IoT Testing: How to Test Internet of Things Solutions

The Internet of Things is one of those concepts that seemed like science fiction only a few decades ago but are totally real these days, just like self-driving cars or delivery robots. The IoT development industry is growing at a rapid pace, which is why IoT devices surround us everywhere, and their presence is only becoming more ubiquitous. It’s projected that there will be over 75 billion connected IoT devices by 2025, and global IoT revenue is expected to hit $96 billion in the same year.

The IoT system market is a fascinating example of the most advanced use of technology that benefits businesses, regular users, and even entire cities. It often seems that various IoT devices will gradually take over nearly every task. However, IoT products don’t emerge just by the wave of a wand. Behind any new product appearance lie rounds of testing and quality assurance, requiring in-depth domain expertise and the strong technical skills of a QA team. 

In this article, we will talk in detail about IoT testing: what it entails, how to test your IoT solution, what IoT testing challenges may come your way, and why, despite all the challenges, IoT QA is still a critical aspect of creating Internet of Things products that can’t be overlooked.

What Is an IoT Device?

IoT, or the Internet of Things, refers to physical devices that are equipped with various sensors and can connect to other devices via a communication network. IoT technology integrates all available components into a system that helps make quick and effective decisions based on real-time data.

IoT is the most common term used to address this group of devices. Still, there has been a lot of discussion in the tech community about whether it’s the right term to use because the Internet is not the only way for an IoT device to connect to other devices and transfer information.

Where Are IoT Devices Used?

IoT technology has hundreds of potential applications, and this number is only growing every year. We can divide all possible use cases for IoT devices into two categories: business and personal.

Business or professional uses of IoT technology may include various applications in the fields of enterprise management, agriculture, and smart city environments. Personal uses, on the other hand, typically involve home security, smart home technology, and healthcare, although the latter lies at the intersection of professional and personal uses.

What Is IoT Testing?

IoT testing is the practice of verifying the correct operation of an IoT ecosystem; it’s an accumulation of efforts to ensure the quality of an IoT solution. This can include a variety of testing types, methods, and tools used for IoT testing. Typically, IoT QA consists of checking the functionality, performance, UX, security, and network connectivity of an IoT device and the infrastructure surrounding it. The IoT testing market has been growing steadily for years: the market size reached $2.1 billion in 2022 and is projected to go all the way up to $14.4 billion by 2028.

IoT devices are a unique combination of hardware and software, and the hardware and software in question are usually absolutely unique. This is why two IoT QA strategies are never the same. At the same time, an IoT device can be broken down into several different layers that need to be tested both individually and as a system. Here are these layers, or, as they’re commonly referred to, IoT testing frameworks.

Device Layer

This is the layer of an IoT product that is mostly physical. Therefore, it requires IoT testing experts with both hardware and software testing expertise. This layer typically includes various sensors, actuators, and control elements, as well as the firmware responsible for its correct operation. It’s worth noting that this part of an IoT solution often performs in challenging environments that need to be accounted for and simulated in the testing process.

Connectivity Layer

This layer is responsible for transferring data between the device layer and the remaining layers. Depending on the specifics of the product and its architecture, IoT testing on the connectivity layer may deal with gateways, connectivity protocols, and network communications. This is one of the most challenging layers to test due to the endless variety of settings and protocols.

Data processing layer

At the data processing layer, the IoT QA team will investigate how the solution handles the data obtained from sensors and transferred through the network. Specifically, it’s important to look at how data is stored and processed, as well as how it’s analyzed by the system. For example, the team will check how the solution handles data storage to avoid memory shortage, or whether there’s anything standing in the way of efficient data processing.

Application layer

The application layer of an IoT solution mainly has to do with the software side of the operations — specifically, the front-end and the back-end components of the product. This can include the user application, the control application, and possibly the BI application, provided that the nature of the product calls for its use. This layer is the closest one to traditional software testing but still faces unique challenges.

Most common types of IoT testing

Although each Internet of Things testing project is different from the rest and involves its own sequence of steps, there are certain types of IoT testing that can be found in pretty much any IoT quality assurance project. Here are the IoT testing types that every Internet of Things testing endeavor needs.

