Crowd-Sourcing Integrated With Mobile Application Testing: Yes Or No?
Crowdsourced testing is known to be a solid testing platform that provides diversified usage of mobile applications across various devices and environments with real-world scenarios being implemented. In comparison to the conventional methods of Mobile Application Testing, crowdsourcing testing methods are on the rise since the number of mobile apps being published every day is growing rapidly.
A Crowd-sourced testing method involves a community of testers appointed on the job for testing a specific mobile application testing project or tasks rather than a single tester or dedicated in-built organizational testing teams. Online cloud crowd-sourcing platforms are being used for the collaborating testers community across the globe. An example of such an online platform is CrowdSprint which allows vendors to hire a team of testers and carry out the required testing tasks or assignments under the complete supervision of test management teams.
Advantages of Crowd-Sourced Mobile Application Testing
1. This testing technique is known to be a user-centric procedure as it involves a diversified team of testers with realistic conditions and visions for various real-world test scenarios to be performed.
2. A cost-effective means for enterprises to execute testing cycles for mobile application projects based on environment, infrastructure requirements, and budgets. Since the hired testers use their own devices with pre-configured infrastructure and network connectivities, the cost of dedicated infrastructures for every mobile application project reduces drastically for businesses.
3. Budget-Friendly and Easy on Pocket Solutions as the payments are to be released only for the test cases where the outputs are generated rather than relying on a fixed pay structure.
4. It provides scalability flexibility and yields better results. Based on the testing project’s requirements and timeline schedules, the number of testers being appointed for work can be increased easily and quickly as compared to a full-time tester. Also, the number of hands testing the application much better and quicker would be the outcomes.
5. Helps in achieving continuous feedback cycles and faster results. Since at a single time, diversified testers are appointed and working different testing scenarios for the same application, the completion time of the entire testing cycle would be much less in comparison to the conventional methods. Also, the testers working across different locations and environments would be engaging and keep the team updated with successful continuous testing feedback sets which makes the work more efficient and quick.
6. Encourage teams to have neutral opinions and unbiased decision-making. As the testers are appointed across the globe and not attached to any individual or a specific team, chances of influencing the feedback and outputs are reduced making it very easy and ethical to have unbiased opinions and optimal decision-making terms.
7. Helps in gaining maximum coverage of the testing scenarios. Since there are multiple people (freelance testers) involved in testing the mobile application, the percentage of test scenarios being covered would be very high which ultimately results in the maximum coverage possible.
Types of Workforce Involved in a Crowd-Sourced Mobile Application Testing
3 types of teams/individuals make up this crowdsourcing testing procedure a success. These are:
1. Crowd-Sourced Mobile Testers
These are the individuals who work as freelance testers for the assigned testing projects or tasks using their own devices with pre-built required infrastructure and network connectivities.
2. Crowd-Sourced Testing Community Vendors
They are the online service providers who offer online testing communities based on the provided infrastructure and testing projects to the project managers/owners.
3. Crowd-Sourced Test Customers
These are the project owners or stakeholders who hire the freelance testers for the needed testing projects for completion and accordingly pay them the payments and incentives as per the work done.
Few More Reasons Why to Choose Crowdsourcing Mobile Testing Over Convention Testing Techniques
- With the growing number of mobile devices day by day integrated with varied environments and platforms, it becomes very difficult to manage and heavy on pockets to generate real-world testing scenarios. This is where crowdsourced mobile application testing strategies come to the rescue.
- Today every mobile device comes with a GPS that offers location-based services. To have deeper and clearer insights into the test cases for such environments, it is necessary to have testing performed across the globe from various geographical locations.
Mobile App Crowd-Sourced Testing Methodology
Here are some mobile app crowd-sourced testing methodology:
1. Publishing Testing Requirements and Project Details
The crowd-sourced test customers publish the testing criteria and requirements on the online crowdsourcing platforms defining every critical and possible required aspect of the associated testing project based on which the testers would be hired.
2. Applying for the Posted Jobs
Crowd-sourced testers are now required to apply for published testing projects and tasks.
3. Profile Shortlisting
From the applications received, the project manager/owner is then required to pick the appropriate candidates based on the defined testing criteria, testers’ profiles, and testing projects’ requirements.
4. Execution of the Test Cases and Output Generation
Hired testers communities are now made to test the assigned projects or mobile applications for various test cases using real wireless networking environments.
5. Submission of the Test Outcomes and Reports
Final submission of the executed test reports and defect reports are made available to the project manager/owner by the crowd-sourced testers.
6. Acknowledgement of the Results Submitted
This is the evaluation step where the project managers sit down and analyze the test reports and outcomes.
7. Releasing Payments
Based on the above step, crowd-sourced testers are paid as per the job done using billing service modules integrated inside the crowdsourcing platforms being used for this entire methodology.
Conclusion
For smaller organizations where the dedicated testing teams are not present or the resources are on a cut, it is a very convenient and smart alternative to go for crowd-sourced mobile application testing as it does not demand any infrastructures or network connections to be installed within the business premises. With growing mobile technologies and a great number of mobile applications getting deployed every day, this technique is growing as a rage in the software testing industry. It helps businesses to build and deliver feasible and efficient solutions to the market in the smarter and quicker ways possible.
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