how it works


  • There are three main actors working together in a crowdtesting environment:
    • A test platform 
    • Testers
    • Companies

  • There are several activities to perform:
    • Select the right testers
    • Profile the testing platforms
    • Write meaningful tests
    • Get consistent feedback

Advantages


  • The tests are executed on a great number of platforms
     
  • The tests are reliable because executed on real devices
     
  • It's a low costs solution because tests are paid per bug

  • Testers are not influenced by any company concerns

  • Tests include languages and locales 

  • Tests can be executed faster

variety of in-context data


Users are ready 24/7 all around the world to test:

  • Network density
  • App response on specific devices
  • Different battery states on the device
  • Different types of network (Wi-Fi, 4G, etc.)

human errors


  • Software testing is not an exact science. Like programming, it is subject to human error

  • By working with a greater number of testers, you are effectively diminishing the likelihood that your software testing team may miss an important issue during the testing period

Disadvantages


  • The confidentiality of the project is compromised due to the usage of external resources

  • Communication can be difficult due to the crowdsourcing itself

  • Due to the usual business model testers should find easily low impact bugs rather than critical ones (usually more complex to find)

  • Management and planning is not easy

outsource testing


  • Outsourced testers belong to the same organization

  • There is a company responsible for the quality of testing

  • Testers are paid for their job also if they don't find bugs







apps 

testing + profiling




Metrics matter

apps testing


  • No one really wants to do it! It's time consuming, expensive and it's boring!

  • The goal of testing efforts is not to find errors instead should be to understand the quality of the app

  • It's a process that should be parallel to development

  • Can be done through emulators, services but over all using physical devices

functional testing


  • Functional testing ensures that the application is working as per the requirements 

  • Most of the test conducted for this is driven by the user interface and call flows

  • Have to be defined upon the software requirements

  • Should be automated as much as possible

  • Should help to create a test suite classified as regression tests

Usability testing


  • Carried out to verify if the app is achieving its goals and getting a favorable response from users

  • How much steps are required  to complete tasks

  • How does the person feel about the tasks completed

  • How much does the user remember afterwards or after periods of non-use

  • It's not  a way to gather opinions on an app

interrupt testing


  • Incoming and outgoing SMS and MMS

  • Incoming and outgoing calls

  • Incoming notifications

  • Battery Removal

  • Cable insertion and removal for data transfer

  • Network outage and recovery

screen resolutions


apps profiling


  • Performance is a concern for all but the simplest of applications

  • Making apps perform well seems a simple enough ask, but it can be something of a black art

  • Profiling an app allows  to glean valuable metrics, such as memory usage of a given object and execution times of specific methods, 

  • Through the analysis of these metrics it's possible to improve apps performances

Performances


  • Determine how a system performs in terms of responsiveness and stability 

  • Check the performance and behavior of the app in normal conditions and particular ones (low battery, bad network, etc.)

  • Understand the upper limits of capacity of an app within the system (Stress testing)

memory leaks


  • Memory leakage happens when an app is unable to manage the memory it is allocated

  • The best result is poor performance of the app and the overall slowdown of the system

  • As mobile devices have significant constraints of available memory, memory leakage testing is crucial for the proper functioning of an application

challenges


  • Variety of Mobile Devices, input methods and hardware capabilities

  • Diversity in Mobile Platforms/OS

  • Mobile network operators- There are over 400 mobile network operators in the world

  • The variety of devices makes executing the test script (Scripting) a key challenge


crowdtesting 

platforms
overview





utest

Web site http://www.utest.com
    • Supported kinds of apps:
      • Web
      • Desktop
      • Mobile

    • Supported testing types:
      • Functional Testing
      • Security Testing
      • Load Testing
      • Localization testing
      • Usability Testing

    utest


    • Pros:
      • Integrated with bugzilla, google code, mantis, redmine, rally, etc.
      • Good user interface to manage projects and test cases
    • Cons:
      • Unusable web site
      • High prices not clearly reported (anyway here the wizards you may be interested to http://www.utest.com/wizard-usability/, http://www.utest.com/wizard-localization/, etc.)

    passbrains

    Web site http://www.passbrains.com

    • Supported kinds of apps:
      • Mobile
      • Web
      • Enterprise (WAT!)