Functional

IoT functional testing is an integral part of any software development and QA project. In the case of Internet of Things testing, it is responsible for checking whether everything in the device and the application is working properly and complies with the functional requirements. This can include testing the operation of the product, as well as GUI testing, which serves to confirm that every interface element is in the right place and corresponds to the right action.

Usability

The absolute majority of IoT devices are designed to be interacted with in some way by real human beings, which is why usability testing is a must. With this type of testing, the IoT QA team will make sure that the device and the application it’s connected to create a positive user experience regardless of the user’s level of technical proficiency.

Smoke

Smoke testing is one of the IoT testing types that are present in nearly every software product released to the public. Smoke testing is one of the first steps in the QA process and helps the team make sure that the current build is stable enough and ready to be tested further. Skipping this step, or insufficient smoke testing, can lead to disrupting the whole testing process and to a significant portion of the testing budget going to waste.

Performance

When it comes to IoT device testing, it’s important to remember that many of them operate under unusual conditions and handle large amounts of data. This makes performance testing one of the types of IoT testing that can be successfully automated, provided that the IoT QA testing team has the necessary expertise and possesses the proper selection of performance testing tools. Performance testing for IoT typically also includes load testing, which aims to measure how prepared the solution is for unexpected spikes in usage.

Many companies and individual teams performing IoT services agree that performance testing is one of the most integral ones for IoT platforms. Here are the common outcomes of IoT testing approaches that do and do not focus on performance testing specifically.

Compatibility

Some IoT solutions are designed to work on just one platform, while others are intended for use on a myriad of devices, platforms, and operating systems. This is why compatibility testing is important for all IoT projects but absolutely crucial for many of them. For this type of IoT testing, it’s very important to run the tests on as many devices as possible, and this is one of the instances where TestFort’s collection of over 250 physical devices proves particularly helpful, as even the best IoT virtualization tools are not usually able to cover all possible hardware and software combinations.

Integration

Due to the fact that a typical IoT solution consists of multiple modules, it’s important to test these modules not just independently, but also as part of the integration process. This is what integration testing is for. To put it simply, the QA team will look at how successfully the new additions to the entire IoT setup — whether it’s a new piece of software or a new hardware module — are integrated into the system. Integration testing may be combined with system testing to evaluate the solution as a whole.

Scalability

One of the ultimate goals of an IoT product is to increase the number of customers and ensure presence in as many territories as possible. This is why it’s essential to include scalability in the IoT testing process. It will help the stakeholders avoid any unpredictable performance issues the solution can face as the customer base starts growing.

Connectivity

The connection between the different layers of the IoT solution is what actually allows it to be called an Internet of Things solution. Without a stable connection, an IoT device is just a piece of plastic that cannot do much. This is why connectivity testing is a must for any IoT network and device. This stage of IoT device testing should involve checking the mobile and wireless connectivity, as well as any related types of connectivity that are specific to the product.

Security

By some estimates, around 70% of all IoT devices globally are currently vulnerable to security attacks. And only 48% of businesses can identify a security breach in their IoT product. Considering that the majority of IoT solutions deal with sensitive data in one way or another, whether it’s the smart home technology or a healthcare device, security is not something to be taken lightly, hence the importance of security testing. There are plenty of security testing tools for all-encompassing, robust IoT security testing.

Localization

With some exceptions made for IoT products designed for a limited local market, IoT devices are typically marketed and sold all over the world, so there are all kinds of people who will be using IoT solutions. Therefore, English being the only available interface language won’t cut it. Localization testing not only tests the correctness of the translation, but also makes sure the product complies with local standards and requirements.

Regulatory

A typical complex IoT system is a unique combination of software and hardware that has a one-of-a-kind set of characteristics and often deals with the most sensitive aspects of human existence. From home security and smart cities to medical devices — the IoT market is intensely regulated. Regulatory testing checks whether the solution complies with all relevant laws and regulations. This makes IoT regulatory testing one of the key testing types for any solution.

