The escalated targets for Solar Photovoltaic water pumping system (SPVWPS) installations in many Asian countries resulted in a huge demand for testing and certification of SPV pump samples. Test laboratories involved in testing and certifications are developing a generalized radiation and temperature profiles to cover various climatic conditions such as hot and dry, hot and humid, composite, cold and cloudy. The present paper addresses the challenges in the testing of a SPVWPS, through a step by step approach and devises solar radiation and temperature profile. Three types of testing profiles are designed to simulate “worst to worst”, “best to best” and “composite” conditions, so that evaluation of the sample can cover all the possibilities of pumping operation for the entire year. One of these three proposed testing profiles, the composite profile, reduces the total time of execution for testing of a sample, without comprising of any attributes of the testing method. Further, the developed composite radiation profile covers the large geographical area of the India and also other Asian countries and yet impart all realistic environmental conditions. The developed method of testing takes into consideration of the effects of individual components such as PV array, solar pump controller and motor pump set individually and collectively. The method also brings out superiorities and shortcomings in these components under the actual field conditions. All relevant experiment results are produced to verify the proposed testing methods. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd