Compatibility testing is non-functional testing. It is carried out to verify whether an application or software can run on different devices, browsers, operating systems, hardware and networks..
Categories of Compatibility Testing
Hardware Compatibility Testing
– in this type of testing, a developed application or software is tested on various hardware configurations to make sure it works on them in the desired manner..
Network compatibility Testing
– in this type of testing, an application is checked on different networks such as Wifi, 3g,4g, etc. for various parameters such as bandwidth, speed, etc..
Operating System Compatibility Testing
– Here an application or software is tested by running it on different operating systems such as Windows, Mac,Linux,etc.. Device Compatibility Testing = Device compatibility testing is done to check an application’s compatibility with various external devices such as bluetooth, USB device, printer, etc..
Mobile Compatibility Testing
– In this type of testing, an application is tested on various mobile devices with different operating systems such as Android, IOS and Windows.
Browser Compatibility testing
– It tests an application’s working on various browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, etc. to make sure it is compatible with them. To know more about cross browser testing click here.
Software Compatibility Testing
– In this type of testing an application’s compatibility is checked with other software. For example, if an application has a feature which allows users to generate a PDF file, the user should be able to open this PDF file, the users should be able to open this PDF file in adobe acrobat reader being one of the most used pdf readers).
Version Compatibility Testing
– In this type of testing an application’s compatibility with its older(Backward Compatibility Testing) and newer versions ( Forward Compatibility Testing) is checked.