Beta testing

This testing type, or, rather, this stage of an IoT project, requires the development of realistic scenarios for IoT software testing. It helps teams to simulate user behavior before the final version of the IoT application is unveiled and increases the chances of a successful release. It also helps business owners reduce the costs of fixing bugs within the IoT solution since the detected failures and usability issues have been caught during the beta testing stage, not when the software is already in active use.

Testing team for an IoT project: Ideal composition and training

We’ve already talked about the IoT testing process, types, and other aspects of quality assurance for the Internet of Things products. However, behind every successful testing project, there is a team of IoT testing experts. So who can test an IoT device, how many people do you need to test a product successfully, and what kind of training is required for the job?

To answer this question, we spoke to the most prominent IoT testing experts in our company. Here is what they think:

1. As it’s often the case in software testing, the size and seniority level of the team is determined only by the project specifications. It’s entirely possible to test a small IoT device with a team consisting of just one QA. But there are also projects that require hundreds of testers to comprehensively test the product and obtain reliable results.
2. With the exception of tiny QA projects that can get away with just one experienced engineer, the minimal size of a QA team is 2 to 4 engineers plus 1 QA lead. Naturally, if the project requires automation, an automation QA is also necessary.
3. Although prior experience with IoT devices is a big advantage for a QA engineer, it is not always a deal breaker. In other words, a QA engineer with a background exclusively in software testing can successfully test IoT devices, provided they are ready to learn.
4. On the other hand, when a team consists exclusively of engineers with no IoT testing experience, it can slow down the project and potentially cause some bugs to go unnoticed. This is why the team must include at least one engineer with relevant experience.
5. To be good at IoT QA, the engineer must possess some important skills and qualities — most importantly, an ability to think outside the box and find effective solutions in a dynamically changing environment. For example, an IoT testing engineer needs to be able to quickly think of a way to test a parking meter that is designed for use in Canada in sub-zero temperatures to make sure it’s able to withstand drastic weather conditions.

How much does IoT application testing cost?

Given how much unique hardware and software is needed for a typical IoT product, developing an Internet of Things solution typically costs a lot. Still, it’s important to take into account the expenses linked to testing the product. Similarly to testing regular software products, there are dozens of factors that can influence the cost of the project. Here are just some of them:

• The size and seniority level of the team
• The presence of strict deadlines
• The amount of functional and non-functional requirements that need to be tested
• The complexity of the requirements
• The need to create specific test conditions
• The need to implement testing automation
• The use of unusual testing techniques

The factors listed above can be more or less applied to testing most software and hardware products. However, when testing IoT solutions, the team operates on a different scale. For example, while regular software products need to be tested on a specific number of hardware/software/OS combinations, many Internet of Things products require the use of specially designed physical environments, which understandably leads to extra costs.

At the same time, the biggest expense of an IoT testing project is the cost of labor. The salary of an IoT QA engineer depends on their level of expertise and, more importantly, location. For instance, a US-based IoT testing engineer makes between $90,000 and $110,000, based on Indeed.com, whereas an IoT & embedded QA engineer in Ukraine makes between $20,000 and $30,000 annually. This is why many IoT product owners now prefer to outsource their testing needs abroad — it’s an easy way to ensure an impeccable quality of testing while keeping the costs relatively low.

IoT Automation Testing: What Is It and Why We Need It

Over the past few years, the number of IoT devices has grown at an unprecedented rate. There is probably no industry that does not use IoT devices. The challenge is that all of these devices require seamless synchronization to operate smoothly, and this is very difficult to achieve using traditional testing approaches. First, it doesn’t exclude errors. And second, testing IoT devices in this way takes way too much time.

