Testing Challenges in the Highly Interconnected World of IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a growing trend in the software industry. With a combination of software and hardware, both individuals and enterprise consumers want to monitor, activate and control their devices from the comfort of their homes and offices. Applications include home automation, fleet management, medical and other telematics applications. This is an interesting development and a powerful experience for users. But with great power comes great challenges.

For a start, there is no GUI to test in some instances. Consumers of parts of an IoT system may be non-human, and wireless connections create more attack vectors, therefore more security challenges. To be up to the challenge, testers of IoT have a lot more to learn. Testers need to have a better understanding of basic electronics and network systems. The GUI is no longer king; APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are becoming the de facto standard for connecting IoT modules; thus, for better or worse, API testing is becoming a must-have skill for the average tester. Security and penetration testing must also become part of the testing regime. The availability of devices to test IoT systems is more difficult than the traditional web, mobile, or client/server applications. In some instances it can be nearly impossible to get a “real” device to test, for example, a truck with a refrigerator or real hearts to test various pulse responses. Therefore, we need to find more ways to simulate real-life devices.

In this masterclass, Bede shares his experiences testing IoT systems in Telematics, explores other applications of IoT and discusses the main challenges of testing IoT systems and the security vulnerabilities to be aware of.