Application Testing Landscape Report
Introduction:
Application testing deals with tests for the entire application. This is driven by the scenarios from the analysis team. Application limits and features are tested here. Included in this article are companies that provide all types of testing (performance, security, UI etc.)
The sub categories are:
Performance Testing: Testing of responsiveness and stability of the application under the influence of various workload.
Security Testing: Companies that provide tools to test the security of the applications.
Usability Testing: User centered testing activities performed by application users to get feedback.
Cross Browser Testing: Tools to check compatibility of the application in various browsers.
UI Testing: Visual UI Testing tools for apps and websites.
Situation:
The modern digital world of today is flooded with lots of apps that are being integrated into all walks of life from smartphones to smart homes to rocket launchers, the trend show that if one app doesn’t meet the satisfaction of consumers, they are quick to move to alternative options. Thus there is a need to not only build good applications but to also maintain the standard throughout the application lifecycle and this requires a lot of upgrades and testing.
Most companies have developed the use of methodologies and techniques for the efficient running of app tests with the satisfaction of the customer as the end game. Every tester should always go through these steps: plan, test, log the bugs, do regression test.
Problem:
Listed below are the problems faced by the testers and users of app and finally the investors.
Platform, OS and Device Fragmentation: More devices and OS are being launched with a high frequency that it might actually be tough to keep up with the trend. This might not seem to be a problem to most of us, but to the testers, they have to deal with compability and fragmentation issues.
Insufficient mobile testing tools: As per the Cap Gemini Quality Report (Mobile Testing), almost 18% companies state lack of time to test mobile apps, 65% say they do not have the right tools, and 52% cite lack of devices as reasons for not performing mobile testing.
Network Diversity: This fragmentation is actually a lot more when compared to the device fragmentation. There is a competition amongst network carriers for a piece in every device.
Performance & Security
Implication:
Device, OS Fragmentation leads to complexities thus increasing the workload of the testing companies.
Insufficient mobile testing tools: If enough focus isn’t put into this, they’ll be more defective apps being put into the market.
Work Ethics among testers: The general idea of testing is known by all testers. What motivates the experience of testing is in the failed run tests. The behavior of testers during these periods affects the overall turnout of these apps in the long run. This problem also extends to the investors as they’re always looking to get efficient apps done in short periods of time.
Need Payoff:
390+ companies in the sector, 79 funded in the last 5 years, $638M invested in 2015/16. The most active investors are 500 Startups, Kima Ventures, Insight Venture Partners, Techstars.
The 3 subsectors are:
Testing Types: Companies that provide testing tools which are categorized into security, usability, cross browser, UI API and performance testing. There have been 127 companies founded in the last 8 years with an overall funding amount of $691M.
Testing Methodologies: Companies that provide testing platforms which fall into crowd sourced, Device Labs and Emulators. There have been over 63 companies founded in the past 8 years with an overall funding amount of $478M. The subcategories are:
Crowd sourced Testing: Testing of application using crowd sourced means to get results from a wider audience.
Device Lab: Cloud based services to test application on a variety of real devices.
Emulator Testing: Provides Testing solutions to test applications on emulators.
Distributed App Testing: Tools that help in beta testing by distributing apps to testers.
Continuous Testing: Tools that help in generating functional test coverage and finding issues before deploying to production.
Automated Testing Tools: Provides tools and framework for testers to enable automated testing of application. There have been 51 companies founded in the past 8 years with an overall funding amount of $18M. There are two subsectors here:
Mobile: Automated testing of applications specific to mobiles.
Model Based: Model based automated testing tools.
Test Management: Creating and maintaining of test artifacts like requirements, test cases and tracking of defects. There have been 36 companies founded in the last 8 years with an overall funding amount of $12.5M. There are 2 subsectors here:
Bug Tracking: Companies that provide tools for tracking bugs.
Test Data Generation: Companies that provide tools that help in test data generation.
Interesting Companies here are:
SeaLights (2015, Kfar Saba): Cloud based continuous testing platform. Their major investors are: Blumberg Capital, TLV Partners investing an overall funding amount of $11M.
Bugcrowd (2012, San Francisco): Crowd sourced Web Application Security Testing. Their major investors are: Salesforce, 500 Startups, Partech Ventures, Tekton Ventures, Costanoa Venture Capital, Industry Ventures, Paladin Capital Group, Blackbird Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Icon Ventures, Rally Ventures with an overall funding amount of $22.65M.
Conclusion:
The application testing ecosystem reaches into the personal world of consumers and suppliers of technology alike as this sector deals with the applications that run almost every systems in this techy world. Bad applications can ruin business flows and wreak economic systems hence the need to cater for efficient and productive systems is of vital importance to the running of our everyday life. Investors are usually encouraged to play important roles in this.
References
Tracxn Report January 2017
Cigniti Report.
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