Stages of Mobile App Testing: Know When the App Is Ready

The extensive use of mobile devices has made them a door to the digital world. Mobile devices have become people’s virtual friends. We have witnessed a rise in the use of mobile devices and applications. People refer to their mobile devices for performing their tasks quickly. So, mobile app developers are quick to pick on this trend and pay special attention to the different stages of mobile app testing to give a glitch-free experience. Almost all businesses keep this in mind, whether it is E-Commerce, manufacturers, healthcare providers, or universities, all have started to deliver mobile solutions to their customers. Nowadays, businesses are more focused on developing robust and reliable apps.

Why Mobile App Testing?

QA plays a significant role in mobile application development. Sending an app to the user with all the features installed isn't enough. Different stages of Mobile app testing should be performed before releasing your app onto the market for the end-user to use. Testing will guarantee that the app runs smoothly on all sorts of devices without any possible glitches. Consequently, regressing mobile application testing is the most crucial step you should take to increase the number of downloads of your app in the App Store.

Stages of Mobile App Testing Process

It is essential to know the step-by-step procedure for testing application software developed for mobile devices. While developing an ideal mobile app testing process, you will be able to find errors, breaks, and bugs present in a mobile application. It is always confusing for people to know where to start the testing process.

Below are the six stages of mobile app testing:

Step 1: Requirement Analysis

The first step in the mobile app testing services is requirement analysis. During this phase, you will know what the requirements of your client are. The requirements could be functional and non-functional. For example, in the case of a banking application, the functional requirement will be that when a customer selects view balance, they should be able to see their latest account balance on the screen. A functional requirement of a banking application will be that every page of the system should load and be visible to the user within 5 seconds.

In this step, you should be able to answer the following questions as well:

1. Is there any interaction between the app and other apps?
2. What are the features that make it functional?
3. What kind of mobile app is it? (Native, Hybrid, or Web)
4. What are the testing boundaries?
5. Is the testing confined to the front end or does it also cover the back end?
6. What amount of storage or data does the app require?
7. Is the app able to connect to numerous networks?
8. Is the mobile app able to handle the load?

Before moving on, make sure you've answered all of these questions. Prepare a requirement analysis document and distribute it to your team.

Step 2: Test Strategy and Plan

Planning is the key to success. During this phase, you need to have proper communication with all your team members. Discuss their roles and assign them tasks. Planning the process is dependent on the client's requirements analysis. You should make sure that your team is ready for mobile app testing strategies. Crafting a test strategy and preparing a test plan document to explain the importance of the test plan to your fellow teammates. A test plan document is a document that describes the scope of testing, test strategy, objectives, efforts, schedules, and resources required. The test plan document could also be understood as a guiding document for the whole testing process. You should ensure that your test plan document contains the following:

1. The tests' scope (both in-scope and out-of-scope)
2. Test objectives that are specified
3. Which testing levels should you concentrate on?
4. Test schedules are used to keep track of the testing process.
5. While testing a mobile application, there are risks and mitigation measures to consider.
6. Criteria for Entry and Exit
7. Test metrics are used to quantify the testing effort.
8. Defect Tools for logging and reporting bugs will be utilized.
9. Responsibilities and roles
10. Examine the requirements of the environment
11. Deliverables, Test Artifacts, and so on.

Step 3: Identifying Test Types

Identifying testing types that you will need for testing the mobile app. You need to perform testing of mobile apps to ensure functionality, usability, compatibility, performance, and security based on the requirements of the client.

Step 4: Test Design

Depending on the requirements document, use case document, business rules, developing appropriate test cases, and preparing a test case document for all features and functionalities of the app. It is majorly dependent upon the client’s requirement to add special cases to the test case document. Some special cases include:

1. Battery usage
2. Speed of the app
3. Internet data requirements
4. Memory status

Step 5: Test Execution: Manual and Automation Testing

Creating test suites for manual test execution and test scripts for automation. Test execution could be performed through any one of the following options:

1. Real devices
2. Emulators or simulators
3. Cloud platform

A test suite should include the following:

1. Detailed instructions for each set of test cases.
2. information related to system configuration to be used during testing.

Testing apps on real devices is considered to be the most reliable approach that provides the most accurate results. Testing on a real device will give you an inside look into the actual performance of the application. You will also be able to use emulators or simulators based on the client’s requirements.

Step 6: Bug Reporting

The entire process of mobile app testing services should be recorded and double-checked before you craft the final report. Testers should submit the ideal bug report, including all the information that helps a developer to be able to reproduce the bug and then finally close the bug. The bug report should include the following:

1. Test results reveal information
2. Effort quantity and quality
3. types and degrees of testing carried out
4. The time it takes to finish tests
5. Reports on the incidence and the statistics were obtained from them.
6. The overall quality of the mobile app
7. Include essential details about whether the mobile application is suitable for usage and if it fulfills the acceptance requirements.

Use bug tracking and reporting systems such as Bugzilla, Jira, Mantis, Phabricator, and others to submit accurate and thorough bug reports.

Conclusion

Stages of mobile app testing may be perplexing and time-consuming. However, comprehensive testing at each level of the mobile app development cycle helps ensure that your app is completely functioning. It is usually recommended that you create a mobile app testing procedure and follow all of the stages without fail before you begin testing.

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