Discover how effective IoT testing strategies make sure your systems work flawlessly, from hardware to cloud, in real-world conditions.
Cybersecurity breaches, system glitches, devices that won’t connect… Sounds familiar? If any of these issues are holding your projects back, IoT testing might just be the lifesaver you need.
And you’re not alone — according to McKinsey, 32% of businesses see cybersecurity vulnerabilities as a major barrier to IoT adoption. Another 26% struggle with interoperability. These challenges are significant, but QA testing for IoT goes beyond fixing them.
Our team at WebbyLab has seen how testing helps make smart energy solutions more performant — as in our SmartHeat project — or refine connected home technologies — like in our 2Smart Standalone solution — before scaling to wider markets.
Today, we’ll look at QA for IoT from all angles. You’ll learn about our team’s cross-functional testing approach, proven strategies, common pitfalls, and real-world examples of how the right testing practices can make your IoT systems secure, scalable, and reliable.
Highlights:
Bridges in a 2Smart Standalone platform
IoT testing is a process that ensures that all components in an IoT ecosystem — devices, software, firmware, and networks — work perfectly well together. It aims to find bugs and vulnerabilities in your system to fix them before launch.
Why is the IoT testing process important? A few reasons you might be looking into include:
If any of the above goals resonate with your case, several types of Internet of Things testing can help you achieve them:
| Types of IoT Testing | |
| Testing type | Purpose |
| Functional testing | Makes sure devices and software perform their intended tasks properly. |
| Usability testing | Evaluates user experience, ensuring the system is easy to use. |
| Performance testing | Measures how the system works under various conditions and loads. |
| Integration testing | Ensures seamless communication between software, firmware, hardware, and networks. |
| Security testing | Identifies vulnerabilities to protect data and prevent breaches. |
When delivering IoT development and testing services, we strike a 90% software and 10% firmware testing balance. This allows us to cover firmware behavior and its interactions with apps and cloud systems and, ultimately, improve the overall quality of software testing.
Besides that, we don’t segment our testers by specialty. Instead, every tester on our team is cross-trained to handle all aspects of IoT testing. So, whether it’s firmware, software, or network — our specialists can take on any task.
Perhaps, the most notable part of our IoT testing framework is that our testers don’t just test. They understand the product as a whole, often taking on the business analyst role. They know how the product solves specific business needs and how new features might impact the system. That’s how they ensure the final product delivers real value.
Want to optimize your IoT system? Learn how our full-cycle IoT testing services can help!
Learn moreTo make sure your solution delivers the desired quality, you may apply plenty of IoT QA strategies. From testing IoT products in real-world settings to handling multi-level testing, let’s explore the practices you can try out.
The true value of a product lies not in the product itself but in the insights and actions it enables. That’s why WebbyLab experts emphasize product onboarding so much. You should understand your solution’s purpose, value, and technical specs to test it effectively.
IoT testers work with a wide range of equipment — sensors, controllers, gateways, mobile devices, and beyond — each with a set of unique specifications, capabilities, and limitations.
Because of this diversity, testers must be able to perform R&D tasks and experiment with hardware and software from third-party manufacturers.
IoT testing offers a broad scope for QA specialists to experiment and develop. It’s where creativity meets precision.
Unlike traditional software, IoT devices work in various environments, from extreme temperatures to high humidity or dusty conditions. All these factors can affect device performance significantly. Therefore, the IoT testing process must consider the possible external conditions under which the device will operate.
Devices usually connect to IoT networks via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, and other, sometimes unstable, protocols (check our IoT protocols overview for more details). QA engineers must test how devices work in different network conditions — say weak signals, delays, connection losses, and interruptions.
Here, creativity in testing isn’t limited. Testers can simulate unusual and challenging scenarios, like blackouts, network interference, or sudden disconnections, to evaluate how well devices maintain IoT connectivity and stability.
Considering different connectivity options for your IoT project? Make sure to read our guide comparing Bluetooth or WiFi for IoT.
Read moreGiven the huge amount of data IoT devices generate and collect, security and privacy issues are becoming critical. QA engineers must ensure data protection, test authentication mechanisms, implement encryption, and also verify device resistance to hacking attempts.
IoT devices often work continuously for extended periods. QA specialists must check how devices behave after prolonged use, ensuring they don’t experience overheating, crashes, memory errors, or excessive battery drain. While a simple reboot might temporarily resolve issues, testing under realistic conditions is still a must.
Firmware updates are essential for maintaining IoT systems. QA engineers must test the update process, ensuring no data or settings are lost along the way. They should also check whether rollback mechanisms work in case of failure.
A simple IoT ecosystem includes several levels — device, network, cloud platform, and user interface. QA engineers must handle IoT automation testing to ensure all these levels operate stably and synchronously, processing data and commands correctly.
WebbyLab goes above and beyond in this case, as we build and test more complex IoT solutions that consist of:
Within our IoT testing framework, we focus on checking the proper interaction of one module with another.
Of course, testing IoT devices isn’t always straightforward. There’s a set of challenges you should know about. Let’s look at the key ones and why they matter:
As we said, IoT ecosystems combine a plethora of devices — from tiny sensors and controllers to complex gateways. Each device has unique hardware configurations and uses different protocols to communicate. Testers must account for these variations to ensure compatibility.
IoT devices often work in unpredictable network conditions — high latency, low bandwidth, intermittent connectivity, you name it. Testing under these conditions isn’t just about checking performance. It’s about making sure your devices can recover connections gracefully.
