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STC-2013

Paras Ahi parasahi@qainfotech.net

QA InfoTech Pvt. Ltd.

- B-8, Sector 59, Noida

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- Plot 190, NSEZ, Phase II, Noida,

- Tower C, 3rd Floor, DLF IT Park, Chandigarh

- 32985 Hamilton Court, Suite 121, Farmington Hills, MI 48331, USA

Importance of Interrupts in Smart Apps Testing

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Abstract

Smartphones are considered to be life’s best companion. People are dependent on their

devices for carrying out their day to day tasks. No one likes interruptions while doing

something important on their smart devices, whether they are chatting online, playing

games, listening to music or watching a video. There are many scenarios where an

interruption leads to poor mobile app experience and sometimes those experiences are so

poor that forces a person to sell their devices. So, the overall purpose of this paper is to let

a test engineer know about the importance of Interrupt Testing in Smartphone Apps testing

life cycle and to make a user experience enjoyable as always.

Importance of Interrupts in Smart Apps Testing

From a 5 years old kid using Kindle Fire to a 55 years old grandfather using his smartphone

we all are surrounded by a large number of smartphone devices. People use smartphone for

mobile banking, sending emails, creating presentations, listening to music, watching videos

and many more. What happens when an app doesn’t work well on a smartphone?

There is a survey taken by Compuware which shows consumer reaction to poor mobile app

experiences.

Figure 1 Source: Compuware

From the survey it is clear that if a user has a bad experience for a particular app then

he/she is not going to recommend it to anybody else.

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Smartphone App testing has been divided into 4 different categories:

1. End user

2. Network

3. Operating System

4. Hardware

Figure 2

Network:

In Network Testing we have 3 factors:

1. Communication

2. Data Exchange

3. Synchronization

Mobile Application

Ne

twork

Communication

Data Exchange Synchronization

Compatibility

Testing

(IOS, Android, Blackberry

Windows, Palm and Symbian)

Operating System

Hardware

Compatibility

End User

Usability

Performance

Interrupt Installation

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Figure 3

We all use Facebook, Skype, Viber and WhatsApp. These are the perfect examples of

Network Application.

In Network Testing we test these Apps for the three factors mentioned above on different

network conditions. Say different operators, Wi-Fi, 3G or 2G networks etc.

We also follow checklist for the network testing.

Table 1

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Operating System:

We perform compatibility testing of our Apps on various operating systems available these

days: iOS, Android, Windows, Palm, Symbian, Blackberry, Bada etc.

Figure 4

Hardware:

We perform compatibility testing of our Apps on various hardware configurations available

these days: Different screen sizes, resolutions, processors, RAM, gravity sensors and

accelerometers

Figure 5

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End-User:

In End-User category we have perform:

1. Usability

2. Performance

3. Installation

4. Interrupt

Table 2

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Importance of Interrupt Testing:

While testing for a smartphone app do we really think about interrupts?

If, answer to this question is yes, then why people ending up selling their smartphones just

because they have a bad user experience.

For example,

I love listening to music. That’s why I bought a new smartphone few days back. There was

an issue with my device that whenever I play music on that and if it got interrupted with a

text message then music stops and I had to play it manually from the starting position. That

was an annoying behavior for me and I ended up selling my smart phone.

So if Interrupt testing was included in the test strategy then we won’t have such bad user

experiences.

There are different types of Interrupts. It can be in form of an incoming phone call or a

simple text message. What matters the most is how your App is handling the interruption.

There are many examples which are related to poor interrupt handling and Good interrupt

handling conditions. Here are few:

Interruption due to Incoming Phone Call:

You are playing your favorite game and got interrupted with an incoming phone call. You have 2 choices,

ether you connect or disconnect to the call but in both cases your app has already been interrupted.

Now, in this case your game should resume from the point it got interrupted, but if it got restarted (As

happened in my case) then it can be a bad user experience.

Figure 6

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Interruption due to Screen lock:

Screen locks are of two types:

1. Manual Using Lock Button

2. Automatic

Example 1: Manual Screen lock

Figure 7

I was sitting in a training session and I thought instead of writing down all the important points why

shouldn’t I record the whole conversation. I started the recording and for the purpose of battery saving I

locked the device.

After the training session I unlocked my device and found my recording stopped and it was stopped at

that particular moment when I locked my device.

That was a big loss to me and my smartphone was no smarter to me.

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Example 2: Automatic Screen Lock

Figure 8

I wanted to record the smiling face of this kid. I took my Blackberry smartphone and started the

recording. Now, just when kid was about to smile my screen get locked and I missed the moment as due

to automatic screen lock my video recording has stopped.

While the Blackberry’s testers tested their video recording App very well but the missed one scenario

that was related to automatic screen lock.

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Interruption due to Text Message:

Here are some of the examples where interrupt has been handled properly.

“Scenario is that you are listening to music and got interrupted with a text message”

Pause and Resume:

You are listening to music and when text message arrives, music pauses for a while and resumes back.

Fade In, Fade Out:

You are listening to music and when text message arrives, music volume Fades In (Decreased to 50%)

and Fades Out (Back to normal)

Vibration:

You are listening to music and when text message arrives, notification comes in form of vibration and

there is no impact on music playback.

Conclusion:

After seeing so many examples and observations we have concluded that as a test engineer we should

include interrupt in our test strategy.

We perform usability, performance, compatibility, installation and many more types of testing but these

scenarios of interruptions should be included on priority bases.

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Author’s biography:

Paras Ahi is working as a Software Test Engineer with QA InfoTech from past 2 Years and 3 Months.

He is a B.Tech of Batch-2009, Computers Science fromITM, Gurgaon (ITMU)

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Copyright Transfer Form

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Importance of Interrupts in Smart Apps Testing(Hereinafter called Work)

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Agreed Date Signed:Monday, September 16, 2013Signature*:

Lead Authors’ Name and Address (please print or type):Paras Ahi, QA InfoTech, Noida

Phone Number: 9015201390

Fax Number: N/A

Email: parasahi@qainfotech.net