Mobile Testing is expensive and time consuming. But definitely it’s needed to ensure that your consumers have a positive experience when they use the mobile applications. And it’s vital that you make sure that the experience is a great one for every consumer every time they use your application, starting with the very first time. Mobile projects are extremely complex, requiring project managers and test managers to plan carefully or risk being late to market – or worse, release a sub-par application.
A typical end-to-end mobile testing process should start from creating test cases of the application, performing user acceptance and finally device testing stage. Adequately planning your test coverage (and allowing sufficient time to execute that plan) is an absolute key to a successful release. Test strategy is, of course, partially dictated by your app’s complexity, your industry, and further by whether you are planning a native, hybrid, or Web app.
Mobile Application Testing Strategy
Selecting Target Devices: Target devices for testing a mobile application should balance the need to use a representative sample of the expected device population with the need to optimize duration and cost of testing.
Connectivity Options: Almost all applications rely on network connectivity to provide useful functionality. In test environments, Wi-Fi networks can be easy to set up and can be cost effective, unlike cellular connectivity that can be both unreliable and expensive.
Manual vs. Automated Testing: Automated testing provides a mechanism to consistently repeat a test procedure and verify application results. It can be effective both for regression testing as well during development (to ensure that new features are not resulting in unintended changes to existing features).
However, automation requires a significant initial investment (in a test tool as well as scripting) and the ROI is realized when the same automated test is executed multiple times with negligible incremental cost. Therefore, it is important to judiciously select candidate test cases for automation.
Mobile applications testing differs significantly from the standard approach of testing applications designed for use on personal computers because of the large number of the mobile device features and the variety of mobile platforms.
There are many features that must be considered during testing of applications for mobile devices. The key moments, in our opinion, are:
- Operations with memory, control of memory leaks
- The intensity of power consumption, sensitivity to the charge
- The use of disk space, stability in the limited space on the drive, logging, work with memory cards
- Support for various screen resolutions, portrait and landscape modes
- Internet connection using an optimum connection: Active Sync, USB, GPRS, Wi-Fi; work under conditions of unstable connection;
- Stability of the application for incoming / outgoing calls, sending and receiving SMS / MMS
- Standards compliance (Symbian Signed certification, Java Verified testing, etc.)
- Data synchronization with the phone book, calendar, programs on your PC
- Correct install / remove of programs in the phone memory and memory card
- Correct localization
- Stable work under conditions of stress, recovery from failures.
An optimal selection of target devices and using a mix of simulators and physical devices can maximize test coverage without the need to test every feature on each device. The use of Wi-Fi networks for the majority of testing in combination with network simulation tools can reduce the cost and complexity of testing on various cellular networks.
Combining the solutions to mobile specific aspects of application testing with traditional best practices and testing processes can effectively address the challenges of mobile application testing.
