Today, there are roughly 1.5 billion Internet-enabled PCs and over 1 billion Internet-enabled cell phones. The present "Internet of PCs" will move towards an "Internet of Things" in which 50 to 100 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020[CERP-IoT, March 2010]. With rapid advancements in connectivity and reducing cost of sensors, it is prudent that the world will slowly move towards IoT and this will provided us with new ways of communicating and tracking.

Listed below are critical functions that should be considered when testing IoT:

• Identification technology (UID’s needs to be assigned)
• Communication protocols and technology
• Network technology and discovery
• Algorithms and Software
• Hardware
• Security : Data and Privacy
• Standardization

QA Approach:

As mentioned, IoT is constituted by various technologies with specific purposes, each needs to addressed and tested for a reliable and defect free product.  It is also a possibility that applications which are being developed may be using a 3rd party component which should have been tested by the provider.  The QA approach to testing IoT in this discussion will focus just on “Algorithms and Software”.

Testing Algorithms:

Algorithms should be tested in following manners:

• Unit test to validate:
  • Covering the intended calculations
  • Covering expected behaviors
• Starts with known data set and known expected values
• Include boundary conditions
• Test for optimization and speed
• Test for I/O parameters

Testing Software:

Generally, IoT software is developed with SoA in mind and therefore may include extensive use of web services and applications for different platforms such as Mobile, Desktop and Web. IoT software have been tested with already defined good testing practices such as:

• White box
• Black box
• Automation