Test combination: Can Baidu MTC relieve your pain?

Competition in the mobile Internet is extremely fierce. Not to mention that there are millions of mobile App developers competing together, the fact that the average App life cycle is only 10 months is enough to give mobile developers a headache. Such a fast update frequency makes testing, the "last step before App goes online", a very difficult task for developers. Fortunately, the sharing economy in the Internet era is very active, and crowd testing, free real machine testing, etc. have become very good methods to solve App testing.

If the purely free model is the biggest trap in the Internet era, then the paid testing service will be truly responsible and serve developers. The establishment of Baidu MTC is also based on these purposes. Recently, Baidu MTC released a new function, launching a three-in-one combination of manual testing, automatic testing and questionnaire surveys. In this regard, 51CTO reporters interviewed Shi Jialiang, head of Baidu Public Testing & MTC, and Gu Xinbiao, senior project manager of Baidu MTC.

Shi Jialiang, Head of Baidu Public Testing & MTC

In Baidu's own words, this three-in-one combination is an on-demand, dimensionally controllable delivery method that can effectively solve developers' testing pain points and meet their testing needs.

Baidu MTC Test Center Overview

Let’s first take a look at the situation of Baidu MTC.

Baidu MTC was founded in 2011 and started with automated testing services for 100 real machines. It now has more than 10,000 real test machines and combines automated testing with manual testing and questionnaires to form a complete solution.

Automated testing is popular among developers because of its advantages such as low testing cost and quick report generation. Shi Jialiang introduced that Baidu MTC's automated testing mainly includes four aspects of testing: first, compatibility testing, including Android and iOS, with 10,000 mobile phones covering more than 1,000 mobile phone models; second, in-depth performance testing, which tests App performance parameters in multiple dimensions; third, in-depth traversal testing, which simulates real people and automatically traverses controls to test App functional problems; fourth, security vulnerability scanning, which provides security protection for App through minesweeping technology. In terms of manual testing, Baidu has selected more than 1,000 experts from 15 million users to provide manual testing for users.

As a supplement to the test, Baidu MTC launched a questionnaire service. "You can't just make an app based on your imagination. There are many startups in the market, and they often make an app based on an idea." Shi Jialiang said, "Baidu MTC's questionnaire survey can help developers understand in advance what the real needs of users are, and whether the app they want to make meets the needs of users." It is understood that Baidu MTC provides questionnaire survey services based on 15 million registered users, covering more than 300 cities across the country, and selectively covers according to regional coverage, industry coverage, etc.

Say goodbye to the limitations of single tests

"Eat it during the day and you won't feel sleepy during the day, eat it at night and you will sleep soundly." Just like the slogan says, different scenarios require different solutions. The same is true for testing. Whether it is real machine testing or manual testing, a single test has its limitations, and simply expanding the scale of a single test cannot solve all problems.

As for automated testing, it is very easy to get started, but it cannot meet all the needs of users. Gu Xinbiao introduced his views to reporters: First, automated testing is more suitable for functions that have been stabilized. If automation is needed to test new functions, the corresponding test cases need to be written after each function is developed, and then automated testing is performed. This test takes even longer than manual testing. Second, automated testing requires the accumulation of test cases. After version iteration, many test cases cannot be used, and the cost of maintaining the case library is very high. Third, the quality of automated testing depends on the ability of the person who writes the test cases, which is prone to personal subjective omissions.

All of these can be compensated by manual testing. Of course, manual testing also has its flaws, and the labor cost is very high, which is why App testing was mainly manual testing at the beginning. As labor costs rose, automation replaced a large part of manual testing. Today, with the strengths of both, different methods are used in different scenarios, and App testing can better meet the needs of developers.

"Sir, this is our new service, please try it!"

Free is a main theme in the Internet era. Now on the market, many automated tests are free, and even expensive manual tests are free. Shi Jialiang believes that free is a completely unsustainable process. As developers become more rational, they will choose effective services.

Of course, there will definitely be opportunities for “free tasting of new products”.

The 12-day "China's Best APP" mobile application testing competition started on December 11. Baidu MTC will invite developers to show their APPs to participate in the competition and experience the MTC's latest online functions. It is reported that MTC has prepared a million-dollar testing fund to help developers improve the quality of their APPs and get through the last mile before going online. Developers can even pay only 1 yuan to use VIP-exclusive automated testing, manual testing, and questionnaire survey services.

[Editor: Lao Men TEL: (010) 68476606]