Twitter.com has officially rebranded to ‘X’ following owner Elon Musk’s controversial decision to remove the social media platform’s famous blue bird logo.
After months of speculation, unprecedented user drop-off, and reported billion-dollar losses, Elon Musk’s Twitter adventure plumbed new depths by changing the platform’s name to X and adopting a new, more masculine, more aggressive logo.
Automation has introduced a paradigm shift in almost every field of human life. From manufacturing to transportation, from healthcare to utilities, there is hardly any sector that is left behind when it comes to leveraging this cutting-edge technology. But the one sector it has completely transformed is field service management. If you are running a field service business in today’s world, it is necessary to understand the impacts of automation and identify the competitive advantages of this disruptive technology.
Field service organizations have dedicated teams to manage various tasks and processes to achieve the goal of excellent service delivery. This demands close collaboration, quick reaction times, and an effective way of scheduling and dispatching service jobs.
Organizations can use field service automation software to remove redundancy, digitize the gathering and use of task-related information, and assist dispatchers in swiftly assigning and scheduling appointments. Organizations can use field service software to accomplish the following:
Automation is becoming more prevalent in industrial and business processes. Gartner projects that by 2024, 69% of managers’ day-to-day tasks will be completely automated. By decreasing work hours, risks, and the time it takes to execute daily tasks, automation enables executives to concentrate more on customer experiences, informed decision-making, and employee empowerment.
A modern field service organization demands degrees of automation for allocating the proper experts to the right job as well as for delivering a seamless customer experience. But analog/ manual methods can no longer manage the schedules and deployment of hundreds of workers, track thousands of parts, and cover dozens of warranties in today’s enterprise field service companies. This is where automation takes the driver’s seat in fostering growth and ensuring efficiency in field service management.
If you are still managing your field service business using disparate data silos and complicated spreadsheets, it is time to reconsider your field service strategy by automating your business processes with the help of field service management software.
Before you try to understand how automation is transforming field service, let’s first try to understand what field service automation is and how it works.
Field service automation refers to the methods, policies, and procedures used by a service delivery organization to manage resources. To break it down further, the term “automation” refers to the primary technology features that help to streamline operations, policies, and even procedures. So, field service automation essentially means using technology to streamline processes and policies in field service management.
Field automation systems include simplified workflows and processes that automate important field service operations such as service task generation, service scheduling, dispatching, work order assignment, service reporting, and end-to-end service request tracking.
In general, automating any part of a business operation will increase the efficiency of an existing process. This is also true for Service Management automation. Many of the actions undertaken in field service operations are inefficient due to the complexity of the workflows. It includes performing redundant, repeated steps, which results in delayed resolution times. With field service automation, you can streamline routine tasks used by both dispatch and field teams and enable an agile way of working, resulting in quicker service requests and technicians arriving at customer locations. Thus, by reducing lengthy interactions, field technicians may focus on greater responsibilities rather than resolving the situation and focusing on the fundamental cause to eliminate recurring incidents.
Moreover, service management automation can increase a service desk’s efficiency by up to 30% while saving the business money on operating expenditures. Automation for Service Management can bring clarity to an overburdened general-service desk and help your support teams stay on track by simplifying administration, improving self-service capabilities, and reducing the number of repetitive operations.
Manual processes such as data analysis, tracking technicians, maintaining schedules, and managing service requests can be tedious. They are rather time-consuming and involve the risk of human error when done manually. Using automated systems instead not only eliminates the chances of manual errors but also reduces time and effort for your employees.
One of the major pain points that field service companies face is a lack of coordination between their field technicians and the back office or among teams working at different job sites. This is perhaps the most significant aspect of how automation can help your business.
When you use FSM software in your field organization, all of the critical field operations are centralized in one area, allowing you to streamline service delivery. In simple terms, coordination becomes more effective when your support staff has seamless access to company data and client portal details in a single location. Furthermore, most leading FSM solutions offer mobile apps for field service technicians, which means not only can they access this data easily, but they can also access it from anywhere without even having to ask the back office for help.
Using a field service automation system, you have complete authority over the technician’s work schedule. You can view their availability, assign work orders, and dispatch from the centralized dashboard with just a click of a button. Additionally, your technicians can make schedule changes as needed.
Using field service automation technology, field service technicians can also instantly receive notifications to execute the correct task at the correct time. It is made possible by connecting any smartphone, tablet for service technicians, and other mobile devices to your organization’s field service automation solution.
The greatest impact of automation in service management is on customer satisfaction and business performance. Automation enables businesses to provide a more timely, efficient, and high-quality customer experience.
It’s a powerful combination: providing services that meet the needs of the consumer while also delivering them on time. Service Management automation achieves this goal by connecting the back and front offices for a streamlined procedure.
Paper-based methods are inefficient and costly. Owners of service businesses report that each time a single piece of paper is submitted for processing by field service operatives, their enterprises incur a $10 expense. Modern paperless business software is replacing the frequent manual entries needed by paper-based systems with real-time, automated data exchanges, saving time and money. Modern project management software also enables mobile field service workers to view documents from any device or location, reducing errors while delivering data from the field to numerous departments.
It’s no secret that automation is a big element of today’s service management. If you’re going to employ field service management software, you should be prepared to use field service automation technologies as well. They will lower your workload, accelerate service delivery and invoicing, and reduce errors and data entry time. More importantly, FSM software will provide your customers with a better experience because they will know they can obtain service quickly and that their service requests will never be overlooked. As such, field service automation solutions have not only transformed the way businesses operate but have also proved to be the biggest competitive advantage for service businesses today.
Therefore, if you own a service business and want to ensure growth and sustainability, you should rethink your strategy and embrace automation. To do this, all you need to do is choose the best field service management software for your company and sign up.
Featured image by Freepik
The post The Impact of Automation on Field Service Management appeared first on noupe.
JetBrains Mono is a geometric monospaced typeface designed with developers in mind. It’s easy to read, functional, and, above all, free. It may just be the perfect coding font.
There’s an overall movement in website design right now where there are no dominant hero image or video on the homepage. Look at some of your most visited websites, and you might see this trend in action. You’ll surely see it among the three other trends we explore in website design here.
I noticed a charming effect on YouTube’s video player while using its dark theme some time ago. The background around the video would change as the video played, creating a lush glow around the video player, making an otherwise bland background a lot more interesting.
This effect is called Ambient Mode. The feature was released sometime in 2022, and YouTube describes it like this:
“Ambient mode uses a lighting effect to make watching videos in the Dark theme more immersive by casting gentle colors from the video into your screen’s background.”
— YouTube
It is an incredibly subtle effect, especially when the video’s colors are dark and have less contrast against the dark theme’s background.
Curiosity hit me, and I set out to replicate the effect on my own. After digging around YouTube’s convoluted DOM tree and source code in DevTools, I hit an obstacle: all the magic was hidden behind the HTML element and bundles of mangled and minified JavaScript code.
Despite having very little to go on, I decided to reverse-engineer the code and share my process for creating an ambient glow around the videos. I prefer to keep things simple and accessible, so this article won’t involve complicated color sampling algorithms, although we will utilize them via different methods.
Before we start writing code, I think it’s a good idea to revisit the HTML Canvas element and see why and how it is used for this little effect.
HTML Canvas
The HTML element is a container element on which we can draw graphics with JavaScript using its own Canvas API and WebGL API. Out of the box, a is empty — a blank canvas, if you will — and the aforementioned Canvas and WebGL APIs are used to fill the with content.
HTML is not limited to presentation; we can also make interactive graphics with them that respond to standard mouse and keyboard events.
But SVG can also do most of that stuff, right? That’s true, but is more performant than SVG because it doesn’t require any additional DOM nodes for drawing paths and shapes the way SVG does. Also, is easy to update, which makes it ideal for more complex and performance-heavy use cases, like YouTube’s Ambient Mode.
