#mobile application qa testing

Organizations are releasing mobile apps in quick succession to leverage the growing appetite of tech-savvy customers. However, not every app receives user acceptance owing to a range of issues. These include functional defects, below-par performance, device incompatibility, and poor user experience. As users become more critical of such issues and are deluged with a range of alternatives, mobile application testing has become important. Surprisingly, most organizations are yet to embrace mobile test automation even as they slug it out to release newer variants of apps. So, what challenges do enterprises face when they go about conducting mobile test automation? Let us describe some of the biggest ones:

Biggest challenges for testing mobile applications

The list of challenges bedeviling the mobile test exercise is -

1. Quick-release schedules: With customers rooting for mobile apps in greater numbers, enterprises don’t want to be a late entrant and miss the bus. They go for a quick build and release cycles where a thorough round of testing often becomes a casualty. Also, due to the pressing schedules, enterprises neither integrate new tests into their test cycles nor have the time to write test scripts. With DevOps and Agile being the methodologies to develop glitch-free applications, the need has arisen to develop a test suite. The suite should be underpinned on continuous innovation to address the dynamics of a complex mobile environment. However, this makes the test cycle lengthy with the release of new devices, operating systems and their variants, features, and functionalities.

2. Choosing the right mobile app test automation tool: Every mobile app comes with different test challenges where no two are similar. Although the market is flush with many automation tools, the challenge is to find the right one that addresses the specific test requirement. So, to choose the right mobile application QA testing tool, enterprises should meet certain standards:

Ease of use and the ability to create a script

Ought to run on native and object web properties for better identification of the components

Ability to connect to the cloud

Enable more than functional testing

3. Security: Given its growing ramifications on brand equity and user experience, security testing has become a challenging exercise. The reason being the umpteen vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit to steal data or information. When it comes to the cloud, it is better to rely on a private cloud, for it provides better encryption. Also, preventing data breach on a public cloud platform should be given serious consideration by implementing mobile testing. Further, DevOps should be changed to DevSecOps for better security compliance and accountability across the organization.

4. Diversity in devices: The mobile ecosystem has numerous mobile devices with different configurations. Such device diversity makes mobile app testing a challenging task, especially for native, hybrid, and web apps. Moreover, the type of testing differs as well vis-a-vis compatibility, performance, stress, conformance, and security. Even though native apps have a limited scope of testing, their hybrid and web counterparts are needed to be tested for on and off platforms. This can create knotty back-end issues. Both native and hybrid apps should be tested on various device platforms to ensure outcomes like quick and seamless download, performance, platform interaction, and updates.

5. Diversity in OS platforms: One of the most challenging scenarios in mobile test automation is to account for the fast-changing operating systems and their variants. With devices operating on different variants of Android, iOS or Windows operating systems at any point in time, mobile testing can become complicated. These mainly relate to the compatibility issues when apps are deployed across operating environments. However, these can be addressed by following solutions -

Putting emulators into use to identify glitches and security issues

Testing on a set of popularly used devices and target users.

Using a mix of both in-house mobile lab and cloud-based mobile QA testing

Conclusion

Mobile applications are leading the way as far as driving the process of digital transformation is concerned. Their increased usage can be attributed to the scale of penetration of smartphones using the latest technologies. In fact, customers have spent around $92.1 billion on mobile apps in 2018 (Source: businessofapps.com.) At the same time, the number of mobile apps seems to have gone through the roof – 2.1 million & 2 million apps on Android and Apple app stores respectively. Also, given the scope of mobile application usage in areas such as vehicles, watches, kitchen appliances etc., customers have become choosy when it comes to any deficiency in the quality standard. The said deficiency can be related to issues like device compatibility, functional defects, and below-par user experience. No wonder mobile testing has become a critical process in the SDLC, for it is directly linked to revenue generation or the lack of it.

The challenge of staying competitive is forcing businesses to launch newer mobile apps with better features and functionalities. This has put the developers and testers under strain to not only meet the stiff market demand but even face the heat should the revenue stream is not consistent with expectations. To add to the existing challenges of stiffer turnaround times and staying on top of the technological curve, there is a plethora of device configurations, operating systems, networks, frameworks etc. Any mobile application, to provide even a modicum of quality user experience, should ensure its compatibility across the above mentioned digital touchpoints or elements.

To address the challenges of compatibility and below-par performance of mobile apps, testers are adopting methodologies like Agile and DevOps. In fact, embracing mobile test automation has enabled testers to address the inadequacies of manual testing. On the flip side, choosing the right test tool may not be the easiest thing to do resulting in inefficient and often ineffective mobile testing. Let us find out the reasons as to why the scope for quality assurance and testing is expanding.

# Entry of new devices and OS platforms: The smartphone market is expanding at a rapid pace with the entry of new players and newer versions of operating systems. Due to the frequency at which these are introduced into the market, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the QA experts to live up to the user expectations. With different variants of operating systems in the fray, ensuring the compatibility of mobile apps across operating systems like Android, iOS, Windows, Blackberry or their mind boggling versions can shut the living daylights out of many testers. And unless these issues are sorted out and users provided with seamless navigation, the concerned mobile app cannot be expected to climb the charts of popularity. Since user expectation has become the ultimate differentiator for businesses to stay competitive, testers have no option but to expand the scope of mobile testing.

# Diversity in networks: The internet connectivity network is diverse in its range. If on one side you have network configurations like GSM and CDMA, the other side has 2G, 3G, and 4G for mobile app developers to grapple with. Even though mobile test automation tools like network emulators can provide testers with the basic wherewithal to validate the compatibility of apps across networks, they do not offer the challenges of a real network. Testing a mobile app across networks requires studying the impact of Wi-Fi/3G/4G speeds.

# Security challenges: The growing menace of cybercrime has brought about the criticality of security testing. Moreover, since mobile apps are increasingly used to provision/buy/sell products and services, they deal with sensitive personal/business/financial data and information. With hackers on the prowl using viruses, trojans, malware, ransomware etc. as their tools, mobile app testers should ensure the data is properly encrypted and payment gateways made secure.

# Diversity in app types: A vast number of mobile apps are built for various industry verticals, be it eCommerce, health, payment, utility services, banking, or travel. To ensure the apps meet the desired business objectives as well as provide a seamless user experience, they need to be tested rigorously based on the relevant metrics.

Conclusion

The scale, diversity, and scope of mobile apps are expanding at a frenetic pace. To ensure they meet the basic criteria of aesthetics, usability, performance, and security, a robust mobile testing strategy should be adopted.