User experienced software aging: test environment, testing and improvement suggestions
Tenkanen, Sayed (2014)
Tenkanen, Sayed
2014
Vuorovaikutteinen teknologia - Interactive Technology
Informaatiotieteiden yksikkö - School of Information Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2014-12-29
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201501021003
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201501021003
Tiivistelmä
Software aging is empirically observed in software systems in a variety of manifestations ranging from slower performance to various failures as reported by users. Unlike hardware aging, where in its lifetime hardware goes through wear and tear resulting in an increased rate of failure after certain stable use conditions, software aging is a result of software bugs. Such bugs are always present in the software but may not make themselves known unless a set of preconditions are met. When activated, software bugs may result in slower performance and contribute to user dissatisfaction. However, the impact of software bugs on PCs and mobile phones is different as their uses are different. A PC is often turned off or rebooted on an average of every seven days, but a mobile device may continue to be used without a reboot for much longer. The prolonged operation period of mobile devices thus opens up opportunities for software bugs to be activated more often compared to PCs. Therefore, software aging in mobile devices, a considerable challenge to the ultimate user experience, is the focus of this thesis. The study was done in three consecutive phases: firstly, a test environment was set up; secondly, mobile device was tested as a human user would use under ordinary-use circumstances and finally, suggestions were made on future testing implementations. To this end, a LG Nexus 4 was setup in an automated test environment that simulates a regular user s use conditions and executes a set of human user use cases, and gathers data on consumption of power as well as reaction and response times in the various interactions. The results showed that an operating system agnostic test environment can be constructed with a limited number of equipment that is capable of simulating a regular user s use cases as a user would interact with a mobile device to measure user experienced software aging.