Today, the mobile application development procedure has evolved as a dynamic approach, where applying an effective mobile application testing strategy is not just considered the best practice to implement but has become necessary. The demand for a seamless mobile experience is growing in this fast-paced world.
As per 2023 mobile app statistics, more than 45% of people use an app more than ten times daily. Since more than 80% of the world’s population is using smartphones for various tasks and consuming information, it’s only beneficial for businesses to invest in digitizing their offerings through mobile applications.
However, the mobile application testing services should offer robust functionality and security to make it a successful launch in the market. A well-planned test strategy for mobile application testing serves as the primary key to building a robust mobile app. The testing strategy involves a comprehensive plan to use the testing techniques, various testing resources, and a timeline for a testing technique.
It’s essential for the development team to have a structured mobile web application testing strategy for addressing any issues early in the development cycle. It would save more time and resources in the long run. You can take advantage of mobile app testing services to reduce the time to market your app and ensure an error-free launch. If you are curious about the mobile application testing strategy, read this guide to learn about the key elements used in the strategy and how to tailor the strategy for effective mobile app testing.
Why is a Mobile App Testing Strategy Crucial?
By the end of 2023, the global mobile user base is predicted to reach up to 7.26 billion. In 2022, the mobile app download rate has risen to 258 billion. User ratings are necessary for apps across a range of platforms and uses. Hence, investing money in mobile app testing is critical to detect and solve issues like slow app performance, app function crashes, and poorly designed user interfaces. With a structured mobile app testing strategy, you can complete a thorough checklist of the tasks and ensure the app is error-free to be ready for launch. Here are some reasons to draft a testing strategy with professional help:
1. Faster time-to-market
As the mobile app market landscape is getting competitive, A test strategy document for mobile application testing can outline a systematic approach to testing. It reduces the chance of bugs or glitches harming the user experience. Moreover, it reduces the chance of application failure, offering quality assurance. The earlier the issues are addressed, the faster will be the development process. Hence, you can get your app to market faster than your competitors.
2. Improved user experience
Your app’s success solely depends on the user experience. So, UX testing is essential. Now imagine if you are short on time and skin over proper application testing to launch in the public. A lot of issues will appear later, such as not getting notifications, not getting proper visibility of a completed or ongoing task, or even security breaches.
All these can affect your brand reputation. A robust testing strategy will ensure the app has correct compatibility across various running platforms and devices. So, when you prioritize fixing the UX, it will function flawlessly and get positive reviews from the users.
3. Cost-effectiveness
It is not just the reputation; a faulty app can cost you a lot of money for the reproduction and development process. Moreover, there will be more time and effort wasted. Hence, investing in a comprehensive test strategy document for mobile applications will save you a lot of money in the long run.
You can solve issues pre-launch in the development cycle. There would be less risk of expensive emergency fixes and avoid losing potential customers. Furthermore, the strategy ensures you can efficiently allocate your resources and reduce the chances of budget overruns. So your project would not run into unexpected expenses.
4. Regulatory compliance
In this technologically advanced world, almost all industries are applicable to regulatory compliance while operating in the digital landscape that can’t be violated. Implementing a proper mobile app testing strategy provides the assurance that the app complies with industry-specific regulations and standards. It secures the app from failing to meet such requirements and mitigates the possibility of facing legal complications and potentially paying fines.
What Involves Mobile Application Testing Strategy?
The mobile application testing strategy involves a complete testing technique approach that outlines how to assure the quality of the app, its proper functionality, and the app’s reliability. There are various elements to it that work together to result in a successful app deployment. The strategy will start with defining the testing objectives and scopes.
If you are wondering what is the strategy used to test new mobile app, the strategy specifies testing the app features and user interfaces. It mentions all the methodologies to test the app’s performance and its security aspects. The testing should ensure the app’s compatibility across different operating systems and devices. The strategy ensures all these are evaluated for a superior UX.
Moreover, the strategy mentions the tools, resources, and testing procedures that will be used for each specific test. The developer includes choosing between the right testing strategy, from manual testing to automated testing or a combined method in the app development strategy. The strategy also involves selecting the appropriate testing tools and frameworks, which is essential for speeding up the testing process.
The strategy covers mentioning the testing resources, including staff, tools, and testing environments. It will help the testing team to know that they have the necessary tools and trained professionals to undertake each specific testing task for successful outcomes.
Also Read: 2023’s Automation Tools for Mobile Application Testing
Moreover, the timeline and order of the testing operations are crucial elements of the strategy. The strategy defines the schedule of each test. It’s an important step to add to the strategy for identifying and fixing an issue at the appropriate phase of the development. Hence, each of these sequences is essential to follow.
The testing strategy may also integrate a mobile application deployment strategy. It is planning for post-launch actions to ensure the app is deployed successfully at various app stores or distribution channels. The strategy will include app release schedules on different platforms, managing app versions, and user feedback follow-ups.
