7 potential ways to test mobile apps

There is no middle way to follow when it comes to mobile application testing. There is either a complete success or a failure when it comes to the app testing. It’s like tossing a coin for either a “heads” or a “tails”. With the growing usages of smartphones, tablets and various other mobile devices the application testing procedure is one of the most important parts of the app development.
Mobile application playsvital role for the development of business and providing a greater extent of access and scopes of customization to the customers letting business grow in a customer-friendly ways. This is the reason why mobile applications are being preferred and chosen as the mode of judgments and in many cases, the complete business is run through them.
One of the vitals questions to be asked when it comes to a mobile application is, what determines the popularity and the persuasiveness of a mobile application? What would get more and more people to use your app while there are many other apps in the market? One of the most important aspect that decides the popularity of a mobile application is the perfect application testing strategy. While a mobile app passes a full proof testing strategy the app is ready to make a mark in the competitive market of mobile apps.

 

 

Various challenges faced while testing applications

 

There is various decisive factor that comes as a huge challenge for the process of application testing.

• Testing over a wide range of device: The mobile market is flooded with a variety of mobile devices that supports different OS. Testing the compatibility for the wide range of OS and multiple devices comes as a huge challenge.
• Choosing an External and an in-house testing strategy: While the external testing saves a lot of time the in-house testing lets you take control of all the aspects of testing. An in-house will also save money while searching a trustworthy outsourcing partner can be difficult at times. However both the testing procedures are necessary and need to be done at the right time to ensure that there is not a flaw to be found after deploying the application.
• Finding the right testing tool: While an in-house testing is done, often the developer finds it hard to get the right testing tool. To abide by the rules of industrial standard testing strategy one needs to have the experience and the right approach towards testing.
• Lifecycle testing of an application: It takes the right expertise and the experienced professionals to ensure that the lifecycle testing of the application is full proof.

 

Key to successful testing

Here are the most vital factors that are highly decisive for the development of an ace mobile application.

• Assurance of quality
• Expectation of the customer
• Understanding the goal of the business
• Abiding by the best practice guidelines of the industry.

Selection of mobile device is vital

One of the most important aspect for testing the application is the selection of the mobile device. There are few considerations to be made before choosing the mobile device.

• A version of OS: You need to test the mobile device over a wide range of stable versions of OS.
• Screen Resolutions: You need to make a mix of various screen resolutions to ensure that your app runs on all type of devices.
• Compatibility: You need to test the compatibility of the app with a wide range of device that includes smartphones, tablets and other form of devices.
•  Other factors: Various other factors such as the size of memory, options of connectivity and device model need to be taken into consideration.

Which is the better, emulator or physical device?

For the beginning stage of the testing, an emulator is very useful. They provide an agility to the testing procedure and also helps to enhance the efficiency of the testing. This also cuts the cost of testing to a great extent. However, a physical device testing is also to be taken into account. A physical device testing helps you understand the real-time scenario of the testing. This also helps you to find the flaws that might have been overlooked while the process of emulator testing. This testing is to be done at the latter stages of device testing which helps you understand the errors that might have caused during the development of the app.

 

Advantage of cloud-based testing

Cloud-based testing can be considered to be the cost effective form of testing. This is a highly potential form of testing that allows a huge range of testing options. This is beneficial due to the fact that they are easy to manage and allow and an infinite combination of testing scenarios. The various benefits of cloud-based testing include

• A great synchronization of the pre-configured architectures.
• Reduces the defects associated with the test configuration that is unstable.
• No need of advanced tools and licenses
• Great for testing complicated applications
• Helps you understand the real-time testing scenario at a cost effective way.

 

Testing in the real-time network connectivity

The testing of a mobile application in a real-time network environment is very much essential as the network connectivity play a vital role in a mobile application. For testing the application in the real-time environment you need to get an access to the network simulation tools available. This helps to test the application in various network speeds, limitation of bandwidth and connection dropout scenarios. This helps to understand the functioning of the application in the real network. Network connectivity testing helps the app to achieve a smooth functioning and allows a consistent function thus making it popular among the end-users.

 

Manual and automated testing

A good combination of manual and automated testing is very much essential for the perfect testing procedure. An automated testing is one of the most important ways of testing during the development stages

• Automated testing should be done where:
• The application is in its growing stages
• The life cycle of the mobile development is long
• Regression testing frequencies are very high
• Obtainable functionality test is a major part of the testing procedure.

An automated testing at times overlooks the human error that needs to be tested manually. This is the reason why a manual testing also becomes one of the essential processes of testing. Thus a good combination of manual and automated testing helps you achieve the best result.

 

Performance testing

With a big storage capacity available at very pocket friendly prices, it is not unusual for the users to get a mobile with large storage capacity. This indicates that the users would store huge amount of data in their mobile. In many cases, a mobile user stores SMS for years. If your application generates data like photos, videos or messages this is necessary to test the application performance in a scenario where the there is a large amount of data being stored. There are chances that the quality of the application degrades with the expansion of the mailbox, album or video gallery. A full proof testing would ensure that the application would perform at an optimum level insuccess scenario.

 

Security testing

Security testing is another most essential factor that needs to be considered while testing an application. There are many application that needs to have the bank details and payment information. There are also some of the applications that ask for private and personal information. The security testing would ensure that there is a full proof testing procedure that would keep all the information completely safe and secure.

 

Testing is a vital step for successful app

Most of the time we ignore the vital process of testing, however, to successfully make a mark in the app market the testing procedure is one of the major steps that needs to be taken into consideration.