Latest Mobile Application Testing you Need to Know in 2018

Although it is important to test the hardware, it is the software that unleashes the true potential drop of the mobile devices. The application market is the driving force behind the mobile market.

As soon as developers develop a mobile application, it is put to test with regards to both hardware and software. Hardware testing can be related to checking screen sizes, resolution, space or memory, camera, radio, Bluetooth, WI-FI and internal hardware of the mobile phone. Software testing of the mobile application can pertain to checking native applications, mobile web apps, and hybrid apps.

Organizations hire dedicated developers that understand affinity with platforms, compatibility and availability of particular SDK’s, testing with and without internet connectivity, and developing on various versions of operating systems etc.

Why is Mobile Application Testing Required?

These differences make testing mobile applications more challenging than testing normal web apps:

> Varieties of mobile devices

> Various mobile operating systems

> Different versions of operating systems

> Different mobile network operators

Latest Mobile Application Testing 2018

Usability Testing – Ease of use of a mobile application

Compatibility Testing/Cross-Platform Testing – Cross browser testing, cross-platform testing

Interface Testing – Testing the UI, bookmarks, history, site navigation and other settings of the application

Services Testing – Testing online and offline services of the application

Resource Testing – Testing memory usage and other database issues

Performance Testing – Testing performance of the application while changing the connection from 2G to 3G or 4G and switching from mobile data to Wi-Fi

Operational Testing/Memory, Interrupt, Battery Testing – Testing of backups and recovery plan in case battery dies or there is any loss of upgrading applications from a store.

Security and Privacy Testing – Checking if information system protects data or not

Installation Testing – Validating the application by installing or uninstalling it on the device

Localization Testing – For people keep moving here and there and mobile data network varies from place to place, thus checking the compatibility of the mobile application is important.

Ideal Mobile Application Testing Steps 2018

> Test Cases Creation and Execution

> Smoke Testing

> System Testing

> Integration Testing

> Regression Testing

> Alpha and Beta Testing

> Operating System Testing (Cross-platform testing)

> Device compatibility (Cross browser testing)

> Network Response on the different surface (Network Compatibility)

> Automation Testing using Tool

> Performance Testing Using Tool

Software Testing Trends that every Test Engineer Should Follow

The shift from QA to Quality Engineering

The process of quality assurance takes place in form of bug life cycle. Quality Engineering helps introduce testing earlier in the process rather than at user acceptance.

Internet of things (IoT)

The various devices connected via the internet should be tested for functionality, quality, and security. Any flaw in one device can make entire system corrupt.

Digital Transformation with Agile

Making use of Agile methodology helps in quantifying the problem and making it easy to solve.

DevOps

Reduce the time between developments to operations by deploying DevOps. This concept will gain momentum in the coming years as it has gained a tremendous amount of support from business organizations. A number of business organizations are likely to use DevOps to improve their overall performance as its emphasis is on automation and integration testing.

Time for Big Data Testing

Large volumes of data that cannot be processed by traditional databases are known as big data. These can be structured, semi-structured or un-structured but most of the times these are unstructured. These can be in any format – images, flat files, audio, video etc. Common examples of Big data – Medical records, satellite imagery, IoT devices, video, surveillance data, genomic data, Maps/Traffic etc. Being structured Big Data cannot be stored in row and column format. Thus there will be a lot of areas in which testing will be required in Big data.

Bigger Market share for Mobile Users & Test Automation

Global test automation market is going to experience significant growth due to the increasing trend of digital transformation across the globe. Increasing investment in IT sector increases the demand for test automation. The force that drives test automation market are the various benefits offered by test automation tools like reduced time and cost, easy to test for multi-lingual sites, human intervention is reduced to a minimum and improves development process of the software product.

Micro Services  and API Test Automation

In 2018, it is good to be informed about API and micro-services test automation. Development of a single application can work together as a bunch of small services that has its own individual process and communicate with lightweight mechanisms such as an HTTP resource API. These make use of different data storage technologies, do not require centralized management and can even be written in a different programming language.

Developers make use of same practices for micro-services architecture that they require for creating software applications for large enterprise organizations. Experience of developers is very helpful in creating a consistent and dynamic experience across a wide range of devices and in understanding the expectations of users. Cloud-based applications are adaptable, accessible, modular, scalable and are thus in high demand and have made developers change their development approach.

Increasing Adoption of Open Source Tools

As application development professionals look towards trimming down the cost of enterprise software tools, implementation of open source software comes handy and is highly beneficial. Due to the steep learning curve, no installation cost and community forum to discuss and resolve all queries, open source software are becoming increasingly ubiquitous and it is quintessential for developers to gel up with them in 2018.

Challenges Faced by Mobile Application Testers

There are 6 key challenges that mobile app developers and testers are facing:

Screen Size – Need to keep a check whether all necessary screen elements are accessible with different screen sizes and aspect ratios

Connection Types – It is important to check bandwidth usage as not all service providers and carriers support unlimited data volumes

Different OS Versions – Mobile App Developers need to check whether an application running on new version also supports older OS version as well.

Power Consumption and Battery Life – While constructing a mobile application it must be checked that power consumption is kept minimal and best practices of app-development are followed

Usability – Ease of use, site navigation and font size of text must be checked. All clickable areas must be readable without lenses

Internationalization – Trying to change the app time while the app is running, language from right to left and designs prevalent in western countries have kept developers and designers puzzled about mobile apps.