Step-By-Step Mobile Application Testing Process

Mobile Application usage has upsurged greatly in nearly all the business areas be it Publishers, Healthcare Providers, Pharmaceuticals, Retailers, Universities, Schools, and much more.

This ever-evolving use of mobile applications has led the businesses to focus on developing robust mobile applications and testing it before it is launched in the target market.

Creating a mobile application with all the features embedded into it is not enough, rigorous testing of it is required before introducing it in the market so that the delivered application works smoothly without any glitches. Thus mobile application testing process is crucial to the success of an application.

Steps Involved In Testing A Mobile Application?

Step 1- Planning and Preparation

When you are done with the development stage, you should identify what your app’s objectives are and what are the limitations. This step involves the following activities:

• Choose the target devices on which you are going to test the mobile application.

• Figure out the functional requirements.

• Check out the following requirements:

1. Does the application work together with other apps?
2. Do all the features exhibit proper functionality?
3. Check out whether the app is Native, Hybrid, or Mobile-web?
4. Whether the app requires front-end as well as back-end testing?
5. How is the app load controlled?
6. Does the application is affected by a change in the phone status.
7. Make sure your testing team is ready to execute the process.

Step 2- Classify Testing Types

In this step, we identify various types of testing to be conducted for a particular mobile application. This includes functional, usability, compatibility, performance, or security testing on the target devices. Also, determine what kind of functional requirements should be tested.

Target devices can be selected by:

Identifying what kind of devices are supported by the application or recognizing the most standard models for the target users. Also, choosing devices with different screen sizes.

Step 3- Preparation of Test Case and Script Design

In this, test cases are crafted for each and every function of the application. Along with preparing functional test cases, some other special cases should also be prepared which includes Battery usage, App speed, Data requirements, and Memory.

Also, you should figure out what combination of automation or manual testing you should execute. Make distinct sets for manual test cases and automated test scripts. Determine any reusable automation scripts and change them according to the requirements of the project. See - How to write test cases effectively and efficiently.

Step 4- Environment Setup for Testing

Download, install and configure the application on the testing device to set up the testing environment. Make sure the test version of the application is established before starting with the actual testing.

Step 5- Manual and Automation Testing

This step involves executing manual test cases and automated test scripts on various devices, emulators or simulators. Now these manual test cases and automated test scripts are run on the fundamental functionalities of the application to ensure that there are no glitches.

Record the faults detected in the defect management tool and follow the life cycle as planned in the project.

Step 6- Usability Testing or Beta Testing

Once the basic functions are tested in the application by the testing team, now the usability of the application should be tested so as to ensure that it offers good user experience.

So, introduce the beta version of the application in the market. This will let the beta testers to begin the usability testing to find any functional, usability, or content issues. Cross-platform matrix is maintained in this stage to make sure that beta testers are able to achieve platform coverage.

Step 7- Performance Testing

Usually, mobile applications have relatively less device memory and power so it is essential that applications must handle themselves proficiently. Thus the app performance can be tested by altering the network from 2G, 3G to WIFI.

Thus, the responsiveness, scalability, and stability are tested in performance testing of an application.

Step 8- Security and Compliance Testing

In this phase, the application is tested to ensure that it is secure and protected and does not do any data leaks. This is done by authenticating SQL injection, data dumps, session hijacking, or packet sniffing.

Step 9- Device Testing

During this phase, all the test cases and test scripts are executed in different devices identified through the cloud. The main objective of this step is to achieve good test coverage pertaining to different devices, operating systems or versions of OS.

Step 10- Test Summary Report

The test summary report includes the following information:

• Chief information revealed by the tests conducted
• Quality of testing efforts and mobile application
• Information revealed from incident reports
• Types of testing done and time consumed in each one of them

The report should also define whether the application is suitable for use and meets all the expectations of the end user.

Conclusion:

By implementing all the above steps, the management will decide whether to release the app in the market or not. Although testing requires rigorous efforts, executing the testing steps for each app developed will definitely deliver a fully functional and efficient app in the market.