A detailed guide to globalization testing

Imagine you’ve just landed the next great idea for your SaaS product, and you start to build it. An all-star team of developers embarks on a journey, day in and day out, to code a wonderful product. The only problem, you realize, albeit quite later in the process, is that your software was hardcoded, which only allows it to work in a particular region. The result? Back to the drawing board—you have to redesign. To avoid such pain, globalization testing comes in handy.

Ensuring your software works for a global audience is a necessity, especially if you want to scale your business. Let’s take a deeper look at what globalization testing is and how businesses can benefit from it.

Globalization testing refers to software testing practices that ensure that the software works as intended across time zones, cultures, borders, and languages

What is globalization testing?

Globalization testing refers to software testing practices that ensure that the software works as intended across time zones, cultures, borders, and languages. Simply put, your software should be able to operate the same regardless of whether you’re sitting in New York or Dubai. For instance, the core features of the application should remain the same, even while toggling between English and Arabic.

Importance in testing/software development

As your business expands, it’s inevitable that the product will be used by a varied audience, spread out geographically. That’s why product owners need to be mindful to cater for:

• Multiple languages: At the very least, ensure that the software supports all major languages where your software is deployed and used.
• Date and time formats: The software should be able to deal with multiple conventions and formats like dd/mm/yyyy, mm/dd/yy, etc.
• Currency conversions: If the software has a financial element, then it should be able to convert between currencies at real-time/spot rates.
• Unit interchangeability: Centimeters should translate well into inches and so on.
• Cultural sensitivities: Depending on the area’s customs, the software should be appropriate for the local user base.
• Legal requirements: Each region has different laws. Ensure your software complies with data and privacy laws for all the regions it operates in.

How does it help?

Taking care of factors like those listed above helps to:

1. Expand market reach and ensure that the software works for users across regions. This spells higher revenues.
2. Prevent costly redesigns by detecting code structure issues early on in the SDLC (e.g., date formatting). This helps improve operational stability for the application.
3. Enhance user experience by avoiding breaks in functionality. This aids in customer retention.

Historically, we’ve seen several instances where a lack of globalization testing has yielded expensive mistakes amounting to millions. A good example here is when NASA lost its $125 million Mars orbiter due to a metric conversion error. The Jet Propulsion Team (JPL) used millimeters, while the collaborating team from Lockheed Martin had other ideas and built the spacecraft based on calculations in inches and feet (imperial system).

The software was not designed to accommodate two different metric systems, resulting in an erroneous trajectory. The Mars orbiter ended up descending too close to Mars’ atmosphere, causing it to burn up.

Use cases

There are plenty of use cases where globalization testing proves to be crucial:

1. Travel apps: Agoda, Hotels.com, and Booking.com all have multi-currency conversions enabled for users to be able to see prices in the currency of their choosing.
2. Global work collaboration tools: Multiple languages are supported on these applications. For instance, Microsoft Teams supports 48 languages, such as English, Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, etc.
3. Cloud-based services: Service providers like AWS, Azure, and GCP need to ensure that the resources they deploy are compliant with each region’s data residency and compliance requirements (e.g., GDPR in Europe).

Globalization testing vs. internationalization testing vs. localization testing

All of these terms are interrelated; however, they all serve different software development purposes. Let’s take a look:

Testers ensure that the software is adaptable and usable without having to rewrite the entire codebase

Internationalization testing

Internationalization testing is executed to prepare the codebase for global use. The goal here is to determine: “Can the app support Spanish/Japanese/Arabic/etc?” Testers ensure that the software is adaptable and usable without having to rewrite the entire codebase. The following might be tested:

• Date/time formats: Does 05/07 mean May 7th (USA) or July 5th (Europe)?
• Language switching: Can the app change between languages in real time without crashing?

“Internationalization is a must-have in today’s economy, where the internet can bring customers from all around the world,” remarks Young Chul Kim, senior quality engineering architect at Slalom.

Localization testing

The intent here is to adapt the software according to a specific region. The goal here is to establish: “Does this app feel natural in Spanish/Japanese/Arabic/etc?” The local cultural and legal context is important here.

Let’s say we want to localize our app to the UK. The following factors might be tested:

• Culturally appropriate content: Think of changing “Soccer” to “Football.”
• Language and spelling: Changing from “color” to “colour.”

