It’s no secret that in today’s world, all businesses are launching their mobile app and website; with the growth of the internet and mobile users, mobile app users will increase.
But people are very demanding, and they might download your app by seeing an ad on Instagram or YouTube and might try that app, but if the app is not functioning correctly, does not have great UI, and UX is not appropriately optimized and taking a lot of ram of their Mobile they might end up uninstalling it.
So websites and mobile testings are more important than ever before as today, people have lots of alternative choices; if you have an optimized app, you can sustain yourself in the market.
You need mobile testing for best-in-class optimization, fast and regular updates, and many more reasons. And so, mobile testing is way more crucial than ever before today.
Many firms have opted for mobile testing, but they are losing a vital aspect using which you can quickly get ahead in the market and beat all your competitors.
And that’s the reason why mobile automation testing is needed and is really very important.
Read this article, which tells you why you need to implement mobile testing automation right now.
Mobile Automation Testing: What it is, Why it is needed, & How to Implement Effectively
Let’s know everything about mobile test automation here:
What is Mobile Automation Testing?
Mobile automation testing refers to testing mobile apps using mobile automation testing tools. In addition, businesses can ensure that their mobile app is bug-free before releasing it to the market by utilizing mobile app automation testing.
The whole process, was done manually earlier and required hiring a specialized tester or sometimes a team, but now it can be performed automatically. This saves your time and resources and increases your profit as a whole.
Software testing is one of the vital processes involved in mobile application development. We adequately test the mobile app for how much time it takes to load (a.k.a load testing), user experience, functionality, usability, accessibility, security, and performance across browsers, operating systems, and various mobile devices.
11 Reasons Why Mobile Automation Testing is needed?
1. To Reduce In-House Device Lab Costs
With your app getting popular, more and more people will download it. Its popularity and market share will increase as organizations prefer to purchase their own mobile devices, which raises the costs of in-house device labs.
So even though it is a good investment, it is marked in bold on the expense sheet.
In-house device lab costs mean, we now need more professionals to maintain the grid, which costs money!
Failure to add professionals to our team will increase overall testing time and cause the delivery to be delayed. However, continuing the same trend may question the testing methodology and practices.
The device lab cost is significant for high costs when working on mobile testing. However, the increased device lab costs would not be a one-time occurrence if the tasks continued to grow as there are more and more updates in-app and OS.
When used correctly, the time saved by automated app testing can help reduce the development project’s overall cost. However, the actual cost savings come from thorough testing, which reduces the number of bugs discovered post-deployment.
Unfortunately, launching an app with flaws is risky due to the possibility of app uninstalls, poor user reviews, a negative perception of your brand, and the post-launch cost to fix the code.
Furthermore, when an app or system requires an update or new feature, the previous test cases are the foundation for ongoing regression testing. When compared to starting from scratch, this results in significant cost savings.
The ability to schedule tests is one of the most significant benefits of using automation testing tools.
For example, testers can use automated scripts to trigger end-to-end testing with nightly builds. The test cases will then run overnight, and an email report will be sent with the results.
All with TestGrid, you get the maximum amount of test cases, and you get cloud access and a lot more other features that enhance your ROI more than any other mobile automation tool in the market.
That’s why mobile automation testing is needed. As for the company, profit is everything, and with mobile automation testing, profits are going up.
2. Increased Test Coverage
Automated software testing can help improve software quality by increasing the depth and scope of tests.
Longer tests, which are frequently avoided during manual testing, can be run unattended. They can even run on multiple computers with varying configurations.
For example, automated software testing can inspect memory contents, data tables, file contents, and internal program states to determine if a product is behaving as expected.
In addition, test automation can efficiently execute thousands of different complex test cases during each test run, providing coverage that manual tests cannot provide. It is why mobile testing automation is important to increase test coverage.
3. Automated Testing Helps Developers and Testers
Developers can use shared automated tests to catch problems quickly before sending them to QA.
When source code changes are checked in, tests can run automatically and notify the team or the developer if they fail. These kinds of features save developers time and boost their confidence.
4. Machines are Not Human, so there is No Tiredness
Machines are never tired. Automated tests can run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And you don’t have to be present to supervise; your automated testing will be hard at work regardless of where you are or what you’re doing.
So you can set a time for the tests to begin and have the results emailed to you after they are completed. The non-stop demand for automation testing also increases the need of mobile automation testing.
5. Enhance Accuracy and Reliability
Accuracy and reliability are the two most reasons why mobile automation testing is important. Test automation is far more reliable and accurate when running the boring, repetitive tests required and cannot be skipped without jeopardizing product quality.
Automation also ensures consistency by repeating the same steps precisely and never failing to record detailed results.
6. High Speed of Execution to Fix a Bug
The overall need of mobile automation testing is a shorter development life cycle. Whether your company is launching an app for the first time or performing routine updates, you want it to be deployed, and functional as soon as possible; minimizing app downtime is critical.
When combined with the Agile development process, automated testing aids in the delivery of rapid app development that yields excellent results and a high ROI.
7. Automation Testing Overcomes Manual Testing
Even the most powerful software and QA departments cannot run a controlled mobile application test with thousands of users.
Automated testing can simulate the interactions of tens, hundreds, or thousands of virtual users with a network, software, and web applications.
Reduce the need for repetitive tests for different versions of the Application.
To ensure quality, software tests must be repeated frequently during development cycles. Therefore, software tests should be run every time the source code is modified.
Each software release may be tested on all supported operating systems and hardware configurations.
Manually repeating these tests is both expensive and time-consuming which creates a need of mobile automation testing. Once created, automated tests can be run indefinitely at no extra cost, and they are much faster than manual tests.
Using automated software testing, the time it takes to run repetitive tests can be reduced from days to hours, a time saving that directly translates into cost savings; that’s why you need to implement mobile automation testing right now.
8. Stagnant Business Expansion
The testing process for most testing projects takes around half of the scheduled time, and the same is the case for mobile testing projects. However, in some cases, time can be increased up to 75%. That is a significant amount of time.
Although one may argue that they are capable of completing the project by the deadline, where things go wrong for your business
When you work in the software industry, the market changes daily. The product must be updated regularly to keep up with these changes and stay ahead of them. However, if all of your time is spent on project testing, you won’t have time to understand the market or devise new strategies.
With automated mobile testing, we can complete repetitive mobile testing tasks in a very short time, allowing us to complete the testing phase quickly. This time can then be spent on other projects or researching the next stage of our company.
All this helps the business to expand faster, and that’s why mobile automation testing is needed.
9. Boosting the Morale of the Development and Quality Assurance Teams
Using automation tools relieves employees of time-consuming and repetitive testing tasks, allowing them to focus on more rewarding projects and other challenging tasks.
10. Reducing the Testing Time and Cost
Reduced time and cost give a solid reason why mobile automation testing is needed. Today’s software companies face time constraints and must meet tight deadlines to develop and release apps, updates, and new features.
On the other hand, maintaining quality necessitates testing the apps and addressing any issues before releasing them.
Manual tests are typically time-consuming and may not be appropriate in such circumstances. As a result, automation facilitates and accelerates work, allowing businesses to meet tight deadlines while maintaining quality.
The automated tools allow teams to test the app quickly at various stages of the development cycle. This allows QA teams to identify problems faster and fix them in a timely manner, reducing time to market.
In general, automated testing reduces person-hours, resulting in saving development costs.
Furthermore, the teams spend less time looking for problems and more time developing better apps and user experiences.
Better testing, low cost, and time are the most important reasons why mobile automation testing is needed.
11. Better Access to Reports
The reports are documented and combined for analysis by test automation. In addition, stakeholders gain better access to detailed information, which aids in reviewing the app’s current status.
As a result, it is easier for them to identify and fix bugs and bottlenecks in the apps. Using an automation tool, testers can gain real-time access to updates. In addition, it converts raw data into visuals that testers can use.
Why should Businesses Leverage Mobile Test Automation?
Because of the rapidly growing number of mobile device users, businesses of all sizes have begun to seek growth through technology.
Typically, it includes software designed to support business operations or websites and applications that can handle customer service.
Because usability is the primary concern of business executives when presenting a feature-rich product to users, advanced mobile test automation services are required to drive the desired business goals.
Businesses should leverage mobile testing automation to achieve the below characteristics:
1. App Functionality
Automated testing of a mobile app may enable you to provide more dynamic functionality and features to end-users. Functionality testing aids the entire design document, improving the system’s overall efficiency, especially when you need to aim at a large set of specifications.
This is one of the most crucial aspects of the app, and that’s why mobile automation testing is needed so that developers can enhance the functionality of the application.
2. App Performance
When it comes to the digital environment, the performance of a given system is an essential factor to consider.
For example, mobile test automation can help you streamline all of the features, functionalities, and system specifications to produce performance benchmarks that can keep up with or even outperform the competition.
3. App Security
Whether it is software designed to support internal operations or an application designed to meet the needs of random users, automated security testing can ensure data integrity on all information stored within the system.
Furthermore, security testing can assist in removing tainted inputs and ensuring more streamlined activity logs.
The world is full of cyber-attacks, so making your app secure for the user is critical, and that’s why mobile automation testing is needed, which helps you take your application’s security to the next level.
4. App Usability
App usability is one of the essential factors in determining a company’s success. For example, test automation services could assist you in meeting accessibility goals by providing all of the convenience users require to work on intended tasks.
Furthermore, the test automation created to work on usability testing services assists you in achieving a higher level of satisfaction when aiming for a digital solution that provides a pleasing user experience to end-users.
5. App Accessibility
We mean creating a product that allows users of all ages easy access to platforms when we say digital.
Because some rules and regulations must be followed when using any digital product, accessibility testing services can assist you in implementing standardization. Furthermore, it can assist you in targeting a broader range of audiences, including specially-abled people.
6. Cross-System Compatibility
Mobile test automation has all of the potential needed to accelerate digital initiatives within a company.
For example, mobile test automation services could make your product deployment-ready by working on everything that affects accessibility, from different devices to operating systems.