What is Your Approach While Testing Mobile Applications?
Testing mobile devices can be quite a demanding procedure with a lot of challenges. A Plethora of mobile phone models are launching in the market. Each mobile model has advanced features, different updates, etc., to improve user experience. Moreover, your app has a lot of things to stay optimized, from OS upgrades to the latest application infrastructures.
So, This can be easily established by following a structured and comprehensive mobile development process. It will ensure the app is of the highest quality and reliability. The ideal approach to form a strategy is broken down below.
Phase 1: Planning
This is the initial phase of the testing strategy, which involves thoroughly understanding the client’s business requirements for which the app is being developed. The testing team meticulously analyzes the mobile app’s business objectives and what is the user expectation of its functionality. The planning step enables the team to precisely identify which aspects of the app are to be tested that align with the app’s goals and functional purposes.
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Define Testing Objectives
The planning phase defines the testing objectives so the testing team will have clear objectives for their testing efforts. The objectives may include aspects like the functionality of the app, assessing the user experience to assure the client it meets expectations, and evaluating the app’s performance efficiency and responsiveness. These defined objectives can offer focused direction for the testing techniques so the team can assess and improve the key areas in an orderly manner.
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Create Test Strategy Document
The mobile application testing approach involves developing a high-level test strategy document that will serve as a roadmap for the testing process. The document will outline the types of testing that will be conducted, including performance, functional, security, and usability tests.
Additionally, the document will specify what testing tools will be used and define the testing team’s roles and responsibilities. Each test will be allotted with a specific timeline and schedule. This will keep everyone in the project on the same page so the testing efforts are well-organized to achieve the goals.
Phase 2: Environment Setup
The environment setup is a critical phase for the mobile app testing approach in the testing strategy, where the team pays attention to details of the testing environment that ensures the accuracy and efficiency of the outcomes.
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Choose Testing Tools
First, the team has to select the appropriate testing tools, considering both test automation tools for streamlined test execution and manual testing tools for in-depth assessments. Moreover, the team also needs to use defect tracking systems to efficiently manage and prioritize identified issues for a smooth testing process for both iOS and Android devices.
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Create Test Environment
In this stage, the testing team will set up the physical devices, simulators, and emulators to configure the test environment to conduct all the tests for a specific development phase. The test environment should have appropriate network configurations, too. This careful setup ensures the testing is closely simulated with real-world events to ensure a complete and reliable result.
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Version Control
The mobile application testing strategy in an environment setup phase also includes a robust version control system. It will help the testing team maintain the integrity of the code and test scripts, whether you are using automation tools or manual testing tools. The version control system will keep track of the changes in the testing and manage them to help the testing team go back to the previous testing state when necessary. It will keep the testing environment stable.
Phase 3: Test Design
The test design phase involves writing the test cases or automated test scripts for the list of testing needs to speed up your quality assurance phase for mobile app development. Here, the team will focus on creating a structured and effective testing approach that will be executed in the next phase.
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Identify Test Scenarios
The test design process starts with identifying various test scenarios that cover the app’s features and user interactions. The team will conduct an in-depth analysis of the mobile app’s functionality, what features it has, and the user interactions from a list of scenarios. It will ensure that the test designs are constructed to evaluate the app from various angles.
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Create Test Cases
Now, the team will create a detailed test case for each identified test scenario. All these case outlines for the list of scenarios include precisely mentioned test executing steps. The test scenarios will specify both the input data and the anticipated results. The test strategy for mobile application testing maintains this level of granularity to ensure that testing is systematic and thorough, so there would be no doubt.
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Prioritize Test Cases
The test scenarios and test cases are different from one another. It is the assessment of what should be in the test case mentioned in the test scenarios. However, the test cases include a more profound specification, including variables or events that a testing engineer may use to compare anticipated and actual results to determine if a software product is functioning in accordance with the client’s expectations.
It’s essential to execute test cases in order to ensure that the client’s demands are met. The testing team will prioritize the test cases according to the test impact on the app’s core functionalities, possibilities of facing issues, and the project timeline requirement. It helps with optimizing the testing efforts. The test execution phase will address the key areas first on a priority basis and efficiently resolve the issue. It will ensure the final product is more reliable.
Phase 4: Test Execution
Test execution is the phase for taking action according to the mobile web application testing strategy approach mentioned above. The team will use various testing methodologies to guarantee the app’s reliability and performance.
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Manual Testing
While automation testing tools make the testing process easier and streamlined, in many use cases, the manual testing process is still valuable, allowing the team to conduct exploratory and ad-hoc testing. These tests are especially useful for exploring subtle and complex scenarios of the mobile application that automated testing scripts may not cover. If it’s an agile testing framework, you can use a combination of manual and automated testing.