As you might expect with many HTML elements, accepts attributes. For example, we can give our drawing space a width and height:
<canvas width="10" height="6" id="js-canvas"></canvas>
Notice that is not a self-closing tag, like an or
Returning to the width and height attributes, they define the ’s coordinate system. Interestingly, we can apply a responsive width using relative units in CSS, but the still respects the set coordinate system. We are working with pixel graphics here, so stretching a smaller canvas in a wider container results in a blurry and pixelated image.
The downside of is its accessibility. All of the content updates happen in JavaScript in the background as the DOM is not updated, so we need to put effort into making it accessible ourselves. One approach (of many) is to create a Fallback DOM by placing standard HTML elements inside the , then manually updating them to reflect the current content that is displayed on the canvas.
Numerous canvas frameworks — including ZIM, Konva, and Fabric, to name a few — are designed for complex use cases that can simplify the process with a plethora of abstractions and utilities. ZIM’s framework has accessibility features built into its interactive components, which makes developing accessible -based experiences a bit easier.
For this example, we’ll use the Canvas API. We will also use the element for decorative purposes (i.e., it doesn’t introduce any new content), so we won’t have to worry about making it accessible, but rather safely hide the from assistive devices.
That said, we will still need to disable — or minimize — the effect for those who have enabled reduced motion settings at the system or browser level.
requestAnimationFrame
The element can handle the rendering part of the problem, but we need to somehow keep the in sync with the playing and make sure that the updates with each video frame. We’ll also need to stop the sync if the video is paused or has ended.
We could use setInterval in JavaScript and rig it to run at 60fps to match the video’s playback rate, but that approach comes with some problems and caveats. Luckily, there is a better way of handling a function that must be called on so often.
That is where the requestAnimationFrame method comes in. It instructs the browser to run a function before the next repaint. That function runs asynchronously and returns a number that represents the request ID. We can then use the ID with the cancelAnimationFrame function to instruct the browser to stop running the previously scheduled function.
let requestId;
const loopStart = () => {
/* ... */
/* Initialize the infinite loop and keep track of the requestId */
requestId = window.requestAnimationFrame(loopStart);
};
const loopCancel = () => {
window.cancelAnimationFrame(requestId);
requestId = undefined;
};
Now that we have all our bases covered by learning how to keep our update loop and rendering performant, we can start working on the Ambient Mode effect!
The Approach
Let’s briefly outline the steps we’ll take to create this effect.
First, we must render the displayed video frame on a canvas and keep everything in sync. We’ll render the frame onto a smaller canvas (resulting in a pixelated image). When an image is downscaled, the important and most-dominant parts of an image are preserved at the cost of losing small details. By reducing the image to a low resolution, we’re reducing it to the most dominant colors and details, effectively doing something similar to color sampling, albeit not as accurately.
Next, we’ll blur the canvas, which blends the pixelated colors. We will place the canvas behind the video using CSS absolute positioning.
And finally, we’ll apply additional CSS to make the glow effect a bit more subtle and as close to YouTube’s effect as possible.
HTML Markup
First, let’s start by setting up the markup. We’ll need to wrap the and elements in a parent container because that allows us to contain the absolute positioning we will be using to position the behind the . But more on that in a moment.
Next, we will set a fixed width and height on the , although the element will remain responsive. By setting the width and height attributes, we define the coordinate space in CSS pixels. The video’s frame is 1920×720, so we will draw an image that is 10×6 pixels image on the canvas. As we’ve seen in the previous examples, we’ll get a pixelated image with dominant colors somewhat preserved.
