The capabilities of modern-day mobile phones have increased phenomenally. The features of mobile phones extend much beyond that sending and receiving phone calls. Besides communication, mobile phones are used to access the Internet, play games, listen to music, use GPS (Global Positioning Systems), and more. It has become a multi-purpose gadget which integrates app to perform a wide range of functions.
To attain certain competitive leverage, it is essential to test the functionality, usability, and consistency of apps before being released for consumer use. However, the variations in operating systems, platforms, and networks have made it challenging to perform comprehensive mobile testing. Mobile test automation is an effective solution to improve the efficiency of testing operations. Automation testing helps increase test coverage and test effectiveness and enables the tester to shrink the time-to-market by automating repetitive tasks and other procedures. Appium mobile testing tool integrates elements that can be operated manually and automatically to test mobile apps.
Mobile test automation is of crucial importance to the process of creating complex apps in a limited time frame. It helps testers to perform regression tests and automate the data set up generation. Mobile test automation facilitates product installation and GUI interaction with specialized tools. Testers can concentrate on elaborating the software’s functions. This testing methodology helps minimize time spent on testing and checking the application code, which is prone to higher failure risks. Studies reveal that 82% of vulnerabilities are located in the application code. Mobile test automation helps to ensure that the software functions seamlessly.
There are multiple benefits to performing automation testing. You can schedule your test automation and execute the automated test at any time. You can also remotely perform the automated tests and prepare the test scripts to run at the designated hour from the desired location. Automation testing improves the speed of the test cycles. Testers can save time and use it to prepare enhanced test scripts. Automated test cases are reusable, and it is not necessary to rewrite the test cases every time. Mobile test automation is an excellent alternative to manual processes to save both time and effort. Automated test cases can be performed on different browsers, operating systems, or any other platform simultaneously.
Automation testing is ideal for regression testing. Regression testing involves re-running functional and non-functional tests to ensure the smooth functioning of the software’s existing functionality. Automating the regression tests enables the testers to test cases in the desired manner. To perform mobile test automation appropriately, here are five things you need to consider.
· Cost And Expected ROI
Deploying automated test cases is costly. Test automation becomes feasible only if the test cases are correctly executed. You need to plan the acquisition and implementation of mobile automation. Carefully determine the testing tools you want to automate and perform a cost-benefit analysis to assess each automated tool’s return on investment. Return on Investment (ROI) is a performance measure that helps evaluate the efficiency or profit of ab investment.
· Type Of Automation Desired
You need to decide what type of automation tools you should purchase primarily. An object-based tool could run a test in different screen resolutions. It typically invokes actions on the GUI components through the platform APIs. It is useful when the application GUI is not stable but requires a backend to be stable. Image-based testing tools typically automate at the level of an operating system. It provides a platform-independent test framework and demands the stability of the GUI. Cloud-based tools require zero infrastructure and give high flexibility. It allows the reuse of test cases for any test type, making the test efforts genuinely scalable. Cloud-based tools also provide the advantage of performing tests on real devices anywhere and anytime testing. You need to determine what will fit your company. You can even choose a customized, hybrid framework.
· Comprehensive Testing
Ensure that the mobile automation tool should work for both simulators and actual devices. A simulator is software that helps your computer run specific programs built for a different Operating System. A simulator is an excellent tool for rapid prototyping and development of your app that allows you to see the results of changes quickly, debug errors, and run tests. It is a useful tool to test basic app functionality and is deployed in the early development stages. Testing in the later stages should be performed on actual devices to optimize the user experience.
· Test Integrity
Automation tools should enable you to test all features comprehensively without compromising the devices’ stability, performance, and security. It should produce an easy test workflow. You should be able to use the test-scripts adequately for maximum utilization of resources. Automated test scripts should allow you to check the cross-browser compatibility of websites across different platforms.
· The adaptability of the Tools
Assess how easily the automation tool integrates with the existing test practices, frameworks, and tools available in your testing workspace. The automated tool should have the ability to function across platforms, browsers, and devices. An automated testing tool that can be incorporated easily into your existing infrastructure will ensure that you do not have to purchase the entire kit for setting up the automated testing space. Choose a suitable and futuristic mobile test automation tool that will adapt to new OS versions and future platforms. You also need to run a Proof of Concept (POC) to determine the tool’s adaptability before you set out to make a purchase.
To Conclude:
Manual testing of software is tedious. Creating multiple test cases for efficient test coverage is a time-consuming task. Mobile test automation performs repetitive test cases, which can reduce the time-to-market of the software. To select the right automation tool for mobile testing, you need to determine the type of automation, cost and expected ROI, adaptability of the tools, and its ability to test comprehensively.
