Testing Mobile Apps with a Single Automation Solution

Adventures in QA - Testing Mobile Apps

My summer vacation is over and I am back at writing :). In my last article, I compared test automation frameworks with pros and cons. Today’s article is focusing on the important topic of testing mobile apps. Especially with a focus on mobile test automation and how this can be done with a single automation solution.

Most organizations support both mobile platforms for their product, Android as well as iOS. Both platforms together have a world-wide market share of 98% and therefore it is essential to develop and release the own mobile product on both systems. Sure, there might be products, markets and services that are used more on one of the platforms, but for the majority of companies both platforms are critical for their business.

For those software testers working already in the field of mobile testing hopefully know that both platforms have similarities as well as differences. In both cases this knowledge is key to success, especially when you want focus on the field of mobile test automation. If you don’t know the key differences of the mobile platforms and apps, I recommend to take a look at my book Hands-On Mobile App Testing or at my mobile testing online course A Beginners Guide To Mobile Testing.

Why Mobile Test Automation is Important?

According to user surveys conducted by Arctouch and TechBeacon, more than 50% of mobile app users will uninstall an app after the first usage. One of the main reasons for the uninstallation is an app crash or freeze at the first launch. Furthermore, the surveys found out that mobile users have a much higher expectation to mobile apps than to any other software products. Up to 80% of mobile users will delete an app after the first usage if the design is bad, the app has a poor user experience or is not fast enough.

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Comparison of Test Automation Platforms

Test Automation Platforms - Adventures in QA

Test automation, being it web or mobile test automation should be part of every software development team. However, this is still not the case for most of the companies on the market. Whenever I talked to developers, testers or product managers e.g. on conferences the majority of people mention the lack of knowledge, infrastructure or time pressure are the biggest hurdles for them to start with automation. But starting with test automation can be much easier when using a test automation platform*. Test automation platforms usually offer e.g. the infrastructure, a list of supported test automation tools and a setup guide.

Test Automation Platforms

In this article, I want to briefly introduce you to test automation platforms with their pros and cons. For the comparison I picked the following platforms:

Depending on the own software development cycle, the used programming languages and toolchain a test automation platform must fulfill different requirements in order to be used most efficiently.

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Including User Feedback to Future Roadmap Planning

Roadmap Planning - Adventures in QA

Receiving user feedback for digital products can be very painful for companies and especially for the teams developing the product. With the rise of smartphones and mobile apps, mobile users having much higher expectations to the overall product quality and features. According to Google, more than 50% of the customers will leave a web product if the page doesn’t load within 3 seconds. Similar numbers have been revealed by techbeacon for mobile applications.

Leaving bad reviews and rating was never easier than before, as you can see on the image before. For most products, it’s just finger tap away to leave a bad review or feedback. However, companies and software development teams can turnaround the bad and negative feedback and use it to improve the product and to make the customers more happy.

Selecting User Feedback The Right Way

Companies have several ways to collect user feedback inside a product or service. Here is an overview of things that companies can do:

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Mobile Testing – Online Course

A Beginners Guide To Mobile Testing

In the beginning of 2019, I launched my mobile testing course in cooperation with Ministry of Testing. In case you haven’t heard about it, this short blog post will give you an idea what to expect from the course which is available on the Dojo from Ministry of Testing. The course name is: A Beginners … Read more

How to Decide on Mobile Bug Fixes

Mobile Bugs

Any software product being it a web, mobile or desktop application is under suspicion unless it proves that the features are working as expected. In short, software is never bug free. Depending on the software product, fixing bugs in production is not easy and in most cases it’s expensive. Let’s take a look on how … Read more