<section class="wrapper">
<video controls muted class="video" id="js-video" src="video.mp4"></video>
<canvas width="10" height="6" aria-hidden="true" class="canvas" id="js-canvas"></canvas>
</section>
Syncing And
First, let’s start by setting up our variables. We need the ’s rendering context to draw on it, so saving it as a variable is useful, and we can do that by using JavaScript’s getCanvasContext function. We’ll also use a variable called step to keep track of the request ID of the requestAnimationFrame method.
const video = document.getElementById("js-video");
const canvas = document.getElementById("js-canvas");
const ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
let step; // Keep track of requestAnimationFrame id
Next, we’ll create the drawing and update loop functions. We can actually draw the current video frame on the by passing the element to the drawImage function, which takes four values corresponding to the video’s starting and ending points in the coordinate system, which, if you remember, is mapped to the width and height attributes in the markup. It’s that simple!
const draw = () => {
ctx.drawImage(video, 0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
};
Now, all we need to do is create the loop that calls the drawImage function while the video is playing, as well as a function that cancels the loop.
const drawLoop = () => {
draw();
step = window.requestAnimationFrame(drawLoop);
};
const drawPause = () => {
window.cancelAnimationFrame(step);
step = undefined;
};
And finally, we need to create two main functions that set up and clear event listeners on page load and unload, respectively. These are all of the video events we need to cover:
loadeddata: This fires when the first frame of the video loads. In this case, we only need to draw the current frame onto the canvas.seeked: This fires when the video finishes seeking and is ready to play (i.e., the frame has been updated). In this case, we only need to draw the current frame onto the canvas.play: This fires when the video starts playing. We need to start the loop for this event.pause: This fires when the video is paused. We need to stop the loop for this event.ended: This fires when the video stops playing when it reaches its end. We need to stop the loop for this event.const init = () => {
video.addEventListener("loadeddata", draw, false);
video.addEventListener("seeked", draw, false);
video.addEventListener("play", drawLoop, false);
video.addEventListener("pause", drawPause, false);
video.addEventListener("ended", drawPause, false);
};
const cleanup = () => {
video.removeEventListener("loadeddata", draw);
video.removeEventListener("seeked", draw);
video.removeEventListener("play", drawLoop);
video.removeEventListener("pause", drawPause);
video.removeEventListener("ended", drawPause);
};
window.addEventListener("load", init);
window.addEventListener("unload", cleanup);
Let’s check out what we’ve achieved so far with the variables, functions, and event listeners we have configured.
Creating A Reusable Class
Let’s make this code reusable by converting it to an ES6 class so that we can create a new instance for any and pairing.
class VideoWithBackground {
video;
canvas;
step;
ctx;
constructor(videoId, canvasId) {
this.video = document.getElementById(videoId);
this.canvas = document.getElementById(canvasId);
window.addEventListener("load", this.init, false);
window.addEventListener("unload", this.cleanup, false);
}
draw = () => {
this.ctx.drawImage(this.video, 0, 0, this.canvas.width, this.canvas.height);
};
drawLoop = () => {
this.draw();
this.step = window.requestAnimationFrame(this.drawLoop);
};
drawPause = () => {
window.cancelAnimationFrame(this.step);
this.step = undefined;
};
init = () => {
this.ctx = this.canvas.getContext("2d");
this.ctx.filter = "blur(1px)";
this.video.addEventListener("loadeddata", this.draw, false);
this.video.addEventListener("seeked", this.draw, false);
this.video.addEventListener("play", this.drawLoop, false);
this.video.addEventListener("pause", this.drawPause, false);
this.video.addEventListener("ended", this.drawPause, false);
};
cleanup = () => {
this.video.removeEventListener("loadeddata", this.draw);
this.video.removeEventListener("seeked", this.draw);
this.video.removeEventListener("play", this.drawLoop);
this.video.removeEventListener("pause", this.drawPause);
this.video.removeEventListener("ended", this.drawPause);
};
}
Now, we can create a new instance by passing the id values for the and elements into a VideoWithBackground() class:
const el = new VideoWithBackground("js-video", "js-canvas");
Respecting User Preferences
Earlier, we briefly discussed that we would need to disable or minimize the effect’s motion for users who prefer reduced motion. We have to consider that for decorative flourishes like this.
The easy way out? We can detect the user’s motion preferences with the prefers-reduced-motion media query and completely hide the decorative canvas if reduced motion is the preference.
