Installation Testing

What is Installation Testing?

After the development and testing of the whole software, installation and deployment of it on the client’s machine is an important and crucial task. It involves the installation of all the necessary files, prerequisites and necessary data which is required to install and the proper working of the software. What if when a newly developed software does not work properly after installation on the client’s machine. It can not only cause the loss of money and reputation but can damage the client’s system badly. Installation testing is done for this purpose only.

Installation testing is also known as Implementation testing and it is done to check whether the software is properly installed in the new system with its prerequisites and necessary data and is working as expected or not. Installation testing is a phase of testing which is done just before the interaction of end-users with the application. It is one of the most important phases in the software testing life cycle.

Below given are some of the features of Installation testing:

• Helps in the identification of defects and bugs that arise during the software.
• Helps in the delivery of optimum user.
• Have a specified team of Software testing along with the Configuration.
• This process can include both the partial and full installation and helps to cover the maximum.

How Installation Testing is Performed?

Installation testing has become complex with time as the software is distributed in different ways nowadays like the internet, network location or machine. Installation testing is followed by a series of questions to the user so it is convenient if the testers follow the tree structure on the basis of various questions and answers and test accordingly.
For the testers to go through some broad test cases for the installation testing, following procedures and scenarios need to be covered:

1. Use flow diagrams -To perform the installation testing of any application, the use of the flow diagrams simplifies the overall process as it involves actions according to the answer of users at different points.
2. If the user has already installed a basic version of the application, check for a new version available for that application at the same location on that new version of that application should be installed successfully on the same location of the client’s system without any error.
3. Use of automation scripts in the whole testing process is very helpful as it reduces human efforts and returns the best results. Automated scripts of the process of installation and uninstallation can be created easily using the flow diagram covering each scenario.
4. Disk space required by the installation of any application is checked before performing the actual installation. This is one of the most important scenarios that need to be checked. If the disk space required for installation is not available at that particular location, a proper message should be shown to the user regarding the Insufficient Space and the software should not get installed.
5. Checking the installation works properly if it is done at different machines at the same time. This can be done using the distributed Software Testing environment as it helps in the simultaneous installation of software in different environments.
6. It is very important to check the completeness of installation after the whole process is done, in order to check all the files that have been successfully installed. This can be done through both manual and automated Checking the disk space after installation also helps in finding the complete installation is done or not.
7. Negative scenarios like stopping the installation in the middle either through user intervention or the system issues need to be covered to check whether the user is able to restart the installation process or not.
8. Registry changes need to be verified after the complete installation of software in order to check the expected changes in the registry file.
9. Uninstallation testing is done like the installation testing to check whether all the files are removed successfully from the system.

Installation Testing Tools

There are many tools available in the market for doing the installation testing. Some are licensed and one needs to buy it while some are open source and can be used for free as available on the Internet.

Almost all the test cases of Installation Testing are automated in order to reduce the efforts of repetitive tasks and get the maximum output. For Installation testing, test cases need to be designed very precisely in order to cover a maximum number of scenarios.

Some of the frequently used tools for Installation testing are:

1. RSpec
2. Aruba
3. Minitest

Advantages

• The biggest advantage of installation testing is that it crosses verifies that no module or section of the software or app designed is left untouched on the basis of test cases that are performed.
• Any software or app which is designed normally follows certain set of standards according to industry or client. Installation testing is a very crucial part of the process of the Software Testing Life Cycle (STLC).
• The greater the output results of the installation testing higher the chances are of the software or app to be near perfect. The output is very helpful to developers in order to improve the app or software after getting the error inputs from testers.
• Installation testing proves to be a very handy method to check that all the versions of the software used are up to date and if not, it prompts for updating the versions to the latest one.

Disadvantages

• The results or the outcomes entirely depends on the test cases written. An app or software might contain some chunks of bug but if the cases are not designed to look into that chunks, it may return perfect results.
• Installation testing might fail due to many external factors as well apart from bugs in the code, thus resulting in a very time taking and tiring process.
• Some companies prefer a process of testing the software or app after every particular module or section as it is way easier in detecting bugs or errors according to that. Installation testing might lead to very complicated and hard to understand errors or bugs as it is done on an almost fully functional app or software.
• The process of execution of test cases is time consuming especially in installation testing, it is quite challenging to test an app or software on a different configuration with tons of test cases to be executed.

Conclusion

Installation is the first interaction of the user with the software. Good installation testing resulting in no issues and hence smooth Installation generates customer confidence to use the software further. Smooth Installation also ensures that all the components of the software are available and coordinated properly. In order to cover all the scenarios installation and uninstallation of software should be checked over a network, online installation, patch installation, database checking over installation, etc.

Recommended Articles

This is a guide to Installation Testing. Here we discuss how installation testing is performed, testing tools,  advantages and disadvantages of Installation testing. You can also go through our other suggested articles –

1. Security Testing
2. Types of Software Testing
3. Security Testing Tools
4. GUI Testing