subject: Guiding Principle For Mobile Application Testing [print this page] More and more people are relying on their Smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices for their daily activities. These include booking airline tickets, locating a certain business, and even shopping. Mobile applications are made by the likes of Windows Phone Developers, iPhone App Developers, Android App Developers, iPad App Developers, and BlackBerry Developers. Just as important as good mobile application development is mobile application testing such as iPhone app testing. So, what are the guiding principles of this?
The demographic has to be chosen carefully when testing. Taking the example of iPhone app testing, you should note that male owners are 52% of all owners and female owners 48%. By age, persons aged between 13 and 17 take up 6.5% of all owners, persons aged between 18 and 24 take up 19.9%, and persons aged between 25 and 34 take up 26.4%. Persons aged between 35 and 44 take up 18.7%, persons aged between 45 and 54 take up 14.8%, persons aged between 55 and 64 take up 7.7%, and persons aged 65+ take up 6%.
The ACtP3 framework commonly used for the testing has 5 phases. These phases have to be followed for the mobile application to achieve secure, scalable, robust, and responsive solutions on different mobile platforms. The steps are analysis, crash-free testing, planned testing, peer testing, and production testing.
The actual mobile application testing is multi-faceted. Functional testing involves testing to make sure that the app works according to its requirements. This testing is driven by such things as call flows and user interface. Laboratory testing is carried out by network carriers. It involves the simulation of wireless network to determine if there are glitches when data and/or voice connections are being used. Performance testing is done to determine the behavior and performance of the app under certain conditions (such as bad network coverage, low battery, and low available memory). This is done on the clients side and on the servers side. Others are memory leakage testing, interrupt testing (which tests functionality under such interruptions as battery removal, incoming notifications, and incoming/outgoing calls and SMS/MMS), usability testing, and installation testing.
Different challenges have to be overcome while testing such solutions as mobile healthcare solutions. These include diversity in mobile OS/platforms, diversity in mobile network operators (they use CDMA, GSM, FOMA, and TD-SCDMA), and scripting (devices vary in input methods, keystrokes, display properties, and menu structures).
Go for a mobile application testing company that doubles up as a mobile app development company. This will give you unparalleled convenience and it will save you money. The best company is one that has many clients, particularly clients in your industry. Go for a company with awards from the likes of Deloitte. The team should have several years of experience. The company should be transparent in the testing and it should have the tools and infrastructure necessary for this. A good mobile application testing company is one whose processes and quality are ISO 9001:2008 Certified by Bureau Veritas and UKAS. Go for a company that tests applications in different devices if you have different applications (iPhone app, BlackBerry App, Android apps, and Windows Phone applications).