@media (prefers-reduced-motion: reduce) {
.canvas {
display: none !important;
}
}
Another way we respect reduced motion preferences is to use JavaScript’s matchMedia function to detect the user’s preference and prevent the necessary event listeners from registering.
constructor(videoId, canvasId) {
const mediaQuery = window.matchMedia("(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)");
if (!mediaQuery.matches) {
this.video = document.getElementById(videoId);
this.canvas = document.getElementById(canvasId);
window.addEventListener("load", this.init, false);
window.addEventListener("unload", this.cleanup, false);
}
}
Final Demo
We’ve created a reusable ES6 class that we can use to create new instances. Feel free to check out and play around with the completed demo.
See the Pen Youtube video glow effect – dominant color [forked] by Adrian Bece.
Creating A React Component
Let’s migrate this code to the React library, as there are key differences in the implementation that are worth knowing if you plan on using this effect in a React project.
Let’s start by creating a custom React hook. Instead of using the getElementById function for selecting DOM elements, we can access them with a ref on the useRef hook and assign it to the and elements.
We’ll also reach for the useEffect hook to initialize and clear the event listeners to ensure they only run once all of the necessary elements have mounted.
Our custom hook must return the ref values we need to attach to the and elements, respectively.
import { useRef, useEffect } from "react";
export const useVideoBackground = () => {
const mediaQuery = window.matchMedia("(prefers-reduced-motion: reduce)");
const canvasRef = useRef();
const videoRef = useRef();
const init = () => {
const video = videoRef.current;
const canvas = canvasRef.current;
let step;
if (mediaQuery.matches) {
return;
}
const ctx = canvas.getContext("2d");
ctx.filter = "blur(1px)";
const draw = () => {
ctx.drawImage(video, 0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
};
const drawLoop = () => {
draw();
step = window.requestAnimationFrame(drawLoop);
};
const drawPause = () => {
window.cancelAnimationFrame(step);
step = undefined;
};
// Initialize
video.addEventListener("loadeddata", draw, false);
video.addEventListener("seeked", draw, false);
video.addEventListener("play", drawLoop, false);
video.addEventListener("pause", drawPause, false);
video.addEventListener("ended", drawPause, false);
// Run cleanup on unmount event
return () => {
video.removeEventListener("loadeddata", draw);
video.removeEventListener("seeked", draw);
video.removeEventListener("play", drawLoop);
video.removeEventListener("pause", drawPause);
video.removeEventListener("ended", drawPause);
};
};
useEffect(init, []);
return {
canvasRef,
videoRef,
};
};
We’ll use similar markup for the actual component, then call our custom hook and attach the ref values to their respective elements. We’ll make the component configurable so we can pass any element attribute as a prop, like src, for example.
import React from "react";
import { useVideoBackground } from "../hooks/useVideoBackground";
import "./VideoWithBackground.css";
export const VideoWithBackground = (props) => {
const { videoRef, canvasRef } = useVideoBackground();
return (
<section className="wrapper">
<video ref={ videoRef } controls className="video" { ...props } />
<canvas width="10" height="6" aria-hidden="true" className="canvas" ref={ canvasRef } />
</section>
);
};
All that’s left to do is to call the component and pass the video URL to it as a prop.
import { VideoWithBackground } from "../components/VideoWithBackground";
function App() {
return (
<VideoWithBackground src="http://commondatastorage.googleapis.com/gtv-videos-bucket/sample/BigBuckBunny.mp4" />
);
}
export default App;
Conclusion
We combined the HTML element and the corresponding Canvas API with JavaScript’s requestAnimationFrame method to create the same charming — but performance-intensive — visual effect that makes YouTube’s Ambient Mode feature. We found a way to draw the current frame on the , keep the two elements in sync, and position them so that the blurred sits properly behind the .
We covered a few other considerations in the process. For example, we established the as a decorative image that can be removed or hidden when a user’s system is set to a reduced motion preference. Further, we considered the maintainability of our work by establishing it as a reusable ES6 class that can be used to add more instances on a page. Lastly, we converted the effect into a component that can be used in a React project.