Overall, incorporating mobile test automation into your existing digital model at the right time can help you raise your technological expectations for a product.
Furthermore, it assists you in achieving better test efficiency, coverage, and time to market with effectiveness on all deliveries. Finally, the approach enables you to cater to any high-performance requirements required to produce flawless results.
Steps to Follow to Achieve an Effective Test Automation of Mobile Apps
Step #01: Effective Planning and Testing Type Identification
We should select the target device for testing our Application ahead of time. Before testing the Application, we should determine whether it is for native, hybrid, or mobile web and the front-end and back-end testing plans.
This process can make use of various types of mobile app testing. Finally, we must decide which approach to take ahead of time.
Step #02: Develop Effective Test Cases and Test Scripts
It is critical to create practical test cases for each application function. For example, certain functions, such as payment gateways, product searches, and queries require thorough testing to ensure safety and performance.
Automated test scripts must be created in this process, and reusable automation scripts can be modified to meet the project’s needs.
Step #03: Make a Plan for the Test Environment’s Setup
It is critical to download, install, and configure the Application that will be used to test your app and set up the test environment.
However, before beginning the actual testing process, it is also critical to ensure that the test version of the app is established.
Step #04: Conduct Automated Testing
Various automation testing tools such as Appium, Selendroid, and others can be used to perform mobile test automation.
For example, we can use them based on the applications that are being tested (Android or iOS). This is done to ensure that an application’s basic functionality is not compromised.
Step #05: Carry Out Usability and Performance Testing
After the critical functions have been tested, usability testing should be performed to ensure a good user experience.
For example, when multiple users login simultaneously, performance testing with mobile performance testing tools should be performed to ensure the app delivers flawless performance.
Step #06: Carry Out Accessibility Testing
The accessibility test is designed not only for regular users but also for people with various types of disabilities.
Accessibility testing ensures that an application can be used by people with various disabilities, such as visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, language, learning, and neurological disabilities.
Step #07: Run App Testing Across Devices and Operating Systems
This is a critical step because all test scripts should be run on different devices and operating systems to ensure that the app works well with different devices and operating systems.
Top 6 Tools You Need to Automate Mobile Testing:
#01 Appium
Appium is a well-known open-source test automation framework compatible with both native and hybrid mobile apps. Appium uses the Selenium WebDriver protocol to drive iOS, Android, and Windows apps.
Appium supports all programming languages with Selenium client libraries, such as Java, C#, JavaScript with node.js, PHP, Ruby, Python, etc.
Benefits
- Multiple languages are supported.
- It is not necessary to have access to the source code.
- Can develop cross-platform scripts and has more extensive internet support
- Apps based on Android and iOS are supported.
#02 Robotium
Robotium is an open-source mobile test automation framework that works with both native and hybrid apps. It is also a free and open-source tool on our list.
It aids in the creation of simple, robust automation test scripts for Android applications. Automation testers can use Robotium to create a functional system and user acceptance test cases.
Benefits
- This tool allows for the automation of pre-installed apps.
- Due to run-time binding with GUI components, test automation is faster than with Appium.
- Only Android apps are supported.
#03 TestComplete Mobile
TestComplete automates UI actions on real devices or emulators using script-free record and replay. It can also generate automated scripts in any supported languages, including Python, VBScript, Jscript, and JavaScript.
Benefits
- This tool allows you to record and playback tests.
- It is user-friendly due to built-in integrations with source control systems.
- Apps based on Android and iOS are supported.
#04 Calabash
The Xamarin team created and maintained Calabash, an open-source testing framework compatible with Android and iOS apps.
Calabash can interact with mobile apps and be used with Cucumber (which enables you to write test cases that anyone can easily understand regardless of their technical knowledge) to write in Ruby.
Benefits
- All screen actions are supported, such as swipe, pinch, rotate, and tap.
- Support for cross-platform development (same code does work for Android as well as iOS devices)
- Apps based on Android and iOS are supported.
#05 UFT Mobile
UFT Mobile offers comprehensive support for mobile app testing. This tool can generate mobile automation test scripts thanks to UFT mobile support. The test script created for iOS can also be used for Android.
Benefits
- Excellent user interface
- Convenience is provided by the ability to record and playback.
- This automation tool can test desktop applications, web applications, and mobile applications.
- Apps based on Android and iOS are supported
#06 SeeTest
SeeTest is one of the industry’s leading app testing automation tools, supporting iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry applications. It includes client libraries for Java, C#, Perl, and Python, which can be used to create automation scripts in these programming languages.
Benefits
- The same script can be used across multiple operating systems with minor changes.
- Image and object recognition are supported.
- Its reporting mechanism includes screenshots and video recordings of the run tests.
- Apps based on Windows, Android, and iOS are supported.
Conclusion
Now when you know why mobile automation testing is needed, you need to understand one thing, which is that mobile apps continue to be the primary means of enabling business for all businesses today. There are millions of mobile apps available in the market.
Still, only those that load quickly, provide a great user experience, perform flawlessly under varying loads, and have security features that survive the competition.
Source: This article was originally published at testgrid.io.
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