What is Monkey Testing?

Monkey Testing

While introducing and briefing any technical concept we used to co-relate it with a simple logic or simple methodology. Take an example  
Example:  If a person wants to explain Newton’s law of universal gravitation to a kid, he/she will explain with an apple fallen from the tree to the ground.  

Same as if you observe the behavior of a monkey, it is very jumbling, and there is no fixed direction to jump. It behaves very uncertainly. So that in the Software testing world when need to perform testing with no foundation, no rule, no predefined test cases, and no strategy is called  “MONKEY TESTING”. 

Take another example of the bridle of the horse. We all have noticed that when the horse is on its way its eyes are covered by a bridle so that its focus remains on the straightway, there is no scope to lose its concentration. The same thing applied in software testing. When a software tester tests any application with predefined test cases, scenarios, and strategies, it is like a tester bridle of the horse. The purpose of test cases and strategy is to keep focusing on requirements. 

So monkey testing is the opposite kind of testing as compared to normal testing. If you want to explain Monkey testing in a single line then you can say that ‘Do what you want”. 

Why Monkey Testing is Required?

When an application is in the development phase a developer and QA team put their 100% effort to build it. In general terms, the QA process is applied with many types of test cases and test strategies to make a bug-free product. Sometimes it happens that after following all QA procedural things, the product got failed due to any unexpected given input.

The thing is there are n numbers of users who are going to use our product. There are many kinds of users who are going to use our product. Some users are very decent to use applications but some are very nasty. We cannot expect the behavior of nasty users. They may give any unexpected input, they may behave like a monkey by giving large and strange input to break the application.

To test this kind of user behavior we need to think like them to prepare our application for nasty users.

Types of monkey testing 

There are 2 types of testing under this category:

1. Smart testing :
    For performing Smart Monkey testing a tester should have knowledge about below characteristics : 

• Should have detailed knowledge about the application. 
• A QA person should know where the particular page of the application should get redirected. 
• Need to know about valid and invalid input provided to the application. 
• If any defect is found, it should be correct according to the domain of the application. 
• Should have knowledge about stress and load testing 
• Should be aware of menus and buttons.  

 2. Dump Testing:

• Dump Monkey Testing is identified by the below characteristics:
• A person does not have any idea about the application. 
• QA person is not aware about the input he is providing is valid or invalid. 
• People do not have any idea about the end-to-end flow of the application.
• A person is not having the domain knowledge that is necessary for testing any application. 
• QA person is not able to identify defects that are caused due to environmental issues of hardware failure. 
• A person can not differentiate issue between UI issues and functionality issues. 

 Advantages of Monkey Testing: 

• A person can find an error that is not expected. 
• Setup and execution are easy. 
• A more skilled person is not required can be done by junior-level QA. 
• Nominal in cost 
• The major bug can be found in the minimal time span

Disadvantages of Monkey Testing:

• No time boundation for the QA person. 
• No idea about how many defects will be caught. 
• The bug reproducing ratio becomes higher. 
• It is not following priority criteria.

conclusion: 

All kinds of testing have their own merits and demerits. It depends on to tester and his/her skills to test any application. Monkey testing is good for performing in minimal time but the thing is to perform monkey testing a QA person should be Knowledgeable. QACraft provides various types of software testing services with affordable pricing plans.