Feel free to play around with the finished demo. I encourage you to continue building on top of it and share your results with me in the comments, or, similarly, you can reach out to me on Twitter. I’d love to hear your thoughts and see what you can make out of it!
requestAnimationFrame() method” (MDN)CanvasRenderingContext2D” (MDN)
Are you thinking about getting a loan but feeling confused by all the options? Whether a loan is secured or unsecured is one of the most crucial factors to take into account. While both types of loans can give you the money you need, some significant distinctions between them could have a long-term effect on your financial situation.
To help you decide which type of loan is best for you, we’ll explain what separates secured and unsecured loans in this article. Understanding these distinctions will help you make the best decision possible while minimizing any risks, whether you’re planning on remodeling your house or consolidating debt
Payday loans online same day can provide a quick solution for those who need immediate funds to cover unexpected expenses. These short-term loans can be obtained without collateral, and the application process is often straightforward and can be completed online.
Loans that demand collateral as a condition of borrowing are known as secured loans. Banks or lenders could want collateral if you’re applying for a sizable loan to buy a specific asset or if your credit score doesn’t fulfill the requirements for an unsecured loan. Since secured loans provide less risks to lenders, you can benefit from lower interest rates. It’s important to keep in mind that some secured loan options, including short-term installment loans or personal loans for those with terrible credit, may have higher interest rates.
Secured loans provide a variety of options for different purposes. The following secured loan options are available when borrowing money for personal needs:
| Loan Type | Purpose | Collateral |
| Secured Personal Loan | Used for consolidating debt, paying emergency bills, or other personal expenses | Collateral options include savings account, investment account, or car title |
| Mortgage | Intended for purchasing a home | Collateral is the property being purchased (home) |
| Home Equity Loan/HELOC | Allows borrowing against the equity in your home to cover expenses | Collateral is the home itself |
| Boat and Specialty Vehicle Loans | Used for financing the purchase of boats, RVs, motorcycles, ATVs, or Jet Skis | Collateral is the title of the specific vehicle or watercraft |
| Auto Loan | Designed for financing the purchase of a vehicle | Collateral is the vehicle being purchased |
| Auto Title Loan | Provides funds for paying bills, managing debt, or other purposes | Collateral is the title of the vehicle |
| Pawn Shop Loan | Provides quick funds for short-term needs | Collateral is a valuable item |
| Secured Business Loan | Used for growing the business, consolidating business debt, or other business purposes | Collateral options vary, including property, equipment, inventory, invoices, investments, etc. |
| Secured Credit Card | Used for making purchases, with the credit line secured by a deposit | Collateral is a security deposit typically ranging from $50 to $300 |
Banking institutions, credit unions, and online lenders all offer secured loans. Lenders may evaluate the value of your collateral when you apply for a secured loan before authorizing the loan. On the other hand, some lenders will take a savings account or a certificate of deposit as security for the loan.
An unsecured loan differs from a secured loan as it lacks any collateral. Instead of relying on assets to minimize risk, lenders offering unsecured loans evaluate your creditworthiness, income, and debt-to-income (DTI) ratio to assess your eligibility for a personal loan.
Having bad credit can make it challenging to obtain unsecured loans. Conversely, individuals with good credit may find the application process for unsecured loans to be more straightforward.
Unsecured loans are generally regarded as safer since the lender cannot immediately seize your property if you fall behind on payments. Regardless of whether you have a loan that requires collateral or not, creditors have the right to take measures to recoup their losses if you default on your payments.
In the case of unsecured debt, debt collectors can take legal action against you. With a court order, they can garnish your wages or withdraw funds from your bank account.
