What do you think, which is the most important step in developing successful mobile app? App idea, design, framework or testing? According to the survey, it has been noticed that 58% of mobile apps fail in app stores because of poor performance resulting from improper testing. Generally users have no patience for apps that stuck or crash continuously. Imagine that, your app is getting lots of negative reviews and poor feedback. In such cases your app nearly dead in the market. Quality is necessary for success of an app and it cannot be achieved without continuous and thorough testing. Let us know the goals of mobile app testing-
This results in seamless working app and satisfied users. Here we’ll see the various mobile app testing techniques.
Mobile app testing needs lots of effort and generally beginners don’t know, from where to start. But not only beginners face issues about testing. Testing techniques for ios and android apps are similar but challenging too. Let us see the mobile app testing techniques.
As the name suggests, this kind of test analyses the small units of code like functions or classes. Every time whenever a developer finishes working on a small part of code, he/she has to test it. Unit tests are written by developers themselves and it is easier for developers to change the code they’ve written because they can see where something went wrong. All development environments have unit test frameworks – programs that drives testing process. Testing frameworks allow developers to test each function. Bugs detected at this stage are generally fixed in the code without describing in bug tracking system. Obviously, it is not possible to test everything, but you should test as much as possible. Every small part of feature should be unit tested. All unit tests are connected, hence you get a chain. If a small part of this chian fails, the complete test will fail.
One of the best practice for mobile app testing is writing automated tests before starting the development process and this is called test-driven development or a test-first approach. If you use this strategy, you initially create small part of code. Then you launch the tests that you wrote prior to coding. Development goes on until all tests are successfully passed. It seem too time consuming. Lack of time is the most serious problems in testing but unit tests can save more time and improve development speed. Also, it can serve as a kind of documentation for your library. Unit testing can take up to 30% of the estimated development time.
This type of tests are complex than unit tests and are written by QA engineers by using Ruby or Java. Mainly, they used to test unexpected user behavior and check how app copes. For instance, user may give incorrect data such as wrong address or phone number. Auto tests are created based on test cases, and it includes unexpected behaviors and other circumstances like- memory shortage, low battery, device lag, interruptions etc. Such things can be checked manually, however generally auto tests are used due to many functions have to be repeatedly checked.
In auto testing, QA engineer just has to write a test once and can then use it throughout the development process. While unit tests check just positive results, auto tests are interested in any result – positive, negative, or even odd.
One disadvantage of auto testing is that such tests are rather expensive and complex. In case of any changes in an application, the QA will have to rewrite the auto test. Hence, such tests are generally used for only core features. For instance, for an ecommerce app, features like search, ordering and buying probably won’t change, hence you can write auto tests for them. For some small changes, manual testing can be used. If you have an expert in auto testing they it will be an advantage as auto testing is powerful to test mobile apps.
Acceptance testing is at last last stage of development. QA engineer is responsible for it, but the user also takes part in the testing process. This kind of testing is done on a ready-to-release product. Acceptance testing uses test cases and scenarios based on app requirements. If it does, the customer accepts the app and releases it. If customer is satisfied with the app quality, the product is ready to be installed on user side. But if customer is not satisfied, acceptance testing will continue until the customer is satisfied.
System tests are used to check higher level of functionality. They’re a lot more extensive than unit tests and they test the entire application, comparing the real result with the expected result. It’s vital that the system stays the same during testing so the input is the single thing that can change the results of the test. Obviously, an application’s design may change times prior to its release, that is the reason of why each change to a system has to include a system test also. Test creation for app and then trying to change code so it passes the test is a huge mistake.
Generally system tests are manual tests and are performed manually by QA engineers. During design and development phases, QA professionals gets all the ideas from developers and tech specialists while coding and prepares a testing plan. QA engineers should check the app in detail and test the app manually using different devices or emulators to see how exactly the app works.
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In this type of testing, app is tested for its ability to work on different hardware, operating system, apps, network environments and so on. We can divide compatibility testing into two- Backward compatibility testing and forward compatibility testing. Backward compatibility tests the interaction of developed software/hardware with old versions. Forward compatibility testing tests the interaction of developed hardware/software with updated version.
It checks whether the app installs and uninstalls properly. Also, it ensures that it doesn’t cause any issues for user while installing all software components and the installation process is not time consuming or inconsistent. Installation testing validates the successful installation and software upgrading or restoring it.
UI testing extent is dependent on the nature of the app. Interaction type and communication content are the factors to consider for UI testing. Educational purpose apps, commercial apps for utilities, travel etc. should replicate the user experience across various devices and OS. Here are some of the key elements to test in UI testing-
Headings, Icons, Buttons, images, text fields, checkboxes, colors and themes of devices, long press or short press.
Security has become a huge challenge for the entire tech world, and with the adoption of faster networks like 3G and 4G, it is considerably more precarious. There are some challenges in security testing-
Vulnerability analysis- Check the app for countermeasures, for loopholes, the effectiveness of measures etc.
App permissions- Generally need a location and confidential data, so data and privacy should be fortified safely.
Threat analysis- It conducts analysis to cover various interactions such as security during third-party communications, when an app is installed, downloaded etc.
Load testing is used to analyse whether the solution can handle many users at the same time. It is relevant for multiuser systems, generally created by using a client/server model like web servers.