Comprehensive quality assurance for IoT and embedded software

Rapid technology evolution has contributed to the global widespread application of the internet of things (IoT) and embedded systems. Just have a look: the number of connected devices will reach 39.6 billion by 2033, while the market size of embedded systems will grow annually by 5% till 2032. And it’s not surprising, you encounter these technologies literally every day — from leveraging smartwatches during fitness training to enjoying the comfort of your residences with smart home systems.??

Despite their dominance in the market, developing these solutions is challenging and requires professional QA involvement to function flawlessly and satisfy end users.??

Therefore, today we’d like to focus on the role of QA for IoT and embedded software, important testing activities, and innovative testing techniques for increased QA efficiency.??

Highlighting the value of QA for IoT and embedded systems??

First, let’s define the meaning of these two concepts that often work in tandem. IoT can be described as smart devices that leverage sensors to connect, collect, exchange, and process data between different devices and systems.??

In turn, embedded software represents separate computing systems aimed at fulfilling specific, real-time tasks of a large system they are a part of, that’s why usually they have a restricted scope of capabilities.??

Often, IoT and embedded software go hand in hand. For instance, embedded solutions can be part of many IoT devices and collect data from sensors, process it, and perform required activities, such as sending notifications from a fridge to a smart home system.?

Why are robust testing methodologies necessary to support the operation of these solutions? Companies may consider the following aspects:?

• High overall complexity. IoT and embedded software must instantly manage large data amounts, remain resistant to cyberattacks, work quickly despite restrictions related to its capabilities, and operate faultlessly regardless of the hardware it's designed for. Otherwise, its reliability can be questionable. ?

• Compliance regulations. IoT and embedded software need to be aligned with multiple industrial regulations and standards, such as FDA, GDPR, and others. Ignoring them may result in penalties and reputational problems.?

• System viability. The mixture of such solutions should be able to quickly recover in case of unpredicted disruptions to minimize operational losses and downtime, which is especially vital for fault-tolerant software, such as medical devices in hospitals.?

• Firmware updates. Diverse renovations, including security patches and bug fixes, should be introduced smoothly without causing new issues.?

• Energy use. The majority of IoT devices depend on power consumption, which means that without testing it’s difficult to ensure that they can work reliably without early discharge.?

Quality assurance for IoT and embedded software?

The overall complexity of these solutions and stringent demands applied to them in terms of performance, security, operation in diverse conditions, and other vital aspects, require holistic software testing.??

Currently, it’s possible to define two distinct QA approaches - traditional and advanced. Let’s have a closer look at each of them.?

Examination of traditional testing approaches for IoT and embedded systems??

After delving into software functional and non-functional requirements, architecture, firmware, sensors, and other vital components, QA engineers create test plans, test scenarios, and test cases and run the following verifications:?

• Performance testing?

QA specialists should conduct server-side performance testing (most commonly stress and load) to make sure IoT and embedded systems can respond to numerous requests and identify problems that can negatively affect overall performance and lead to decreased user satisfaction levels because of freezes or complete system downtime.?

• Cybersecurity testing?

IoT and embedded devices are known to gather and exchange large amounts of sensitive data. It’s vital for companies to keep it safe, prevent unauthorized access or attacks, and ensure the well-being of the target audience whose health depends on the accuracy of such devices.?

So, QA engineers should perform complex security testing to identify loopholes and minimize the risk of data losses. For instance, penetration testing simulates attacks on the software to find vulnerabilities and address them before serious problems, while vulnerability assessment helps gain a detailed view on existing weaknesses to resolve them in the most effective way. Or protocol testing, which is also vital, to confirm that diverse protocols are resistant to the actions of malicious intruders.??

• Integration testing?

Often, IoT and embedded systems represent a web of devices that need to interact with each other applying various communication protocols. They also may be integrated with other solutions (e.g. ERPs, CRMs). That’s why integration testing is so important to ensure that they can smoothly work as a unity, seamlessly exchange data, and meet end-user expectations.?

So, QA engineers run integration tests to establish real-time interaction between IoT devices and with other software, provide unhindered data transfer, and detect issues that impede faultless software operation.?

• Functional testing?