Due to the absence of collateral, unsecured loans typically come with higher interest rates, smaller loan amounts, and shorter repayment terms. Take a look at the below table, to learn more about unsecured loans.
| Loan Type | Purpose |
| Personal Loan | Used for various purposes such as home remodeling, financing a wedding, or dream vacation. |
| Debt Consolidation Loan | Designed to pay off existing debts, such as credit card or medical debt, by consolidating multiple balances into a single loan. |
| Student Loan | Specifically intended to cover education costs. |
| Personal Line of Credit | Offers flexibility to make purchases or handle emergency expenses up to the credit limit. Funds are replenished as the line is paid off. |
| Credit Card | Enables borrowing money, with the possibility of accruing interest, to make purchases up to the credit limit. |
You’ll find a variety of options when it comes to unsecured loans, including offerings from banks, credit unions, and online lenders. The loan amounts can range from as low as 1 lakh loan to as high as 25 lakhs. Although not all banks offer this type of financing, online lenders are recognized for their convenient and efficient application process. Applying for a loan online is a breeze, and you can need funding quickly. In fact, some online lenders go a step further and provide prequalification, allowing you to assess and compare rates without any impact on your credit score.
Secured and unsecured loans are two very different loan categories, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Secured loans need assets to be put up as security but have lower interest rates and larger loan amounts. Without collateral, unsecured loans involve higher interest rates and smaller loan amounts.
Before making a choice, it is crucial to examine the benefits and drawbacks of each type of loan. Your financial demands and situation ultimately determine whether you choose a secured or an unsecured loan. So, before choosing the best loan for you, take the time to properly weigh your possibilities.
Featured image by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash
The post Secured vs Unsecured Loans: Understanding the Key Differences appeared first on noupe.
Imagine you’ve got a fancy new app that you’re marketing to consumers. You’ve done your market research, splashed out on an intensive marketing campaign, partnered with a few influencers, and even registered a local domain to give your website the widest reach possible.
Only, the first time you update your app, it’s hit with a bug that makes it pretty much unusable. Disaster! Suddenly all that money spent on research, development, and marketing seems like a bad investment, because your reputation is through the floor and trust in your app is non-existent.
If only it could’ve been avoided.
Well, with regression testing, it could’ve been.
If you want to avoid the bad press of bugs and glitches in your software, then regression testing is the way forward. We’re going to take an in-depth look at what regression testing involves, and how to get it right.
Regression testing a method of software testing. It involves re-executing a series of functional and non-functional software tests in order to check that a change in the software’s code doesn’t affect its functionality.
Many developers consider regression testing to be an integral part of the software development cycle, as it allows for the detection of unexpected faults that have arisen due to necessary tweaks, enhancements, or bug fixes.
Regression testing can be performed under a variety of circumstances:
Any instance that would result in a change to the code of a piece of software is usually cause to run regression testing, as it may have altered the way that the software performs.
Regression testing may also be deployed during lengthy development cycles of software (the average software development cycle is estimated to be around 4.5 months). As new code is added during development, regression testing can be used to make sure that existing code still works as the product is built.
There are various different techniques that can be employed when undertaking regression testing.
This method of testing involves applying regression testing to all available testing suites.
Retesting everything is the safest way to ensure that any defects or bugs are found and fixed. However, it is also the most costly method of regression testing in terms of time and resources.
For this reason, a complete retest is usually only performed when there is good reason to do so, such as after an application-wide update, when a major bug fix is implemented, or when the application is moved to a new platform.
This method of regression testing is more selective, with quality assurance teams selecting specific parts of the application to test, based on how likely it is they’ll be affected by the changes.
Performing only a selection of regression tests helps to reduce the time taken and the resources required. This method will often be utilized by teams working on large-scale, complex applications, where the overall number of test scripts will be higher.
Test case prioritization involves determining which test cases should be performed first during the regression testing process.
Factors used to determine which cases should be given priority include:
Corrective regression testing is used when no changes or updates have been made to the source code. It is used to check how current features are performing, and whether they are functioning correctly, so it can be determined whether or not existing test cases can be reused.
If the results of corrective regression testing are positive, then quality assurance teams can be confident that test cases are up-to-date, and can plan for when new code is added.
Progressive testing is based on the acknowledgement that changes to the source code may require changes to the test suites themselves. Testers will therefore update their test scripts to reflect the changes.
