Mobile App Software Testing

THE NUMBER OF CONSUMER AND ENTERPRISE MOBILE APPS HAVE GROWN EXPONENTIALLY
OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS , LEAVING THE END USER WITH AN HUMONGOUS NUMBER OF APPS
TO CHOOSE FROM APP QUALITY IS THE KEY TO ANY APP ’S SUCCESS AND IT CAN ONLY BE
ACHIEVED THROUGH MOBILE APPLICATION TESTING. APP SUCCESS CAN BE MEASURED BY THE
NUMBER OF DOWNLOADS AND THE POSITIVE COMMENTS , AS WELL AS A RAPID
IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW FEATURES AND BUG FIXES . TESTING IS IN FACT AN IMPORTANT PART
OF EVERY SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND WITH MOBILE APPS IT HAS BECOME EVEN
MORE IMPORTANT . THE GROWING NUMBER OF MOBILE DEVICES IS LEADING TO A MASSIVE
FRAGMENTATION OF OS, SCREEN SIZES , VARIATIONS OF STANDARD OS AND MORE . WITH
AGILE PROCESSES , SOFTWARE TESTING IS PERFORMED EVERY SO OFTEN TO ASSURE THE BEST
POSSIBLE QUALITY . NEW FEATURES AND BUG FIXES NEED TO BE RELEASED WITH SHORT
INTERVALS , SO USERS DON ’T LOOSE INTEREST AND NEW FEATURES SHOULD NOT BRING NEW
BUGS . TESTING BECOMES VITAL FOR AN APP’S SURVIVAL. GONE ARE THE DAYS WHEN THE
TELEPHONE USED TO BE AN APPLIANCE THAT SAT IN A CORNER AND HAD TO RING TO GET OUR
ATTENTION OR A COMPUTER WAS A MACHINE ONLY A FEW PEOPLE USED – THEY ARE NOW AN
EXTENSION OF OUR BEING- A WINDOW TO THE WORLD AND VIRTUAL SERVANTS THAT DO AS
THEY ARE TOLD COMPUTERS WERE A RAGE AND CHANGED HOW WE HUMANS THOUGHT ,
BEHAVED , LEARNED AND EXISTED NOWADAYS, MOBILITY SOLUTIONS HAVE TAKEN OVER THE
MARKET. PEOPLE DON’T WANT TO SWITCH ON THEIR LAPTOPS /PC FOR EVERYTHING , RATHER
THEY WANT THEIR HANDHELD DEVICES TO PERFORM EVERYTHING QUICKLY. ANALYSE THE
MARKET AND CHOOSE THE DEVICES THAT ARE WIDELY USED . THIS DECISION MOSTLY RELIES ON
THE CLIENTS . THE CLIENT OR THE APP BUILDERS CONSIDER THE POPULARITY FACTOR OF
CERTAIN DEVICES AS WELL AS THE MARKETING NEEDS FOR THE APPLICATION TO DECIDE WHAT
HANDSETS TO USE FOR TESTING. THE USE OF THESE IS EXTREMELY USEFUL IN THE INITIAL
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT, AS THEY ALLOW QUICK AND EFFICIENT CHECKING OF THE APP . THE
EMULATOR IS A SYSTEM THAT RUNS SOFTWARE FROM ONE ENVIRONMENT TO ANOTHER
ENVIRONMENT WITHOUT CHANGING THE SOFTWARE ITSELF . IT DUPLICATES THE FEATURES AND
WORKS ON THE REAL SYSTEM. THE MOBILE AUTOMATION TESTING IS AN EXTREMELY EFFECTIVE
APPROACH TO TEST THE MOBILE APPLICATIONS WHICH GIVES US THE CONSIDERABLE RETURNS
IF YOU CHOOSE RIGHT TOOLS FOR MOBILE TEST AUTOMATION. TO TEST MOBILE APPLICATIONS
USE OF THE CLOUD TESTING IS ONE OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL CHOICES . USING CLOUD-BASED
APPROACH YOU CAN ACHIEVE THE NATIVE AND HYBRID MOBILE APPS AUTOMATION TESTING.
THIS AUTOMATION TESTING APPROACH CAN BE USED WHEN LONG-TERM AUTOMATION
TESTING IS TO BE CARRIED OUT OVER MULTI -PLATFORM AND PREDEFINED SET OF DEVICES .
CLOUD-BASED AUTOMATED SOLUTIONS ARE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE AS THEY ARE OFFERED AS A
UNIFIED PACKAGE . ONCE THE DEPLOYMENT IS DONE IN CLOUD LAB THEN YOU JUST NEEDED A
CONNECTIVITY TO CLOUD LAB TO KICK OFF YOU TESTING FROM ANYWHERE. USING CLOUD-
 BASED APPROACH WILL REDUCE THE TIME TO SET UP THE TEST ENVIRONMENT WHICH
GENERALLY CAUSES THE PROJECT DELAYS . THE CLOUD PROVIDES A PRE-CONFIGURED , HIGHLY
SYNCHRONIZED ARCHITECTURE , STRONG SERVER CONFIGURATIONS , LICENSING , AND TESTING
RESOURCES . AS A RESULT, REDUCED TIME -TO-MARKET AND AUGMENTED TESTING
COMPETENCE . SO DEFECTS GET RAPIDLY REDUCE WHICH MAY OCCUR DUE TO THE FAULTY
CONFIGURATION OF TEST ENVIRONMENTS . IT HELPS TO INCREASE THE QUALITY OF THE
APPLICATION .O NE OF THE GREAT ADVANTAGES OF CLOUD APPROACH IS THE AMOUNT OF
SCALABILITY WITH REAL-TIME RESULTS , WHICH MEANS DEFECTS CAN BE ANALYZED WHILE THE
TESTS ARE RUNNING .
ADVANTAGES OF MOBILE TEST :

