How Mobile App Testing Strengthens the Software Development Lifecycle

Introduction

In the current digital environment, mobile apps are essential for businesses and organizations to connect with customers, enhance operations, and create new revenue opportunities. Consequently, mobile application testing has become a critical focus.

A poorly tested app can be rejected by users, damaging the business's reputation and financial performance. While a professional mobile app development company will ensure rigorous testing, those developing apps independently might consider QA as an area to cut costs and time.

This blog explores the significance of mobile app testing throughout the software development lifecycle. We will discuss its benefits and explain why skimping on it is a false economy.

Understanding Mobile App Testing

Mobile app testing involves validating a mobile application (for Android or iOS) to ensure its functionality and usability before it is released to the public. This process confirms whether the app meets the required technical and business standards.

Effective mobile app testing requires evaluating the app across various screen resolutions, operating system versions, and network conditions. This guarantees that the app operates smoothly across multiple devices when released.

Critical aspects of mobile app testing include:

• Assessing app performance across various OS versions (e.g., Android 7.0, 8.0)
• Checking app appearance in both Portrait and Landscape modes
• Validating app compatibility and performance under specific settings
• Ensuring compatibility with mobile sensors like Gyroscope, Accelerometer, and GPS
• Testing the app's GUI elements (e.g., menus, dropdowns, navigation buttons) for proper functionality

The Importance of Mobile App Testing

The primary goal of developing mobile apps is to broaden business outreach globally. However, users will only use an app that is good and easy to use. Businesses want to avoid customers uninstalling their apps and opting for a competitor's product.

Thorough mobile app testing is essential to prevent users from encountering critical bugs that could lead to a negative experience, particularly for new users. First impressions are vital for the success of any mobile app. An unexpected crash or functionality issue can result in immediate uninstallation and loss of potential customers and revenue.

How Mobile App Testing Supports Application Development

• Ensuring Quality: Mobile app testing is crucial for meeting quality expectations and identifying errors. By addressing flaws, failures, and problems before the app is released, testing helps prevent user issues such as crashes, freezes, or mistakes, which could lead to low ratings and negative reviews.

• Enhancing User Experience: Testing ensures the app has a user-friendly interface and a highly-rated experience. It helps developers identify and resolve performance bottlenecks and usability issues early in development, improving user retention and engagement.

• Optimizing Performance: Performance testing addresses slow response times, long loading times, and high battery consumption. It ensures the app performs well in real-time and adapts to various devices, network conditions, and usage scenarios.
• Maximizing Compatibility: Testing ensures the app functions properly across different devices, operating systems, screen sizes, and resolutions. By testing under various conditions, developers can create a stable app experience for a broader user base.

• Enhancing Security: Security testing identifies potential vulnerabilities by simulating attacks from hackers and malicious actors. Addressing security issues early helps protect user data and ensures the app is resilient against possible threats.

• Minimizing Risks: Thorough testing minimizes risks related to user dissatisfaction, brand reputation, and market acceptance. By identifying and addressing issues before release, developers can launch a more reliable app better positioned to compete in the long term.

Read: What is Mobile App Security Testing? How to perform?

Why Mobile Testing is Essential

Mobile testing is critical for any business in the competitive app market. Success isn't just about having a feature-rich app; it's also about its performance. No matter how promising, a poorly performing app can lead to user abandonment. On the other hand, even simple apps can be successful if they work flawlessly.

Common issues like crashes, poor performance, and battery drain often lead to negative reviews and user dissatisfaction. Mastering mobile testing is crucial for avoiding these pitfalls and staying competitive. Despite its added complexity and cost, investing in mobile testing is vital for ensuring long-term success.

Step 1: Choosing the Type of Mobile Testing

Developers should first determine whether to test manually or automatically. Create a test strategy listing all scenarios, with brief descriptions and expected outcomes. Mobile testing evaluates functionality, usability, and stability, ensuring high performance and reliability.

Step 2: Types of Testing

• Usability Testing: Evaluates how easily users can achieve their goals with the app. This involves realistic scenarios and user feedback.
• Performance Testing: Assesses the app's stability, responsiveness, and performance under different conditions.
• Security Testing: Identifies vulnerabilities to ensure user data confidentiality and app security.
• Compatibility Testing: Checks the app's functionality across various devices, OS, and network settings.
• Localization Testing: Validates the app's response to local languages, currencies, and regulations.
• Functional Testing: Ensures core functionalities meet standards and work as expected.
• Unit Testing: Breaks the app into smaller units for easier and quicker testing.
• Manual Testing: Involves human testers in navigating and assessing the app's performance.
• Automation Testing: Uses scripts to test complex scenarios efficiently and quickly.

Step 3: Preparing Test Cases

Create test cases with specific steps, data, and conditions to validate requirements. Organize them into test runs to streamline the process. Test cases should be applicable for iOS and Android apps and include real device testing for accuracy.

Step 4: Mobile Application Testing Levels

• Design Phase: Test app design for usability and functionality.
• Integration Testing: Ensures new code integrates well without conflicts.
• Functional/Non-Functional Testing: Checks if the app meets functional requirements and assesses non-functional aspects like performance and security.
• User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Verifies that the app meets user needs and provides a consistent user experience.

