Is testing a mobile app necessary? I mean, can it not be released easily to the public? In all honesty, it is not that easy because without testing the app, it may not be possible to release it to the public without knowing whether or not it works.
Moreover, the growing variety of mobile devices makes it necessary to conduct rigorous quality assurance testing. Various screen sizes, resolutions, processing power, operating systems and networks exist among mobile devices and networks. Moreover, the app testing process is key to validating app performance under various situations and circumstances.
For most professionals at various app development companies, it is fundamental to maintain a well-structured mobile app testing strategy. This ensures that an app will achieve its intended goals and meet user expectations. Let us now read the article to understand more about the mobile app testing process.
Test Documentation
Documentation may not be as exciting as it sounds but once a clear blueprint is made, it paves the way for successful mobile app testing. This helps define the objectives to achieve at each stage of the test process. This documentation consists of the following:
- Test Plan.
- Test Cases.
- Test Execution.
- Summary Report.
- Bug Report.
The test plan is created through establishing the kind of goals that need to be achieved throughout the process. For each test objective, the document incorporates the following:
- Approach.
- Risks.
- Possibilities.
- Recommendations.
- Processes for managing any defects.
- Resource needs and requirements.
Test cases do help in validating the successful and acceptable implementation requirements of the app. The related document is prepared by including the following:
- The set of test actions.
- Test and user input data.
- Execution of conditions.
- The expected outcomes.
The test plan document also stipulates details of each approach carried out by identifying the following:
- Features to undergo testing.
- Differing test scenarios.
- User workflows.
- Technical annotations.
- Release criteria.
Test cases help validate the successful and acceptable implementation requirements of the app. Its document is prepared by including the following:
- The set of test actions.
- Test and user input data.
- Execution conditions.
- Expected results.
Then the Test Execution report for each testing type is prepared. This report helps establish the general status of the test execution process based on iteration by iteration.
The Summary Report shows how many test cases were successful and not. It also includes crashes, bugs, the bug priority (low, moderate or high or all) along with the details regarding passed items. In the end comes the Bug Report. It is made by including the following:
- Failed test cases.
- Descriptions of errors.
- Test case IDs.
- Reports regarding which screens have errors.
- The severity of the bugs.
The kinds of mobile application testing
The following are the kinds of mobile application testing methods present:
- Functionality testing.
- Usability testing.
- Compatibility testing.
- Performance testing.
- Security testing.
Functionality testing
This testing analyzes interactions of users with the app and the resulting output. In this phase, the app is tested to verify its acceptable behaviors and project requirements tailored to the target users. At this point, testers need to be sure that the app's device-specific functions are working in the right condition (hire app developer). The following are included in functionality testing:
- Camera.
- Accelerometer/Positional Sensors.
- GPS.
- Bluetooth.
- SMS Integration.
- Bluetooth.
- 3D Accelerated Graphics.
Usability testing
The user experience is a crucial factor that decides the way users navigate an app, with ease. In an app, usability steps from input from numerous testers with varying technological proficiencies. This is an important step of testing.
Usability tests help identify issues related to the app’s usability, content, and navigation. These tests verify whether the application is achieving its goals, or not along with obtaining the needed response from users.
Compatibility testing
Here, it is imperative the app’s compatibility with various phones and other mobile devices be checked. Testers first must understand clearly the scenario of device fragmentation in the mobile device market. Devices can differ in the aspect of form (foldables), processing power (SnapDragon, Dimensity, Exynos), and screen resolution.
This ensures the app works well on all devices through analysis of the app’s UI, content visibility, readability and functionality. Network compatibility is also checked to make sure it works across various network operators without issues.
Performance testing
Performance matters a lot. These tests check the way an app behaves under different data-related situations. They are as under:
- Data of various volumes.
- Large data downloads from the server.
- Data growth.
Conditional tests check the app’s performance in the following situations which are as under:
- Low battery.
- Problematic network coverage.
- Memory availability is low.
Security testing
This one is critical in mobile app development. Protecting user information, bank credentials, medical records etc. is a must. This helps developers protect the app against hackers and ensures all data, authentication, authorization policies, data security, encryption protocols and session management are in line with a developer’s security standards and best practices of the industry.