1. SAME TEST SCRIPTS CAN BE EXECUTED REPEATABLE

2. HELP TO INCREASE THE TESTING EFFICIENCY
3. HELP TO ENHANCED THE REGRESSION TESTS CASE EXECUTION
4. MULTIPLE TEST CASES CAN BE EXECUTED WITH LESS TIME
5. BETTER UTILIZATION OF TIME BY RUNNING TEST SCRIPT OVER 24/7 TIME.
6. TEST SCRIPTS CAN BE EXECUTED PARALLEL ON SEVERAL DEVICES AT THE SAME TIME .
7. ONCE THE TEST SCRIPTS ARE READY, HUMAN RESOURCES DO NOT REQUIRE MANUAL
INTERRUPTIONS TO EXECUTE THE SCRIPTS .
8. SAME TEST CASES CAN BE EXECUTED ACROSS DIFFERENT MOBILE PLATFORMS, SO THE SCRIPTING
TIME CAN BE MINIMIZED AND THE SAME TIME CAN BE USED FOR MORE TEST COVERAGE

The most fundamental test scenarios in the functional testing can be

considered as :

1. To validate whether all the required mandatory fields are working as

required.
2. To validate that the mandatory fields are displayed in the screen in a
distinctive way than the non-mandatory fields.
3. To validate whether the application works as per as requirement
whenever the application starts/stops.
4. To validate whether the application goes into minimized mode
whenever there is an incoming phone call. In order to validate the
same we need to use a second phone, to call the device.
5. To validate whether the phone is able to store, process and receive
SMS whenever the app is running. In order to validate the same we
need to use a second phone to send sms to the device which is being
tested and where the application under test is currently running.
6. To validate that the device is able to perform required multitasking
requirements whenever it is necessary to do so.
7. To validate that the application allows necessary social network
options such as sharing, posting and navigation etc.
8. To validate that the application supports any payment gateway
transaction such as Visa, Mastercard, Paypal etc as required by the
application.
9. To validate that the page scrolling scenarios are being enabled in the
application as necessary.
10. To validate that the navigation between relevant modules in the
application are as per the requirement.
11. To validate that the truncation errors are absolutely to an affordable
limit.
12. To validate that the user receives an appropriate error message like
“Network error. Please try after some time” whenever there is any
network error.
13. To validate that the installed application enables other applications to
perform satisfactorily, and it does not eat into the memory of the
other applications.
14. To validate that the application resumes at the last operation in case
of a hard reboot or system crash.