IoT automated testing addresses this particular issue. Just like the name implies, this approach suggests automating the testing of Internet of Things products to improve their efficiency and speed up product delivery. By automating the testing process, IoT developers and manufacturers can ensure more comprehensive test coverage and detect potential setbacks earlier in the development cycle. This not only accelerates the time-to-market for IoT products but also improves their quality. Other reasons why automation testing is essential in the world of IoT include:

• An IoT product consists of multiple components that work on different layers, and automation testing can ensure the widest test coverage in a limited amount of time.
• Testing a typical IoT solution runs on a large scale as there are countless features, combinations of conditions, and performance aspects to explore.
• Automation is one of the few ways to perform in-depth connectivity and security testing of an IoT device, which directly influences its popularity, reputation, and more.
• Automation ensures highly accurate testing results as it encompasses the whole network of devices and systems and can detect most of the details that can easily go unnoticed by the human eye. 
• More importantly, automation that can seamlessly serve thousands or even millions of IoT applications allows for scaling – something that can never be achieved by solely relying on manual testing practices. 

Therefore, the primary goal of IoT automation testing is to provide an effective framework to speed up and enhance the testing process, resulting in higher quality software that goes through release cycles faster. 

Which Industries Use IoT Automation Testing the Most?

While many people believe that most of the IoT devices are used in healthcare, the truth is they can be found in any other industry as well and require thorough testing. Let’s discuss key niches where IoT automation testing comes to the fore.

• Pharmaceutical. Storage, transportation, and manufacturing of medicines require special conditions and constant monitoring, and IoT devices prove indispensable here. Pharmaceutical companies rely heavily on IoT automation testing to ensure the seamless operation of devices responsible for real-time monitoring of temperature, humidity, and other critical parameters. 
• Manufacturing. In the manufacturing sector, IoT automation testing plays a crucial role in optimizing processes, enhancing efficiency, and ensuring product quality. IoT devices have been used for a long time as part of the production lines to monitor equipment performance, detect faults, and facilitate predictive maintenance. Testing them ensures that they can seamlessly communicate with each other, collect and process data, and respond to commands effectively, thereby minimizing downtime and improving overall production efficiency. 
• IoT in finance. Banking and financial institutions actively use IoT technology. From ATMs and POS to biometric authentication systems, surveillance systems, and sensors for asset tracking, the range of financial services has been broadened extensively with the introduction of IoT, and automation testing plays a vital role here. By rigorously testing these interconnected systems, financial organizations ensure compliance with industry regulations and safeguard against potential risks and vulnerabilities that are quite common in FinTech.
• Smart agriculture. With the growing demand for sustainable and efficient farming practices, IoT devices are becoming increasingly popular in agriculture. Automated testing is essential to guarantee the proper functioning of smart agriculture solutions such as precision farming, crop monitoring, and automated irrigation systems. 
• Hospitality. More and more people are turning to smart appliances in their daily lives. It’s been several years since many families’ became smart, people switched from regular cars to smart vehicles, and entire cities adopted smart infrastructure. In this industry, IoT testing helps detect faults and verify the reliability of these devices. 
• Retail. IoT automation testing is essential in the retail sector for optimizing inventory management and enhancing customer experiences. It helps verify the accuracy of data collected by IoT devices, such as RFID tags and sensors, to track inventory levels, monitor customer behavior, and facilitate personalized marketing strategies. 
• Transportation and logistics. In the transportation industry, IoT allows for more efficient routes, helping reduce transfer time and fuel consumption. In addition, it makes it easier for logistics companies to track cargo to ensure it arrives at its destination on time. Therefore, the role of automated testing cannot be underestimated here. By relying on automated test cases, companies can eliminate a lot of errors, enhance GPS tracking and operation of communication systems, and optimize routes, ultimately leading to reduced operation costs and better customer service. 

Important Benefits of Adopting IoT Testing

Implementing testing for IoT is a necessary step in ensuring the success and smooth functionality of IoT deployments across various industries, which offers a wide range of benefits. Here are the most important ones:

Reliability and Performance Assurance

IoT testing helps identify and rectify potential system failures, ensuring that different devices that are connected to each other function smoothly, regardless of the manufacturer or technology used. This is particularly crucial in industries like healthcare and manufacturing, where system downtime can lead to severe consequences. In addition, rigorous testing helps ensure the optimization of IoT devices and system performance. This includes data accuracy, response times, and overall efficiency, which leads to enhanced user experience and operational effectiveness. 

