What is Comparison Testing?

by Nataliia Vasylyna | October 1, 2012 10:00 am

When Is Comparison Testing Performed?

This type of software testing belongs to no particular phase of software development.

On the early phases of software development software testing company may implement it to compare different interface styles and choose the one that fits best.
In the middle of the software development process, it can be implemented towards single elements, for example various types of buttons to check which one would be more preferable.
By the end of software development process, software testing company engineers can use comparison testing to compare the released product with a competitor’s one.

Why Is Comparison Testing Performed?

Comparison testing can be carried out together with any other kind of software testing, be it mobile, web or desktop testing.

This type of testing is done to compare two or more elements. You may compare two different design elements, compare the previous product to the current or compare your software to the competitor’s one. Thus you can better reveal pluses and minuses of this or that element.

How Is Comparison Testing Performed?

Usually it is performed by comparing different elements side-by-side. From each of the compared elements, two types of data are collected, namely the performance and preference information. Later, they are compared.

Comparison testing can be performed either in the form of exploratory testing or in a more standardized way, involving control and experimental groups. The type depends on what you want to achieve.

It is interesting to know that in comparison testing better results are obtained from the elements that differ greatly, not slightly. The reasons for it may be that:

Software testing company engineers have to put more effort towards drastically different elements. They have to create the scheme of work that is different from the one they got used to.
Different elements demand more analysis because while similar alternatives have the common framework, the different ones function in opposite ways.