Testing installations

It is a good idea to create a tree structure of all the possible options which are available to the user, thus covering all the unique paths of an installation. Whoever is tasked with performing installation testing should have information as to what to expect after the installation is completed.

Tools to compare file systems and registry DLLs etc come in handy to ensure that the installation encountered no issues and is complete. In cases when the installation is dependent on other components such as a database or a server, test cases should be written specifically to address this. Of course, one should never only test for optimal circumstances alone. Negative scenarios such as insufficient memory, insufficient space, and an aborted installation should also be covered within installation testing.

The test engineer should ensure that clear messages are given to the user in cases of failure and that the installation can be continued after increasing memory, space or anything else which forced the install to abort. Other special test cases that should be written include those intended to test how software will be distributed. In cases where software is distributed using a physical CD format, test activities should include executing from ISO images, checking the sequence of CDs used as well as handling of corrupted CDs or image.

If test cases are distributed from the Internet, test cases should take into account cases of poor network speed and broken connection, firewalls and security related issues, size of download and approximate time needed and concurrent installations or downloads. Excel has come a long way since its first use within the world, however, there are still some pitfalls in using it.

In a day and age where we have almost every bit of information available at our fingertips, why then do we still primarily use redundant systems? The program itself is easily accessible and, as such, many companies continue to use it. Excel is also a cost-effective standard program that most people can understand. Email falls into a similar Many people look at requirements management as the key phase for dealing with project requirements.

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.

This is a guide to Installation Testing. Here we discuss how it is performed, testing tools, advantages and disadvantages of Installation testing. You can also go through our other suggested articles —. Submit Next Question. By signing up, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Forgot Password? This website or its third-party tools use cookies, which are necessary to its functioning and required to achieve the purposes illustrated in the cookie policy.

Upon failure of installation our software will not work but it might be possible that the data present on customers machine may affect badly.

As a result, it makes bad impression on customer. This is due to the incomplete installer testing. The installation testing of software should be done on different platforms with manual or automated method.

But to complete this time is the major concern. And there are multiple test cases to execute. So we will see how to perform the manual Installer testing as well as automated process below:. Before starting the software installation test figure out on how many configurations installer needs to be supported.

Install a new operating system on it. Add all pre-requisites required prior to install the software application. So it is ready to first install test on your newly prepared configuration. The copy of this base configuration will be used in each time of testing, it will save time a lot. But by creating the image of base configuration will take hardly 10mins, here you are saving approximately 50 mins on each restoration of systemJ, so you can test it over multiple platforms with various scenarios in time.

Make sure that the un-installation scenario also needs to be executed on different platform combination. To get Installation testing in step by step I have used flow chart diagram to explain in details:.

The Disk space checking is done using automated and manual testing method. You can verify calculated disk space by installer is correct or not by using manually or automated tools. So you can use this script for checking completeness of installed application. In manual methods you can check free disk space available on drive before installation and disk space reported by installer script to check whether installer is calculating and reporting disk space accurately.

This is to check whether expected changes are reflected in registry files.