Why Synthetic Test Data Generation is Essential for Top-Notch Mobile Testing

Test data: the unsung hero of test automation. 

There are many resources out there highlighting the importance of test automation and offering best practices for creating the right test automation strategy. But less is said about the importance of test data – and particularly synthetic test data.

This blog will take a closer look at the increasing importance of synthetic test data and why test data is key to executing seamless and continuous mobile testing. 

Why Enterprises Choose Synthetic Test Data Generation

In my experience, enterprises opt for synthetic test data for three reasons:

1. Testing happens faster due to a lack of bottlenecks.
2. Teams can rest assured their data is secure and consistent.
3. Synthetic test data offers an agile way to test quickly and comprehensively.

Now, I will dive in and take a closer look at each of these advantages that come with synthetic test data.

Minimizes Bottlenecks

When testers can create data on demand, they can run reliable test scenarios where data either does not exist or is inaccessible. 

Consider the following scenario: a bank wants to run a test for their ATM software. Yet the ATM decides to not work right when your tester is about to run the test case. With synthetic test data generation, a non-working ATM would not impact the ability to run a reliable test at all. 

Rather, testers can build synthetic test data on their own and use it easily as part of their testing efforts. 

More Secure & Consistent

Standard user data from production environments frequently includes Personally Identifiable Information (PII). While the data may be more accurate, using personal data can open your company to significant security risks. 

With synthetic test data generation, testers can create consistent test data that will get the job done without ever using or possibly exposing real user data. Not only does this approach remove any issues with regulatory compliance, but it also lets testers create data on-demand. 

The consistency of the synthetic test data is also very important because it ensures that the end-user has a seamless experience on the front end while the application is offering the same data on the back end. 

It is important to note that there are other ways to take existing data and remove PII, such as with test data masking. But more traditional masking tools in test data management are typically used for much larger data sets, such as a 48 Terabyte database with many tables – all of which require referential integrity.

Data masking is a powerful way to remove PII concerns, but when you need data quickly to feed into your tests it is not necessarily the right solution. Which brings us to the final reason that enterprises use synthetic test data generation: its agility.

Enables Faster & More Comprehensive Testing

Testers also use synthetic test data to speed up their testing processes while also making it more comprehensive, avoiding possible delays or issues from tests breaking unnecessarily. From GUI functional and performance tests to virtual services and systems under test (SUT), synthetic test data is agile enough to work with each type of testing. 

When testers can generate test data quickly, the possibilities are endless for more robust test cases. Additionally, the reusability of the test data (due to its consistency) encourages teams to collaborate more through sharing of the data in other scenarios. Some common examples of test data that can help speed along the testing process include:

• Addresses
• Date and Time
• Credit card numbers
• Bank account details
• Seed Lists

Saving the Day for Mobile Testing With Synthetic Test Data

We now understand how synthetic test data generation can help speed up the testing process while also making it more comprehensive, secure, and reliable. But what makes synthetic test data generation so helpful for mobile testing?

When it comes to test data, mobile and web application testers face the same challenges: agile test creation, bottlenecks and dependencies, comprehensive coverage, and data consistency. 

For many, the solution for mobile testing bottlenecks that rest on data is to create synthetic test data manually. But the inefficiencies that come with manual test data creation often outweigh the advantages of using synthetic test data in the first place. Why opt to use data that is difficult to maintain, time-consuming to create, and not varied enough to handle robust or realistic testing scenarios?

This challenge is where automated synthetic test data generation is primed to save the day. With synthetic test data that is generated automatically, testers can:

• Save time on reliable test creation.
• Eliminate a testing dependency that is often seen as a major bottleneck.
• Maintain test data consistency
• Improve testing efficiency.

How to Use Synthetic Test Data Generation in Mobile Testing

Now that we have a better understanding of synthetic test data generation and its benefits, the next question we should be asking is how to make the most of the capability. What should we be using this test data for?

Aside from the more obvious use case of generating PII-free data that keeps your test reliable without posing any security risks, there are three other major use cases for synthetic test data: generating missing data, data for negative testing, and data for mobile virtual services.

Let us explore these use cases further.

Generate Missing Data

In the case of missing data, synthetic test data can fill in specific data points that are not readily available. These data points can range from addresses in a specific geolocation to email addresses from a specific domain, such as Gmail or from certain businesses.

Additionally, you can also use synthetic test data to conduct edge testing. For example, if you are an eCommerce organization that is running a sale until a specific date, edge testing runs tests closely before and after the sale end date to ensure that the sale calculations no longer occur. To generate the dates in question, testers can use synthetic test data.

Generate Data for Negative Testing

Another important use case where synthetic test data can be helpful is when you are testing what will happen if someone inputs wrong or bad data, such as an email address with a misspelled domain name (e.g., gamil.com instead of gmail.com).

With synthetic test data, testers can generate these types of incorrect test data automatically to test whether your system will give an appropriate response.

Generate Data for Mobile Virtual Services

A more innovative way that teams can use synthetic test data is by feeding it into a virtual service, which your testing platform can then reference when running a test scenario in a virtual environment.

In the case of mobile testing, I want to showcase how our continuous testing suite made up of Perfecto and BlazeMeter would create and utilize this test data. In this case, BlazeMeter can generate users – complete with usernames and passwords – through its test data generation capabilities and create a virtual service with those users.  Then Perfecto or BlazeMeter can pull from that same data to fill in the username and password when they run the test. 

This capability adds an extra layer of agility to using virtual services for mobile testing, where teams can virtualize a mobile gateway or other backend services. By replacing the entire back end from the mobile gateway on down, mobile testing can happen faster, more efficiently, and more comprehensively.

In this webinar, take a closer look at how Perfecto users can generate synthetic test data for mobile testing on demand with BlazeMeter Test Data using a simple API:

Bottom Line

Synthetic test data generation is an important component to take your mobile testing to the next level. For organizations looking to speed up their mobile testing processes while ensuring that their testing remains consistent, secure, and dependency-free, explore incorporating synthetic test data into your mobile testing strategy today.

Experience Synthetic Test Data for Mobile Testing in Action

Try out Perfecto’s mobile-friendly synthetic test data for yourself as part of our free trial, or get a demo of the groundbreaking ways that Perforce’s application quality suite (made up of Perfecto and BlazeMeter) helps countless enterprises gain a DevOps edge through continuous testing.

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