Mobile App Revolution Demands Mobile Testing Evolution

Introduction 

The top two operating systems that are leading and setting up the market standard for  mobile application development and mobile application testing are: 

• IOS (iPhone Operating System) 
• Android  

The (IOS/Android) applications have seen a revolution over some past years, and mobile testing now requires an extensive evaluation to keep up. If a company develops mobile applications, then it should have a strong mobile testing criteria to overcome the common challenges. 

Mobile App Testing: 

Not all the applications run in the same pattern, so there are some variations of mobile testing depending on the platforms. These can be categorized as follows: 

• Native Applications: Applications built for particular platforms e.g., iOS, Android, Windows Mobile, and BlackBerry. 
• Mobile Web Applications: Web applications launched on mobile browser. 
• Hybrid applications: A blend of mobile web and native applications. 

Based on the classifications as mentioned above, one can imagine that app development, including mobile app testing, is far more complex than it seems at first. Moreover, as mobile devices are becoming more common, user expectations for high performing mobile applications continue to increase. . The primary purpose of building business mobile applications is to run the business with proficiencies and get the output without failure. Mobile application testing is the key to achieving these goals.  

Mobile Performance Testing: 

To measure the performance of an application, you need the main three components which are connected: the phone device, the server, and the Network that is being used to connect mobile device with the server. Additionally, a few more components can affect the application performance negatively e.g., the speed of the startup, battery life, memory consumption etc. 

The performance means user perception of how well the mobile application is performing to complete a specific function. To manage user performance expectations, developers must take into consideration core mobile application design considerations such as amount of data, API calls, screen transitions, background threads and computation power. Moreover, architects need to understand how apps interact with various networks and network properties. Network speed, packet loss, and jitters are some familiar mobile app issues one should analyze and test to ensure mobile performance.

Who will test and how can it be done? 

For testing android, IOS or Blackberry, you need an SQA engineer with some automated testing experience to fast track the mobile application testing process. You would follow the below-mentioned steps for a successful testing phase: 

• Agile development: You should follow the agile process to maximize release pace. 
• Devices: You need to test the mobile apps on multiple devices to ensure quality. 
• End-to-end verification: You have to make sure that the app executes business processes as planned. 
• Automation: You are required to automate sanity checks and test API calls to ensure overall system reliability. 
• Load testing: Load and stress testing on back-end systems is necessary to ensure healthy support for the expected traffic loads.  
• Robust test suites: Testing is needed to ensure accurate processing for PDF and Office file formats. 

Conclusion 

After reading all this, I am sure you have now realized that mobile application testing is as crucial as any other software testing. We at AlphaBOLD believe in comprehensive and personalized approach towards testing. Our senior QA engineers work directly with the development engineers to help create a plan for mobile app testing processes that are associated with the development of the applications. In this way AlphaBOLD ensures that your mobile applications rank at the top despite the tough competition.