Globalization testing

Now, what is globalization testing? This is the testing that encapsulates both internationalization testing and localization testing. Testers validate global readiness and ensure that functional behavior across geographies is working as intended and that the software is both scalable and compatible.

Key differences

• Internationalization testing is essentially undertaken during the development stage so as to make the app ready internationally. Since the focus is on code structure, most of the heavy lifting here is done by the developers.
• Localization testing is primarily done after development in order to customize for a specific locale. Since a lot of the testing requires culture-specific knowledge, most of the testing is done by translators and testers native to the region.
• Globalization testing, meanwhile, brings both together and ensures that the app works everywhere, without breaking functionality.

Overlaps

• All three testing methodologies ensure that the piece of software works globally, albeit at different stages.

In a nutshell, internationalization testing helps build the foundation (e.g., multi-language support), localization testing helps add the local flavor (translations or cultural context), and globalization testing ensures the entire pipeline works worldwide.

Benefits of globalization testing

Why is globalization testing important? Businesses and dev teams benefit immensely by employing globalization testing, especially if their app is intended for an international market. Globalization testing can help:

• Avoid embarrassing mistakes for your brand: HSBC bank faced a $10 million setback when their “Assume Nothing” tagline was mistranslated into “Do Nothing.”
• Save developer resources: Employing globalization best practices means that hardcoding is avoided. Swapping language files should be enough. This approach helps to reduce rework and speeds up time to market.
• Expand user base and revenue: A game that additionally supports Japanese as a language would give the game instant access to 121 million Japanese-speaking users.

Types of globalization testing

Globalization testing has several types:

1. Functional testing: Used to verify if core features are working across different regions. For example, testing if a German user can input the word “Tschüss” and be able to use a search engine’s search functionality successfully.
2. UI/UX testing: Ensure that the app’s visuals and layout remain intact and that no characters overflow when users input longer text into fields. Also able to handle RTL text for languages like Arabic and Aramaic.
3. Compatibility testing: Ensures that the app works across different operating systems (Windows, macOS, Linux), browsers, and devices.

Getting started with globalization testing

Here is a step-by-step outline on how you can start with globalization testing for your application.

A business has limited resources, and it should start by focusing its time and money on a select group of priority markets

Step 1: Define scope/goals

A business has limited resources, and it should start by focusing its time and money on a select group of priority markets. For example, if you’re building a payment tracking app called “TrackTrack,” intended for Japanese speakers, Japan would be the obvious market to keep in scope.

Next is to set a realistic goal. This could be to “support 100% of all Japanese dialects with 95% accuracy” or “enable payments from 80% of convenience stores in Japan.”

Step 2: Implement test cases

Sample test cases can include:

• Can users make payments via convenience stores like 7-Eleven, Lawson, and FamilyMart?

• Can the system convert currency accurately using the spot FX during the checkout workflow?

• Do all kanji characters display correctly on the interface?

Step 3: Choose between manual vs. automated testing

Each has its pros and cons. Manual testing typically validates UI/UX nuances and sensitive cultural contexts. The downside is that human testers work slowly and are prone to errors. You can use automated testing, which is much faster and repeatable since it relies on scripts. Teams may even use both methods in parallel.

Step 4: Measure success

In the end, all testing metrics should be valuable for the business and measurable. Success metrics for “TrackTrack” could include:

• Defect rate: Reduced character-related bugs by 80% after testing.
• User fhttps://www.tricentis.com/blog/64-essential-testing-metrics-for-meeedback: Achieve a 4.8/5 stars rating for “ease of use.”
• Resource savings: Use automated scripts to cut testing time from six weeks to one week.

The real success comes from a 20% increase in “TrackTrack” revenue, driven by a smoother app experience and increased accessibility across Japanese dialects.

Conclusion

As you will have gathered, globalization testing is a powerful means of making your application scalable, robust, and user-ready for a wide audience. This isn’t a one-time task. As you include more markets and expand functionality both vertically and horizontally, your need for globalization testing grows. With a solid test strategy, automation where it makes sense, and localized awareness, you can deliver software that truly resonates with users worldwide.

This post was written by Ali Mannan Tirmizi. Ali is a senior DevOps manager and specializes in SaaS copywriting. He holds a degree in electrical engineering and physics and has held several leadership positions in the manufacturing IT, DevOps, and social impact domains.