Unauthorized access, data leaks, and compromised devices are just some of the serious threats in IoT. That’s why IoT security testing, penetration testing, and vulnerability assessments must be on your to-do list.
Find more solutions for IoT security risks in our recent post.
A decent IoT testing framework must cover every part of your system: hardware, firmware, software, and network. Skipping any of these components puts you at risk of ending up with a system that doesn’t work as intended.
Ensuring that each level works perfectly on its own — and in harmony with the others — requires comprehensive IoT testing equipment and strategies.
Still facing testing challenges? Learn more about the top IoT issues and ways to solve them in our latest article.
Learn moreIn our experience, IoT testing is all about pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. We often go beyond traditional methods to develop unique testing solutions. Here are several successful cases:
One of our most interesting and impactful testing scenarios came with 2Smart Standalone, an IoT platform for smart home automation.
To evaluate its performance, we took an uncommon approach — testing through employee home installations. Employees who volunteered to participate customized their homes as best as they could, giving us a diverse range of real-world environments to check the solution.
Managing smart home devices through 2Smart Standalone
2Smart Cloud was another initiative where our specialists came up with distinctive IoT device testing solutions. This platform is, in fact, a launchpad for IoT projects, which lets users connect, manage, and test their products before deployment.
As part of the testing, our team brainstormed various ideas. One such experiment turned into a commercial product — a table lamp initially built as a PoC device. As a result, what started as an idea from a tester grew into a fully-fledged product.
A full-fledged product launched with the help of 2Smart Cloud
Before launching the first commercial instances of our access control system Propuskator, we wanted to ensure its stability under high load.
To do just that, our testers developed a solution using Arduino-based robots. These robots simulated the passage of people through the ACS system by triggering a tag reader. With multiple robots in action, we subjected the system to high-traffic conditions for weeks, ensuring it could perform reliably under stress.
A mobile app of the Propuskator ACS delivered by WebbyLab
In our heat pump enhancement project, SmartHeat, load testing was critical to understanding how the pumps would behave under various conditions. We used automated testing scripts developed within 2Smart Standalone to simulate different loads and monitor the pump’s performance.
A mobile app for monitoring heat pump performance
Our smart automated A/C drain line cleaner runs on batteries and operates in the energy-efficient mode for extended periods.
To test its long-term reliability, we set up a demo stand that connected multiple devices, monitoring their behavior over time. Regular checks allowed us to track performance and ensure that the product lived up to its promises, even under the long intervals between cleaning cycles.
A demo stand for testing A/C cleaners
Testing charging stations for electric cars usually requires access to an actual electric car. However, when one isn’t available, we get creative.
For our MyBox project, we simulated the electric car’s power consumption using household heaters and kettles. While it may sound unusual, this method allowed us to test new functionality and perform regression testing.
Deployed charging station example
For our Intellect smart lamp project, we didn’t have a ready-made device to test, so we took matters into our own hands. Our specialists developed prototypes using dev boards to simulate the product’s functionality. Building an IoT testing framework and product prototypes allowed us to run tests and identify potential issues early.
Smart lamp prototype built by WebbyLab
Want to explore more real-world examples? Check out our IoT case studies to see how we deal with challenges and deliver results.
Read moreWhile we mentioned the main IoT QA strategies at the beginning of our guide, there are several more best practices for IoT testing you can follow. Let’s quickly go through them:
Read also: IoT Apps Development Guide
Tackling security issues, performance hiccups, or connectivity problems within your system starts with IoT testing. And a skilled, versatile QA team to back it up.
As you’ve seen in this article, testing IoT products successfully goes far beyond checking basic functionality. It requires real-world simulation, creative thinking, and experts who’ll gladly guide you throughout. Only then can you achieve reliability, scalability, and, most importantly, user trust.
If you’re not settling for basic QA testing for IoT, count on our team at WebbyLab. We always go beyond the standard — one that’s driven by creativity and precision. Contact us!
Written by:
Head of IoT at Webbylab
With a robust academic background in Telecommunication Systems Engineering, I apply my knowledge to lead innovations in the IoT domain. Starting as the first team member in the newly formed IoT department at WebbyLab, I've spearheaded its growth, fostering the expansion into embedded and hardware development alongside our core software projects. My dedication lies in pushing the boundaries of IoT technology, fostering a culture of innovation and excellence that profoundly impacts our clients' operational success.
We test all kinds of IoT projects, from smart home devices and energy-efficiency solutions to embedded tech and large-scale industrial IoT systems. For example, in one of our projects, we’ve tested heat pumps to make sure they run efficiently.
We use the Internet of Things automated testing tools that speed up the testing process without compromising quality. For example, we often leverage MQTT Explorer and Grafana to monitor and troubleshoot system behavior in real time.
Besides just that, we highlight real-world simulation and agile testing, so that you can launch a thoroughly tested product faster.
Of course! Integrating different devices and platforms is a huge part of our job. We’re great at making sure everything works together smoothly — sensors, controllers, gateways, cloud platforms, and so on.
On top of that, we handle end-to-end IoT testing upon integration to sync your system with new devices, platforms, or IoT applications flawlessly.
We don’t stop at testing. If necessary, we can support you even after your IoT project goes live. Here’s what we do:
Basically, we can become your go-to QA partner to handle the post-launch job. To get our support, just drop us a line.
Getting started is very easy! Simply reach out to us for a consultation. We’ll thoroughly review your project requirements and come up with a tailored IoT testing framework.
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