Step-by-Step Mobile Application Testing Process
Why is Mobile App Testing Necessary?
Testing a mobile application is a necessary process that mobile apps undergo before their release to the public. The growing variety of mobile devices necessitates rigorous quality assurance testing. There are different screen sizes, resolutions, processing power, operating systems, and networks. The mobile app testing process is crucial to validate if the app performs well under different circumstances.
For mobile app developers, it’s essential to maintain a well-structured mobile app testing strategy. This ensures an app will achieve its objectives and meet the users’ expectations. This article will outline one such testing strategy and guide you through each step.
Test Documentation
Documentation isn’t exactly thrilling (we know!). But a clear blueprint paves the way for successful mobile app testing. This helps define the goals to achieve at each stage of the test process and consists of the:
- Test Plan
- Test Cases
- Test Execution
- Summary Report
- Bug Report
We create the Test Plan by establishing which objectives to achieve throughout the testing process. For each test objective, the document incorporates the:
- approach
- risks
- possibilities
- recommendations
- defect management processes
- resource requirements
The Test Plan document also stipulates the details of each approach performed by identifying the:
- features to undergo testing
- varying test scenarios
- user workflows
- technical annotations
- release criteria
Test Cases help validate the successful and acceptable implementation requirements of the app. The test case document is prepared by including:
- the set of test actions
- test and user input data
- execution conditions
- expected results
We prepare the Test Execution Report for each of the test types. This report establishes the general status of the test execution process on an iteration-by-iteration basis.
The Summary Report shows how many test cases have passed or failed. The report also includes crashes, bugs, bug priority (low, medium, high), and details on passed items.
Finally, the Bug Report is prepared by including the:
- failed test cases
- error descriptions
- test case ids
- report on which screens have errors
- severity of the bugs
Types of mobile application testing
Functionality Testing
Functionality testing analyzes users’ interactions with the app and the resulting output. In this phase, we test the app to verify its acceptable behaviors and project requirements tailored to the target users. At this point, testers have to make sure that the app’s device-specific functions are working. These include, but aren’t limited to:
- Camera
- Accelerometer/Positional Sensors
- GPS
- SMS Integration
- Bluetooth
- 3D Accelerated Graphics
Usability Testing
The user experience is a crucial factor that decides how easily users can navigate an app. Usability in an app comes from the input of a wide variety of 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 if the application is achieving its goals and getting the desired response from users.
Compatibility Testing
It’s also important to test the compatibility of the app with a variety of phones and tablets. First, testers have to clearly understand the device fragmentation scenario in the mobile device market. Devices vary widely in form factor (like folding smartphones), screen resolution, and processing power. Testing ensures the app functions well across a variety of mobile devices by analyzing all aspects of the app’s UI, including content visibility, readability, and functionality. Network compatibility is another important test to ensure the app works across different network operators without bugs.
Performance Testing
Performance matters. No one likes to use an app if it doesn’t perform well on their device. Performance tests check how an app behaves under different data-related situations, such as:
- data of various volumes
- massive data downloads from the server
- data growth
Conditional tests check the app’s performance under situations like:
- low battery
- bad network coverage
- low available memory
Security Testing
Security testing is a critical, necessary step in mobile app development. No mobile app creator wants to jeopardize their users’ personal information, bank credentials, or even medical records. Security testing helps developers protect the app against hacking vulnerabilities and ensures the app’s data, authentication, authorization policies, data security, encryption protocols, and session management comply with a developer’s security standards and industry best practices.
Testing Is Crucial!
As you can see, testing a mobile application is a thorough and time-consuming process. It takes teams of experts with established backgrounds in quality assurance to ensure that a mobile app ships bug-free and secure. It’s important to work with the right mobile app developer who can create quality products and offer the testing infrastructure to ensure an app launches successfully and safely. Get in touch with one of Zco’s account executives today to find out why we’re one of the most reliable developers in the industry.