Security Validation

Another important benefit of IoT automation testing is that it helps identify potential vulnerabilities and security breaches within interconnected systems that would be difficult to understand through manual testing. By running automated tests using special IoT tools, businesses can manage all potential cases and improve data protection significantly, mitigating the risk of cyber-attacks and unauthorized access. Security validation is important in all industries, be it transportation or logistics, manufacturing, or hospitality, but it’s particularly crucial in industries such as finance, healthcare, and retail, where data privacy is paramount. 

Extensive Test Coverage

Manual practices can’t possibly cover as many testing environments as IoT automation testing, which allows a myriad of operating systems, platforms, and devices. Moreover, the speed at which automation tests are carried out is very fast. In this way, companies can significantly speed up the release of their products while being confident that the quality of the products is top-notch. In addition, test automation tools excel at detecting bugs early in development, preventing them from becoming a bigger problem later in the project. 

Regulatory Compliance

Finally, test automation plays a vital role in ensuring that the software complies with industry regulations. There are many things that contribute to regulatory compliance, starting from bug-free products that consistently demonstrate excellent performance to the ability to quickly adapt should there be any changes in the code to detailed reports necessary for compliance audits. And automation tests help on all of these fronts. Besides, automation regression tests provide confidence that new changes don’t break compliance with existing regulations and do not cause any errors that may disrupt trust with stakeholders. 

Possible IoT testing challenges

The benefits and importance of IoT device testing and IoT application testing are not up for debate. And the Internet of Things testing as a whole has come a long way over the past few years, with new tools, approaches, and best practices helping IoT testing experts become even better at what they do.

At the same time, like any software testing niche, IoT QA is not without its challenges. IoT testing is a challenging process for several reasons, but there is nothing an effective testing team cannot mitigate. Here are the top IoT testing challenges most teams encounter sooner or later.

Complexity and Interoperability

Complexity is perhaps the most evident challenge that many companies face. Clients often want to integrate different devices into one ecosystem, which presents a unique testing challenge. Not only are these devices made by different manufacturers, but they can also include different components and use different technologies, requiring significant technical expertise to prevent connectivity issues and create a cohesive IoT environment. QA automation should address these issues, with a particular focus on interoperability testing. 

Lack of standardization

Many IoT device types have been around for years and are regulated by certain industry standards. However, there are lots of completely unique IoT solutions that are hard to categorize, and the standardization industry clearly struggles to keep up with the IoT industry. The lack of strict standardization means the QA team has nothing to base the testing strategy upon and no blueprint that can serve as a canvas for testing.

User behavior is hard to predict

There are IoT products that are barely interacted with by human beings other than the setup and maintenance process. These can include different agricultural equipment, factory machinery, and logistics devices. And then there are IoT products that are interacted with every single day, such as medical devices and wearables. This means the team has to account for most of the possible ways the user can interact with the product, which takes time and experience.

Too many variables

An average IoT product is a combination of hardware, software, cloud technologies, and design features that is not used in any other product, even if their functionality is similar. Moreover, IoT devices require different connectivity protocols, so much so that some IoT testing experts believe that it’s not even possible to know every connection present in the device, let alone test it. Too many variables in a product also mean a longer, more labor-intensive process of testing the compatibility of your IoT solution.

Hardware-related issues

The actual IoT device — the piece of hardware that the user interacts with — is usually autonomous to a degree but still needs to be regularly maintained and have its battery charged. Unfortunately, both things often prove challenging. As a result, IoT QA engineers may choose to go lightly on testing and updates, which, in turn, can make the solution more vulnerable to security issues and jeopardize the whole related IoT environment.

Fast time to market

IoT product owners face fierce competition in the market these days. With some exceptions of absolutely one-of-a-kind products, there are usually several alternatives available for every IoT product you can think of. This is why product owners feel pressured to release their solutions faster than their competitors. This creates an additional challenge for the QA team, who now have to try and complete the same amount of testing in less time. Sometimes, it also means that IoT testing is treated as an afterthought in favor of faster release cycles, which will inevitably damage the IoT device’s performance, security, and eventually, reputation.

