Mobile App Testing for Beginners
As a Quality Assurance (QA), what kind of testing that I need to perform for a mobile application?
That is a common question that most QA will ask when they get their first-time task to test a mobile application. Without asking further questions, sometimes we test the mobile application by checking all the functionality or maybe the performance. There is nothing wrong with that at this point. But, for getting a better result, we need to conduct more detailed testing. Here we will give a simple note about the basic testing of a mobile app.
Mobile Application
Before going deeper on that topic, let’s see what a mobile application (mobile app) is. The word “mobile” means the internet as accessed via smartphones or other mobile devices. The phrase “mobile application” refers to the application software that is on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or a tablet. They are generally small in size and have limited functionality. However, they can provide the user with similar services to those accessed on PCs.
In general, there are three basic types of mobile apps. Here is the simple definition of them:
- Native App
Native apps are developed specifically for mobile devices and their operating systems (OS). If a native app is built for Android OS, it will not appear in the App Store or iOS phone. - Mobile Web App
Mobile web app is a responsive version of a website that is wrapped in a web view or directly viewed through mobile browsers. They are also known as Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which are basically native apps running inside a browser and work on any mobile OS or device. - Hybrid App
Hybrid apps are mobile web apps that look and feel like native apps. They might have a home screen app icon, responsive design, and even be able to function offline, but they are web apps made to look native.
Important Reason for Mobile Application Testing
The goal of developing mobile apps is to increase business and reach more users across the globe. No business owner expected their customers to uninstall the apps they provided and move to the competitors’. Mobile app testing is the process of validating the application’s usability and consistency. In this process, critical bugs are encountered. Any unexpected app crash or bug that will lead to a bad user experience will be avoided. Qualified apps resulting from this process are expected to increase customer satisfaction and minimize potential customer and revenue loss.
Types of Mobile Application Testing
In testing a mobile app, a tester needs a variety of skills to find as many bugs as possible. He also needs knowledge about many kinds of app testing for QA. Here are some types of them:
1. Functional Testing. It is to check the functionality of the app according to the requirements.
2. Compatibility Testing. It is to ensure that the app is working seamlessly in different operating systems, devices, or internal hardware specifications.
3. Usability Testing. It is to check the user-friendliness of the apps and improve the user experience.
4. Performance Testing. For example, it is to check how the apps perform on a particular load when the internet connection is not good.
5. Security Testing. It is to validate whether the data in apps is secure enough or not.
6. Installation Testing. It is to check whether the apps are installed or uninstalled properly. It also to ensure that the apps can be updated to the latest version without any missing data or errors.
7. Exploratory Testing. It is to explore the apps using any functionalities and usability testing scenarios that are not included in the test case.
9. Storage Testing. It is to check whether the apps can behave as expected when there is no or not enough storage in the device.
10. Interrupt Testing. It is to help the development team analyze the disturbance caused by this interruption and to know how the apps can handle it.
11. Input Testing. It is to check whether performing various input actions will not trigger any unexpected behavior for the apps, such as a low battery or incoming phone call interruption will make the data cannot be saved properly.
12. Automated Testing. It is usually for regression testing where the situation is demand repetitive checking.
Conclusion
Go back to the question “What kind of testing do we need to perform for a mobile application?” There are many types of mobile app testing. Each of them uses different approaches. Different types of mobile apps may need different types of testing. We cannot do installation testing, for example, when we check a mobile web app, because it indeed does not need any installation to run the apps. A clear understanding of the testing types and how to conduct them might help a QA to choose the appropriate testing for each mobile app wisely.
References:
All about Mobile Testing: Testing different mobile app types, techniques, tools, and more (testsigma.com)
What is a Mobile Application? — Definition from Techopedia