    • Supported testing types:
      • Functional Testing
      • Security Testing
      • Compatibility Testing
      • Localization testing
      • Usability Testing

    passbrains


    • Pros:
      • You can be a customer and a tester with the same account
      • Customers are supported when defining needs and goals
      • Fixed (and reasonable) prices
    • Cons:
      • No integration with third party tools
      • You need a couple of days to start your test project

    99tests

    Web site http://www.99tests.com

    • Supported kinds of apps:
      • Web
      • Mobile
      • Tablets

    • Supported testing types:
      • Functional Testing
      • Security Testing
      • Performance Testing

    99tests


    • Pros:
      • Registration process and profile update is easy
      • Customers create test cases as contest
      • Fixed and transparent prices
    • Cons:
      • No integration with third party tools

    pay4bugs

    Web site http://www.pay4bugs.com

    • Supported kinds of apps (iOS only):
      • Web
      • Native

    • Supported testing types:
      • Functional Testing
      • Security Testing
      • Performance Testing

    pay4bugs


    • Pros:
      • Registration process and profile update is easy
      • Customers can specify a price per bug
      • Testers can join projects arbitrarily
    • Cons:
      • The total cost is made up by a monthly subscription plus a fee per bug
      • No integration with third party tools

    applover

    Web site http://applover.me

    • Supported kinds of apps (Android only):
      • Native

    • Supported testing types: (user driven)
      • Functional Testing
      • Security Testing
      • Performance Testing

    applover

    • Pros:
      • It's a community, there is no cost
      • Testers do tests because are passionate
    • Cons:
      • There is no way to be sure about the quality of tests
      • Tests cannot have a time range
      • No integration with third party tools

    FeedbackArmy

    Web site http://feedbackarmy.com

    • Supported kinds of apps:
      • Web
      • Mobile
      • Desktop
      • Even more... (WAT!)

    • Supported testing types:
      • Functional Testing
      • Security Testing
      • Load Testing
      • Even more... (WAT!)

    Feedbackarmy

    • Pros:
      • It's a community, there is no cost
      • Testers do tests because are passionate
    • Cons:
      • There is no way to be sure about the quality of tests
      • Tests cannot have a time range
      • No integration with third party tools


    Workflow integration

    building blocks


    1. Phabricator www.phabricator.org

    2. GitHub www.github.com

    3. Mechanical Turk www.mturk.com

    4. Arcanist http://goo.gl/qTLC0

    Developer flow (1/3)


    • Pick up a task from Phabricator 
    • Create a new branch using the task id in the name (e.g.  git branch feature-ID) and move to it (e.g.  git branch checkout feature-ID)
    • Work on it and add or remove the files to the new commit using  the commands git add or git del filename
    • Commit the changes to current branch using the command git commit -a -m ‘your commit message’

    developer flow (2/3)


    • Run the command  arc diff and fill the information required

    developer flow (3/3)


    • Wait the review is performed and eventually make the changes to the code
    • Run the command  arc land once the review has been accepted

    system workflow


    1. On each review submitted Phabricator eventually runs tests and do a build using Jenkins 

    2. Potential error handling (review workflow)

    3. A weekly build is deployed using the last working  Jenkins build (mturk)

    drawbacks

    • It's not user friendly

    • It's a set of scripts that will be released open source at the end of July 2013

    • It requires coding and system administration competencies

    • It requires developers are able to use the command line tool 


    THANKS!

    e-mail: g.natili@gnstudio.com
    twitter: @giorgionatili






    Crowdsourced Profiling and Testing

    By Giorgio Natili

    Crowdsourced Profiling and Testing

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