Increased cost of testing

There are many reasons why testing IoT devices typically costs more than testing regular software solutions. In addition to the possible seniority and prior experience requirements for the QA engineers, it’s also often necessary to set up a testing lab where the team can create the required conditions for thoroughly testing the product. It’s very expensive to do in-house and also triggers additional costs when working with an outside vendor.

Best practices for the Internet of Things testing

Whether you’re doing all IoT QA yourself or planning to use some outside help, it’s always a good idea to know how this type of testing is done and how to make it more effective. We are not going to post a whole testing tutorial here, but these are the key best practices for testing IoT solutions:

1. Automate everything you can. Internet of Things testing is one of the most challenging QA types to automate, but it’s also one where automation always pays off. You should especially consider mature testing processes for automation since automating them makes the most business sense.
2. Use gray box testing. By providing the testing team with some, but not all knowledge of the internal system workings, you can achieve a deeper understanding of whether the IoT solution truly hits all the marks. Grey box testing also works well when architecture, connectivity, and third-party software integrations are considered.
3. Test in real-life scenarios. Teams often create whole testing labs for evaluating IoT solutions, but these are products that are going to be used every day in all kinds of scenarios. Real-life conditions, including different UX, performance, network, and compatibility testing scenarios, allow us to look at the solution from even the most unlikely angles.

Why it’s important to thoroughly test IoT products

The fact that software and hardware testing is essential for ensuring the quality of the product, and therefore the company’s reputation and revenue, is not up for debate. However, testing IoT solutions takes all of that to the next level, as the cost of error for an IoT product is significantly higher.

What’s the worst thing that could happen when an eCommerce site displays poor performance during a Black Friday sale? The customers cannot finish the purchase, and the company loses revenue as a result. But we probably don’t need to explain the potential outcome of a home security system being infected with malware due to insufficient security testing, the whole smart city infrastructure coming to a halt due to one malfunctioning component, or an insulin pump administering the wrong dosage.

This is why the key QA principle that states that exhaustive testing is hardly ever possible is more true than ever for Internet of Things testing. In other words, the more testing is done and the more aspects of the solution are covered, the better for everyone, including the owners and end users of an IoT product. This is why we believe that our IoT testing services can come in handy for all IoT providers and software developers since IoT is the future.

The Future of IoT Testing 

While we can’t be 100% sure what will happen in the next few years – the world is a wild place these days – we can try to make guesses about its future based on the trends that have already taken shape.  

From where we’re standing, it’s obvious that interoperability will take center stage. IoT testing is poised to intensify its focus on integration and API testing. This strategic shift ensures that diverse devices, no matter what protocols they use, remain stable and operate seamlessly without any glitches.

Equally crucial is the escalating demand for security testing. The number of vulnerabilities don’t seem to reduce over time – quite the opposite happens, and it’s paramount for IoT devices to have strengthened protection against increasingly sophisticated threats. In the coming years, we anticipate a significant enhancement in this domain through the integration of AI capabilities. The integration of AI and machine learning into security methodologies will allow businesses to swiftly identify weak points of IoT products and proactively resolve potential issues. 

Looking ahead, it’s not hard to predict the surging popularity of performance testing as well. As the amount of data and interactions grows, so does the need for IoT systems that can effectively handle increased loads. This will demand improved automated performance testing tools that can address the challenges posed by the expanding scale and complexity of IoT ecosystems. 

Additionally, the future of IoT testing will place an increased emphasis on edge-centric testing. As data processing and storage capabilities move closer to the edge of networks, there is a need for testing methodologies that can be quickly adapted to ensure the smooth functioning of IoT devices. 

While there might be slight deviations in the focus of IoT testing given its evolving nature, one thing is definite: adapting to emerging technologies will be a crucial step in this journey. And if you’re looking for an IT service provider to stay ahead of the curve, our team is the right destination for you.