{"id":47872,"date":"2017-04-24T13:14:04","date_gmt":"2017-04-24T07:44:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/?p=47872"},"modified":"2017-04-25T11:55:37","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T06:25:37","slug":"mobile-application-testing-8-key-challenges-and-considerations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/mobile-application-testing-8-key-challenges-and-considerations\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile Application Testing &#8211; 8 Key Challenges and Considerations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mobile phones have become smarter than they were a decade back. They are your personal assistants enabling you to quickly perform a variety of activities from the comfort of your home or office. With multiple mobile products being launched frequently, right from booking a movie ticket to transferring the money from your bank account, things are a lot easier now than they were a few years back.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Companies want to ride the mobile bandwagon quickly as smartphone penetration is rising and impacting multiple sectors at once. According to a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/fact-tank\/2017\/01\/12\/evolution-of-technology\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">research by PEW<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, roughly three-quarters of Americans (77%) now own a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.pewinternet.org\/fact-sheets\/mobile\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">smartphone<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Here\u2019s more food for thought:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><strong><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-47879 size-full\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/mobile-1.png\" alt=\"mobile 1\" width=\"909\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"\/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/mobile-1.png 909w, \/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/mobile-1-300x132.png 300w, \/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/mobile-1-624x274.png 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 909px) 100vw, 909px\" \/><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/strong><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Clearly, the adoption of smart devices is increasing and adding new revenue streams for the global players. However, developing well-tested and bug-free mobile products is challenging because of the diversity involved in testing. While some companies are outsourcing their testing requirements to other companies specialized in <\/span><a title=\"mobile testing services\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/testing\/automated-mobile-application-testing\">mobility testing services<\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, some others prefer testing products in-house.<\/span><strong><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><b>Outlined below are some of the most complex mobile application testing challenges:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>1. Screen sizes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: With an advancement in technology, plethora of new devices are launched in the market &#8211; all varying in their screen sizes. It is extremely challenging to consider multiple screen sizes and test the product across different sizes.For example, iPhone 6 is 4.7 inches in size whereas the iPhone 6 Plus includes a 5.5-inch.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>2. Display: <\/b>N<span style=\"font-weight: 400\">owadays mobile phones are coming with colored displays however there are devices that have a white display and they are needed to be considered as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>3. Operation system:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> There are numerous operating systems such as iOS, Android, Windows, Blackberry OS, Symbian, Maemo, MeeGo, and Bada. With multiple operating systems and various versions of each OS, it becomes difficult for testers to test the application and rule out bugs. Remember, it could work fine on one version but might not work uniformly on some other version of the same OS.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>4. Device Memory: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">With new devices getting launched at a rapid pace, the problem of device memory is resolving eventually. However, not all devices have larger memory slots and a low device memory can surely impact the app\u2019s performance. While <a title=\"software product engineering\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/product-engineering\">engineering products<\/a>, do not fret out on using memory when needed thinking about user experience, but at the same time ensure that you don&#8217;t load a whole lot more than what you actually require.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>5. Network Challenges and Response Time<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: \u00a0In order to work accurately, most mobile applications require excellent network connectivity. While <a title=\"mobile automation testing services\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/testing\/automated-mobile-application-testing\">testing mobile applications<\/a>, it is, therefore, imperative to test network impact on application response time. However, most development teams do not have an access to multiple networks for testing application\u2019s response time. Moreover, there are nearly 400 mobile network operators present globally using different network infrastructure and this limits the flow of information. When a customer is traveling, he moves from one network coverage to other leading to a drop or change in the connectivity. This factor will have a direct impact on mobile application\u2019s performance and behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>6. Complexity in application\u2019s architecture &#8211; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Applications are built using a variety of frameworks and architectures. The behavior of a native application might vary against a <a title=\"Hybrid Mobile App Development\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/mobile-hybrid-application-development\">hybrid application<\/a>. Test planning and coverage of different applications require a different thought process. This is quite challenging for most testing teams as they need to consider various questions such as:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What are the risks if the foundational parts of the architecture go wrong?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What are your key assumptions, and how will you test them?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How would the bugs resolve? Would there be a need to refactor the design?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>7. Regression<\/strong><b> Testing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Applications keep on enhancing with new features and functionalities. They also change on account of patches, configuration changes and so on. Testers find it difficult to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/regression-testing-a-sign-off-before-product-release\/\">practice regression testing<\/a> and verify the previously tested application after the enhancements in the application. Some companies have started using automation testing tools to run test scripts after every build, but still, most developers who are not equipped with automation find it challenging to go through various releases and detect bugs.<\/span><strong><strong><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>8.<\/strong> <strong>Test<\/strong><b> Coverage<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">: Test coverage is typically measured by mapping the requirements to the test cases, the status of the test case, and code coverage analysis. However, test coverage only covers the code which is written so far and it does not factor in the upcoming releases or planned builds. That said; one of the challenges that most teams face is of inadequate test coverage. This is mainly because either there are very few test cases written for each user story or there is an unexpected change in the code. At times, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/testing\/automated-independent-manual-testing\">testing team<\/a> and development team doesn&#8217;t work parallelly which further delays the testing of one particular feature after it is pushed to QA team.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-47881 size-full\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/mobile-2.png\" alt=\"mobile 2\" width=\"684\" height=\"409\" srcset=\"\/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/mobile-2.png 684w, \/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/mobile-2-300x179.png 300w, \/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/mobile-2-624x373.png 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 684px) 100vw, 684px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Customers have been evolving digitally and most of them consume information on-the-move. It is, therefore, mission critical to provide a <a title=\"experience design\" href=\"http:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/experience-design\">break free mobile experience<\/a> and develop mobile products that are error-free. However, on the other side, QA teams are struggling to mitigate the challenges involved in testing mobile applications. Penetration of new devices, multiple networks, operating systems, resolutions, and browsers are all adding fuel to the fire. It is now critical for testing teams to resort to a right automation testing tool and enhance the performance of applications as well as improve time to market.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Mobile Application Testing \u2013 8 Key Challenges and Considerations\" href=\"http:\/\/insights.tothenew.com\/mobile-automation-testing?_ga=1.191093996.771313427.1490074675\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-48014 size-full\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TTN_CTA_MOBILE_TESTING_BANNER1.png\" alt=\"TTN_CTA_MOBILE_TESTING_SERVICES_BANNER\" width=\"761\" height=\"245\" srcset=\"\/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TTN_CTA_MOBILE_TESTING_BANNER1.png 761w, \/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TTN_CTA_MOBILE_TESTING_BANNER1-300x96.png 300w, \/blog\/wp-ttn-blog\/uploads\/2017\/04\/TTN_CTA_MOBILE_TESTING_BANNER1-624x200.png 624w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 761px) 100vw, 761px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mobile phones have become smarter than they were a decade back. They are your personal assistants enabling you to quickly perform a variety of activities from the comfort of your home or office. With multiple mobile products being launched frequently, right from booking a movie ticket to transferring the money from your bank account, things [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5},"categories":[1818,1772,1,1816],"tags":[2943,1561,1976,4544,4012],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47872"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47872\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tothenew.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}