Why is Compatibility Testing Necessary to Deliver a Better Customer Experience?

Customers are wont to use software applications for various purposes across device platforms, networks, operating systems, and browsers. They expect the software applications to perform seamlessly irrespective of the digital environments. However, customer experience in real-time does not always achieve such performance causing disgruntlement. In an industry where new devices are launched with different configurations, and new versions of operating systems, frameworks, and browsers are released in a few weeks or months, ensuring the software application perform seamlessly across platforms can be a herculean task. Moreover, since it is practically impossible to evaluate each customer’s usage of a device, browser, operating system, or network, it is imperative to ensure the software application functions properly across digital environments. This calls for integrating compatibility testing in the SDLC.

What is compatibility testing and why is it important?

Compatibility testing evaluates the software application’s functionality across devices, screen resolutions, browsers, operating systems, frameworks, databases, and networks, and looks for any potential inconsistencies. As a non-functional testing, it validates the high-quality performance of the application on different platforms. Application compatibility testing can be conducted using automation tools or manually. In general, software compatibility testing comprises the below mentioned tests:

• User experience
• Hardware configuration compatibility
• Network compatibility
• Operating system/database compatibility
• External devices compatibility

Compatibility testing services help to detect glitches in the software application before the same is delivered to the end-users thereby ensuring superior user experiences. In a competitive market where customers do not have any dearth of options, compatibility testing ensures customers are satisfied with the application leading to better sales.

The importance of conducting software compatibility testing before deploying the product is as follows:

• Early detection of glitches: Compatibility issues arise due to the presence of glitches in the software code under development. By undertaking application compatibility testing, such glitches in mobile or web apps are identified early on in the development pipeline. Once identified, these are sent to the development team for necessary fixing thereby ensuring the application is of high-quality post-release.
• Saves rework costs: Browsers, frameworks, and operating systems undergo periodic updates. So, before deployment, the software application should be tested for its seamless performance on the updated versions of the above-mentioned digital elements. On the other hand, in the absence of any compatibility testing, the software application when released into the market will remain error-prone causing customer dissatisfaction. And when such an error-prone application is sent back for remediation, the cost, effort, and time spent on the same can get escalated. No wonder, the early detection of compatibility issues can prevent the escalation of costs.
• Streamlines development process: Testing a software application for compatibility can validate attributes such as usability, scalability, and stability across digital environments. The resultant feedback can help analyze (and fix) defects during the development stage itself. The SDLC gets streamlined with both development and testing processes working in tandem to make the product free of glitches.
• Meets customer expectations: The digital landscape comprises hundreds of software applications spread across multiple domains and genres. Customers use such applications for various purposes such as banking, buying merchandise, booking tickets, playing games, communicating, and watching videos, among others. The applications are accessed through various devices having varying hardware configurations, screen sizes, and resolutions. Also, the devices may contain different browsers, operating systems, and their versions, which ought to be compatible with the software application in use. Thus, a comprehensive compatibility test plan can effectively test the software application for performance across digital environments. This helps to deliver a superior customer experience and builds trust for the brand.

When testing for compatibility, special attention should be paid to the following digital elements:

Web browsers: Find out the most used web browser the clients or customers are likely to use – Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and IE, among others.

Operating systems: Know the popular operating systems likely to be used by the end customers. These may include Mac OS, Windows, and Linux, among others.

Screen resolutions: Test the software application for compatibility against common screen resolutions such as 800 x 600 pixels, 1280 x 800 pixels, and 1024 x 768 pixels, among others.

Conclusion

Early Compatibility testing should be an integral part of the SDLC to ensure all project requirements are met and the quality of the application is achieved. This involves evaluating and assuring the application’s performance across operating environments and configurations. It should be done early in the SDLC to effectively meet the requirements of quality, turnaround time, cost optimization, and profitability.

James Daniel is a software Tech enthusiastic & works at Cigniti Technologies I'm having a great understanding of today's software testing quality