According to Statista, mobile apps are projected to generate more than 935 billion U.S. dollars in revenues by 2023. Especially when the entire world, right from business to grocery shopping, is turning to be a digital process, it becomes natural for enterprises to focus on generating more mobile applications. Besides, the potential of mobile applications that allows business enthusiasts to reach the target audience quickly and consistently is one of the biggest reasons for the success of mobile apps.
Nevertheless, the success of mobile applications entirely depends upon their functionality and ease of use. And to assure that, software testing solutions come to the role. Since finding defects or bugs is a repetitive, costly, and time-consuming process, most QA companies aim at automation testing to keep their test initiatives simplified.
In other words, mobile test automation is one of the essential parameters in the application testing domain that helps to ensure a successful launch. As applications are released across various versions and mobile device types, timely and rapid product testing allows development companies to take a reliable and effective product to the end-users.
Since mobile test automation is a crucial part of the entire QA and SDLC, we will be discussing in detail the few significant mobile test automation tips that can help improve the entire QA process. Besides, we will aim to highlight a brief definition of mobile test automation and the challenges associated with the process before we jump on best practices.
Let’s begin!
What is Mobile Test Automation?
Mobile testing automation is different from mobile app test automation, as the former is focused on testing both the hardware and software units of a mobile device. Basically, it is a process of performing automation testing on an application built for a mobile device.
Mobile Test Automation: Challenges
Mobile Test Automation is necessary to ensure the efficient working of mobile applications. But mobile test automation poses certain challenges for the enterprise, such as:
- Testing apps on different device models, OS, and networks time, effort, and money.
- Continuous OS upgrades, the launch of new mobile devices and release of new mobile features and functionalities,
- Time Consuming and Costly
To overcome the mobile test automation challenges, enterprises must focus on automating the maximum aspects of testing. Let us discuss the best practices to be followed.
Mobile Test Automation Best Practices
Following are the best practices for mobile app test automation to improve the efficiency of your testing process:
Collect And Work On User Feedback
Testers and developers must work on feedback provided by users to get better clarity about the product’s quality, performance, functionality, and user experience. Customer feedback helps developers and testers to improve performance and design issues associated with devices and applications.
Moreover, many times if there is an issue in the automated test scripts, they can also be improved by working on problems identified from the user’s point of view.
Test For Multiple Scenarios
As applications run on different mobile versions and models; therefore, they do not perform the same on all platforms. Hence, it is necessary to provide information related to mobile device versions, models, and OS platforms to the testers so that they can plan mobile test automation accordingly.
Select The Right Mobile Test Automation Tool
In order to perform mobile test automation services, you must select the right automated testing tool and framework. The tool that matches your overall requirements such as:
- Platforms and technologies supported.
- Whether a tool is versatile for the QA team?
- Compatibility of the tool with the business ecosystem, such as continuous integration and delivery pipeline.
- Is the tool feasible with the business software?
Create Reusable Mobile Test Automation Scripts
As new upgrades and features pop up in the market every then and now, make sure that the automation framework you choose must support it. Go for automation frameworks that make it easy to make changes in the test scripts. Also, testers must develop modular scripts that are less dependent on each other.
Testers must aim to create useful test scripts with well-structured test data. The high-quality test data are easy to track and can be reused. Thus, reducing the overall time to execute data-driven experiments.
Aim For A Faster Turnaround Time
Right tool selection can help to build and execute faster mobile test automation scripts. The faster you get the results, the more frequent tests can be conducted. That would lead to faster access to feedback and the overall efficiency of applications.
Do not try to automate everything as it ruins the mobile test automation efforts. Also, it leads to the creation of automated code that never breaks but changes often. Consequently, it increases the maintenance effort and makes execution slow.
Thorough Understanding Of App To Automate
Applications that undergo several updates require continuous work on test scripts. And in that case, automated test scripts work the best. In contrast, smoke tests and acceptance tests can be automated easily. Testers must identify workflows that are challenging for manual testing as automating the entire workflow can be costly.
Automate workflows that require less manual analysis. Thus, to determine that, there must be a thorough understanding of applications and how they work.
Continuous Integration And Reporting
Make sure to incorporate continuous integration and reporting to achieve positive outcomes. Tips for implementing it:
- Select the right tools for documentation and support
- Use Eclipse environment with programming language
- Check for network issues
- Write stateless test cases
Conclusion
If you need to take your mobile application to another level, the above-mentioned best practices can help to improve your mobile test automation game. Besides, careful investment in automation tools and practices not only would help to achieve high-efficiency apps but will also reduce manual efforts.
Though testers are working on the testing practice, while developers are working on creating the most reliable code that could aid business to launch successful products, mobile test automation ensures smooth functioning of both hardware as well as a software component of your device.
Thus, it becomes necessary to align with a reliable automation testing company that can understand your product requirement and could help you feed your business objectives.
Otherwise, automation implementation without proper guidance can lead to high expenses to the organization without bearing any fruit.
Author Bio: Kanika Vatsyayan is Vice-President Delivery and Operations at BugRaptors who oversees all the quality control and assurance strategies for client engagements. She loves to share her knowledge with others through blogging. Being a voracious blogger, she published countless informative blogs to educate audience about automation and manual testing.