Regression testing is important for ensuring the continued usability of a product, especially one that is already in the hands of customers. Even small tweaks and enhancements to software’s code can have an unexpected knock-on effect across the entire product.
Not only can this cause problems for customers and lead to a negative user experience, but it can also cost a lot in terms of time and resources to reverse. Detecting potential faults before changes are implemented is paramount in reducing these negative effects.
Practicing regression testing aligns perfectly with an agile testing methodology, making it a valuable testing method for developers. More frequent testing means that potential errors are detected earlier, and can be rectified long before the product goes into production.
Image sourced from broadcom.com
Visual regression testing is equally as important as testing functionality. Not only does it help to preserve the visual aesthetic and brand identity of the software, but it also helps identify any misaligned images or unclickable buttons that have appeared as a result of updates to the code.
For a website, changes like this can be marked up using annotation software such as MarkUp.io, identifying to testers which areas are presenting a problem, without altering the HTML code of the website.
How regression testing is performed will depend on the individual goals and needs of the organization carrying it out. However, there are some fundamental steps that will be present in most instances of regression testing.
Firstly, any modifications or optimizations in the source code must be identified. Code review sessions can be conducted in order to determine which components or modules have been changed, and what impact this has had on existing features.
Once all the changes have been identified, QA teams should determine which cases need to be tested extensively, and which require less thorough testing.
The larger the codebase, the more important it is that cases are prioritized. Automation testing can be used to help streamline the process of QA software testing.
Next, you need to determine which test cases are to be re-run. It’s not yet necessary to test the entire test suite. Instead, test cases can be categorized as either reusable or obsolete. Obsolete test cases can be omitted from future test cycles, while reusable test cases can be shortlisted for regression testing.
Once the test cases have been selected, they can be categorized. Common test categorization criteria include:
Tests which involve repeating the same series of steps over and over again can be performed using automated testing, while it is often better to apply manual testing and human evaluation to non-repetitive cases.
The testing environment, setup, and tools required for each test case can also be taken into consideration, with more easily tested cases prioritized.
The urgency and significance of test cases can be ranked on a scale of low, medium, and high, based on the potential impact to the business and its customers.
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If you’re undertaking frequent regression testing, it’s useful to have test environments to hand for whenever you need them. Environments need to be stable and ready-to-test, as a poor testing environment increases the likelihood that tests will fail and defects will go unnoticed.
When considering the test environment, it’s worth examining the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing physical devices or a cloud environment.
Manual testing requires setting up and maintaining devices, which will involve collaboration with IT, Ops, and finance, which can make it a lengthy and costly endeavor. However, it may be necessary to test some applications on physical hardware.
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For example, games need to be tested using components such as graphics cards and processors in order to properly test load times, rendering quality, and frame rates.
On the other hand, web-based applications could be more easily tested using on-demand cloud environments, helping to reduce the upfront cost of obtaining and preparing physical hardware.
Once the previous steps have been completed, the test cases should be ready for execution. Tests can be scheduled based on the plan developed earlier, taking into account priority and categorization.
Time-based test execution provides greater control over software quality, so scheduling tests at intervals across the entire development cycle allows for greater quality control over the constantly changing code.
Once tests are complete, the process can be analyzed in order to provide valuable insights for future test runs. Applications such as data model tools can be used to assist in visualizing the data obtained from testing, helping to make it easier to digest and analyze.
Reports generated by testing can also help to reveal weaknesses and pain points in the application early, which can then be addressed before they enter production. The earlier a bug is detected, the less costly it is to fix.
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So now you know everything you need to get started with regression testing. Identify what you need to test, then prioritize and categorize to make sure the most urgent test cases get checked first.
Make sure you’ve got a functioning test environment ready for whenever you may need it, and investigate ways you can reduce your costs, such as using a cloud environment.
Schedule your tests for the perfect time, and make sure you analyze the results when you’re done.
Follow these tips, and you’ll be identifying and fixing problems left, right and center.
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash
The post 7 Essential Tips on How to Perform Regression Testing appeared first on noupe.
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