Step 5: Mobile Application Testing Strategy

1. Device Selection: Choose between physical devices or emulators based on memory, connectivity, and other factors.
2. Cloud Testing: Utilize cloud-based testing to manage various scenarios efficiently.
3. Emulators vs. Physical Devices: Emulators are helpful for early development, while physical devices are crucial for real-world testing.
4. Network Connectivity: Test in real network environments to evaluate app performance under different conditions.
5. Manual vs. Automated Testing: Use automation for regression testing to ensure efficiency and accuracy.

Who Handles Mobile App Testing?

Mobile app testing is essential for anyone aiming to release a successful and optimized app. Typically, dedicated QA teams conduct these tests during each development sprint. However, involvement often extends beyond QA specialists, including developers, managers, product owners, and potential users.

Engaging a variety of stakeholders in testing brings valuable perspectives. Product owners, for instance, can provide non-technical insights that enhance app functionality beyond technical performance. This broad participation helps create a well-rounded product that appeals to a wider audience.

Interactive cross-device testing tools can be a solution for those without coding skills. Marketers and designers also use such tools to test app rendering and responsiveness across devices.

QA teams generally execute tests on multiple devices to ensure compatibility and meet device benchmarks.

Selecting the Right Devices for Mobile App Testing

Choosing the proper devices for software testing begins with thorough research. Analyze your target audience's geographic locations, preferred devices, operating systems, and preferences. This insight helps tailor the app to meet user needs and expectations.

Use traffic statistics and device usage reports to inform your decision. Business and Marketing teams typically guide which devices to prioritize based on their goals, helping to focus testing efforts effectively.

Common Mistakes to Avoid in Mobile App Testing

• Lack of Purpose: Before starting tests, ensure clarity on the app's purpose, target users, and expectations.

• Testing Everything at Once: Focus on critical areas rather than attempting to test everything simultaneously.

• Relying Solely on Emulators: Emulators and simulators can't fully replicate real device functionality. Test on actual devices to ensure compatibility and performance.

• Ignoring Backend Testing: While UI is crucial, backend services and APIs must be thoroughly tested to prevent crashes and ensure stability.

• Testing Without a Plan: Develop a structured plan for each sprint, including feature priorities, test scripts, and expected outcomes to manage testing effectively.

Check out: Top 14 Automated Mobile Testing Tools and Frameworks

Enhance Mobile App Testing with HeadSpin's Advanced Features

HeadSpin offers a robust global device infrastructure, enabling comprehensive testing on real SIM-enabled devices worldwide. With access to thousands of devices across 90+ locations, developers and QA teams can ensure thorough app optimization and performance.

Key Features of HeadSpin:

1. Comprehensive Device Coverage: Access thousands of real devices to test app compatibility and performance across various platforms, addressing device fragmentation.

2. Real-User Testing Scenarios: Simulate diverse user scenarios and network environments to uncover performance issues and user experience challenges and ensure optimal app performance.

3. Efficient Issue Detection: Use data science and advanced ML algorithms to detect issues and performance bottlenecks automatically, facilitating quicker resolutions and actionable insights.

4. Audio and Video Quality Testing: Assess audio and video quality using key user experience metrics, enabling global real-time audio playback and microphone quality testing.

5. Capturing Vital KPIs: Collect essential metrics, user experience data, network conditions, geographic information, and device health to make informed decisions and optimize apps.

6. Streamlined Test Automation: Implement automated testing solutions to streamline processes across a wide range of real devices, reducing testing cycles and accelerating time to market.

7. Extensive Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with widespread test automation and DevOps tools like Appium, Selenium, XCode, Jenkins, Azure, GitHub, and GitLab to enhance testing efficiency and app performance.

Final Thoughts

Mobile app testing is essential for ensuring a successful development lifecycle. It enhances app quality, boosts user satisfaction, and delivers reliable, optimized performance while ensuring data protection and cost savings.

HeadSpin provides a comprehensive mobile app testing solution through seven distinct scenarios. Its AI-powered platform, extensive global device network, and data science insights facilitate thorough end-to-end testing. This approach speeds up release cycles, improves app performance, and helps organizations reduce QA time and production issues and streamline release processes.

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FAQs

Q1. What Does the Mobile App Testing Life Cycle Involve?

Ans: The mobile app testing life cycle is a structured process that ensures an app meets quality standards before launch. It encompasses several stages: planning the roadmap, defining scope and objectives, designing requirements, prototyping, implementing, and conducting thorough testing to validate the app's performance.

Q2. How Do Testing Native Mobile Apps Differ from Testing Mobile Web Apps?

Ans: Native mobile apps, using platform-specific tools and languages, are explicitly developed for device platforms like iOS or Android. Testing these apps requires checking functionality on various devices. In contrast, mobile web apps are accessed through mobile browsers and rely on web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Testing mobile web apps focuses more on browser compatibility and responsiveness across different screen sizes.

Q3. How Can Developers Effectively Prioritize Testing and Allocate Resources for Complex Mobile Applications?

Ans: To prioritize testing and allocate resources effectively, developers should focus on key areas such as critical features, high-risk components, and essential user scenarios. Risk-based testing helps concentrate efforts on areas with the highest potential impact on app quality and user experience. This approach ensures that testing resources are directed where they are most needed.