5 Tips for Successful Mobile Testing

This post is by EuroSTAR Exhibitor Cigniti Technologies.

The proliferation of mobile devices and mobile apps around the world has exponentially increased their usage in every domain. As their usage amplifies the business and leisure for employees and customers, organizations are investing heavily in the transformation of their corporate strategies through enterprise mobility, thereby making mobile app testing crucial for developers. Putting out a polished, bug-free product is obviously the chief objective of any business, but unfortunately 50% of bugs and defects are discovered by disappointed users who had implicit faith in the quality of their purchase or download. Common and simple testing mistakes taken care of can avoid seriously pitfall in mobiles and mobile app releases. Here are such five tips that can make phenomenal difference in their performances:

1. Testing without a concerted strategy

This happens when developers decide to conduct only cursory testing, and expect bug reports after launch giving no scope for beta testing. Obviously your brand reputation suffers as consumers are very discerning and demanding, and they don’t appreciate being treated as beta testers when they’re expecting a finished product on their devices. Furthermore, this method does not have a complaint recording system. Developers, while using this strategy, need to consider factors such as the market, region, user experience, and network coverage, as it showcases company’s professional integrity and commitment to its customers.

2. Regionally controlled testing

Testers in this scenario are instructed to venture into certain specified locales and carry out testing in specific network regions. Where this type of testing does not account for conditions that apply to a wide range of users in different locations. The lack of test universality prevents the app from functioning consistently. As Region, operating system / device, and network bandwidth all contribute to the individualized experience of any given user at any given day and time this method works only to the extent that it confirms app robustness in a limited set of situations and locales.

3. Partial emulation

Testers sometimes emulate the conditions of potential real-world use in customized, closely inspected environments. The main issue here is the dependence on static bandwidth, which is not reflective of the real world, where network strengths are in a state of constant flux. As latency is dependent on coding methods and network protocols, in addition to the interactions in the equipment of the network infrastructure, it’s important that while using an emulator, one should also take into the account the factor of latency, which is highly dynamic rather than fixed.

4. Networking issues

If an app is tested without taking into account the need for streaming, the end-user experience is likely to be quite underwhelming, which will naturally affect your company’s image. App needs to be tested in two areas: the way the app is operating on its own, and its behavior on a certain network. It avoids jittery video performances because of their bandwidth requirements, with varying degrees of smoothness depending on the type of network, service provider, region, etc.

5. Improper sterile functional testing

This takes place when testers examine only functional components of an app, and do not assess performance of an app. But functionality is not the sole factor in the success of any mobile app. Functioning relates to the role of certain actions and responses in an app (such as the response when a particular button is pressed or a menu is opened). App performance, on the other hand, is related to measuring such responses in terms of quickness and smoothness, in the context of factors such as network, operating system, device, etc). So, essentially, along with assessing what reactions take place when a user executes a certain action is the domain of what we call functional testing, its equally important to measure the speed of a response to any given command is the domain of performance testing.

Therefore when testers combine functional and performance testing, they should also account for external influences while writing tests for mobile apps. Consumers and enterprises expect not to spend much time on reporting errors or rework. Furthermore, organizations want to have a reputed testing with quality assured practices. Cigniti with strong methodologies and proven practices is trusted in providing quality assured practices. Visit cigniti.com to get in touch with us and see how we can make a difference by helping your QA teams in handling major issues using simple and proven techniques.

About Cigniti:
Cigniti Technologies, Global Leaders in Independent Software Testing (IST) Services, has its European headquarters in London. Cigniti’s over 1800 people team is spread across US, UK, India, Australia, and Canada. Cigniti is the world’s first IST Services Company to be appraised at CMMI-SVC v1.3, Maturity Level 5, and is also an ISO 9001:2008 & ISO 27001:2013 certified organization. Gartner recognizes and lists Cigniti as a Pure-Play Testing services provider with multi-domain skills. Forrester cites Cigniti among the 9 services firms and systems integrators working to enable Quality at Speed. NelsonHall ranks Cigniti Technologies as a Leader in Software Testing NEAT Charts. Everest Group recognizes Cigniti as a Major Contender with a “Best in Class” rating for Buyer satisfaction in the PEAK Matrix™ for Independent Testing Services, while Forbes recognizes Cigniti as Asia’s 200 best under-billion companies.

 

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Emma

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