It is recommended to start a mobile app testing sprint with exploratory manual testing that doesn’t require initial investments. Keep the logs consistent for testing sessions in a Word or Excel document. If you want to engage multiple testers simultaneously, execute the manual test sessions simultaneously.
It will save you time for later stages. The testers will implement practical user interactions to analyze the app’s usability issues and any unexpected behavior or functional glitches. Human intuition and creativity in manual testing will identify any subtle defects that automation tools may not notice.
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Automated Testing
Automation testing execution process can improve your testing procedure’s efficiency and consistency. However, automation testing tools are especially useful for repetitive and high-volume test cases and scenarios, e.g., regression tests. The testers will benefit from automation frameworks and scripting tools for creating scripts and executing them automatically.
This is a beneficial approach to validate the app’s core functionalities across various devices and configurations in a systematic manner. The automated testing will help find the regression fast and make sure no new app updates or feature integration will cause defects to the previously working application areas.
Moreover, you can use automated testing execution for predictable test outcomes and device fragmentation. It will save you a lot of time and avoid errors due to human intervention’s repetition. Automation testing is also ideal for conditional testing to eliminate the need for developers to monitor the outcomes. It can be challenging to execute manual testing for different operating systems and screen resolutions and dimensions, so it is recommended to use automated tests.
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Usability Testing
Usability testing is crucial for ensuring a mobile app’s success. The tester will conduct extensive usability testing to validate the app’s UI/UX. This testing execution involves real users interacting with the app to provide in-depth insights into the app design and navigation that are critical for the app’s user-friendliness. The team will collect feedback on the user journey to ensure the intuitiveness of the UI meets the final product expectation. Usability testing will ensure the app is functional as well as user-friendly.
Phase 5: Specialized Testing
Apart from the core testing phases, the mobile application testing strategy also involves a specialized testing approach to address specific critical aspects of the mobile app to offer quality assurance.
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Performance Testing
Performance testing is an integral part of the mobile app testing phase, which ensures all the functions of the app are working optimally under various conditions. The team will test the app’s behavior under various peak load conditions and also simulate high user traffic and resources under various scenarios. It will validate the app’s responsiveness and detect potential restrictions that might be causing performance issues.
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Security Testing
The testers will conduct security testing to find any vulnerabilities that may expose sensitive user data and leave the app unguarded for cyber attacks, as the app will be operating on the digital landscape. Testers will conduct thorough tests to penetrate testing and vulnerability assessments to analyze the app’s security level. By taking a comprehensive approach to security testing, the tester can find and promptly address any security weaknesses. It will ensure the user data remains confidential and the app is strong against possible attacks.
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Localization Testing
If your app is developing for global audiences, you will need to localize the app for various interactional regions. This is where localization testing is required to effectively validate the app’s readiness for launching in multiple regions. The testing will check the language translations, cultural nuances, and regional configurations.
It will be helpful for ensuring the app will be usable for various regional user bases. The app content will align with the target audience’s needs. Hence, the app will consistently expand its market reach across various regions.
Also Read: A Deep Dive into Different Types of Mobile Application Testing
Phase 6: Reporting and Feedback
It is the final phase of the mobile application testing approach, where the testing strategy gives importance to making transparent communication and accurate documentation to ensure comprehensive improvement of the app’s UX.
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Bug Tracking
Your tester team will use a robust bug-tracking tool to report and manage the defects for every step of the development cycle. The bug reports will include detailed information on identifying bugs during the testing and their dissolution. Moreover, the log should include the testing screenshots and severity levels. Such attention to detail will help developers in the developing phase.
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Test Summary Report
The testers will also prepare a test summary report to have documentation of the entire testing effort. It will outline the tests conducted, their results, and any specific defects. It will help the client evaluate the overall quality of the mobile application. Based on this report, they will make an informed decision about the app launch.
Phase 7: Maintenance
The maintenance phase takes place after the app’s launch to provide ongoing support for the app’s improvements. The testing team will keep monitoring the users’ feedback to keep track of any post-release issues. They will conduct regular regression testing to make sure the new app updates or bug fixes do not cause any new performance or functionality issues. The maintenance phase helps ensure that the app shows consistent growth and stays reliable over time without any performance or security glitches. Whenever the app scales according to user needs, the test cycle maintenance will ensure that users have a seamless experience.
Unlock Quality: Master Your Mobile App Testing Approach Now!
With seamless user experience, your app will stay competitive in the digital landscape for a long time. If you are looking forward to a dynamic mobile app development process, partner with a reliable mobile application testing company while emphasizing the significance of a well-structured testing strategy.
They will make detailed planning and execute core and specialized testing for your app’s reliability. Moreover, their comprehensive reporting will help you ensure your mobile app is of the highest standards and ready for deployment. It can be challenging to test mobile apps in an agile setup. So, it requires planning, strategizing, and adjusting all the above processes to increase go-to-market time and ensure your mobile app’s success.