Functional testing of IoT and embedded software is another must-do activity. It helps ensure that IT products operate in line with requirements and user expectations and assists to detect issues early in the development process when they are quicker and cheaper to address.??

Therefore, QA specialists provide a wide scope of functional verifications (from smoke to acceptance testing) to check all the functionalities, including critical for business, using real-world test scenarios.?

• Compliance testing?

This aspect is of vital importance as the software must meet international regulations to ensure that the software has no data privacy issues, security loopholes, or other severe problems. Lack of compliance can lead to penalties, recalls, and user churn. QA engineers should check that the software meets the demands of GDPR, ISO, and other standards.?

• Usability testing?

In addition to ensuring the proper functionality of IoT and embedded software, it’s crucial that the target audience finds it intuitive and user-friendly, enabling them to easily achieve their goals. To support the rollout of IT solutions that end users will enjoy, QA engineers perform usability testing.?

During this activity, they look for complications that may arise while navigating the software and accessing required information. They gauge the time needed to complete various tasks, assess whether the target audience can understand everything without additional information, and evaluate if users make any errors while working with the software.?

• Compatibility testing?

As IoT and embedded software deals with a myriad of different devices, OSs, browsers, and their configurations, QA engineers need to run compatibility tests. They help confirm that all members of this chain efficiently interact with each other, constantly deliver high user experience, and work seamlessly well with various communication protocols or network types.?

• Test automation?

Regardless of the software types testers work with, they inevitably face monotonous, repetitive tasks, such as regression testing, that may take a long time to execute if relying on manual approaches alone. In addition, these circumstances may lead to reduced accuracy and missed defects.??

Therefore, QA engineers can apply test automation that can help greatly decrease testing time, lower operational expenditure, and minimize risks of human errors. Within IoT and embedded software testing, it’s possible to automate API tests, unit tests, verifications of engagement with interface of devices, multiple simulations, and other aspects.?

Nota bene! Although these QA activities are vital for ensuring the software meets quality gates, there are still challenges in IoT testing that complicate traditional testing processes:?

• Embedded systems require constant updates, which can introduce new issues and make it harder to identify them.?

• The issues can also stem from hardware, requiring time to diagnose and address.?

• Testing IoT and embedded solutions demands instantaneous conditions to ensure high effectiveness, which isn’t always possible with traditional approaches.?

• This software involves cloud platforms, communication protocols, and various devices, complicating the effort to ensure sufficient test coverage with traditional testing methods.?

So, what’s the way out? Companies may supplement traditional testing approaches with advancements in QA.?

Effective QA techniques for testing IoT and embedded software?

Let’s have a closer look at improved testing approaches, brimming with improved opportunities for more efficient IoT testing and embedded systems testing:?

• Continuous testing?

Continuous testing is the process of ongoing, automated verification of software quality throughout the entire development process. This approach is especially beneficial for testing IoT and embedded software, as it ensures early and constant quality control activities, frequent feedback, decreased risks of issues in the production environment, accelerated testing processes, and lower costs as issues are identified when they are easier and cheaper to address.??

• AI/ML-driven testing?

AI/ML serves as a powerful addition to the testing process, as this technology allows QA engineers to improve quality control efficiency as well as speed up and simplify workflows.??

For instance, QA teams can use it to automate generation of test cases after scanning data and detecting software parts most prone to issues of diverse severity or to ensure more effective maintenance of industrial IoT devices. They can also apply AI/ML to explore logs to find atypical software behavior that can arise because of concealed issues or to perform automated visual verifications.?

• Model-based testing (MBT)?

MBT is another beneficial approach for QA engineers. It presupposes that QA specialists leverage models describing the behavior of the tested IT products to create the necessary test artifacts, which form the basis for further quality control activities. This approach helps reduce overall testing time and ensures broadened test coverage with diverse cases.?

Conclusion?

Testing IoT and embedded software requires a more specialized approach as they involve interconnection of diverse devices, sensors, and systems. So, in addition to traditional testing types, such as cybersecurity, performance, integration, usability, functional, compatibility testing and test automation, companies can improve their testing strategies with best practices in QA — continuous, model-based, and AI/ML-driven testing.??