Testing, Testing: An inside look at the rigorous Arccos testing process
The Arccos Golf app is ever-changing and always improving. We strive to make sure the application continues to be seamless for users and is always providing the statistics and insights golfers need to better enjoy the game and consistently improve.
One constant, though, is the rigorous testing process all releases endure before they are made public.
To give Arccos users an idea of what goes into each app update, let’s take a look at Arccos’ testing processes as explained by Colin Phillips, our VP of Software Development.
To start, there are four different types of testing that’s done. The four pillars combine to make what we aim to be a complete and thorough testing. The four types of testing include:
- Unit or System Tests: These are automated. We write test cases and have a continuous integration environment. Every time we submit new code, it runs our test suites against the new code. For instance, if we added something to our Tour Analytics, we’d add a test case and would either pass or fail its system test. That protects us against any issues with how it works.
- Field Testing (Internal): Our field testing consists of two different types of testing. First, we run through internal testing. (Editor’s Note, this is the office’s favorite, as it involves quite a bit of golf to be played.). We send team members to the course to test various scenarios and monitor their results through structured in-person feedback or through data acquired from those rounds on the server.
- Field Testing (External): Additionally, we run quite a bit of beta testing. We recruit users from the Arccos community to participate in this testing. When a build gets to a certain level of stability, we ship it to our beta testers. This widens the pool and gets it out to more people who are out there playing on the golf course.
- Quality Assurance: For features that are new, we’ll write test plans and our QA team will test against those test plans. These scenarios and features are typically those that we can test here in the office and don’t require field testing. The idea is to ultimately convert those manual tests into automated ones so we can regress and automate those processes moving forward.
There you have it, Arccos users. Each and every update to the Arccos app is not only critiqued and planned for maximum impact to your game, it's tested, tested and tested again to ensure it's ready for you and that game of yours.
