You hear about the importance of software quality everywhere, terms like codeless test automation, shift-left testing, AI-testing, and other testing buzzwords are all over the place, and you start thinking ‘it’s just testing, how hard that can be.” Testing application is not a breeze as people make it seem, it’s a highly critical process that has a set of challenges associated with it. To ensure that the app testing is performed as expected and desired outcomes are achieved it is important to resolve the challenges and yield the maximum from app testing.
The huge demand for mobile apps recently has created immense pressure on organizations to create flawlessly performing apps to attract new users and retain the existing ones. With the main focus of creating high-quality apps, organizations are digging deep into the challenges that refrain them from achieving the quality they are looking for, and coming up with efficient, practical, and cost-effective solutions to resolve the issues.
Identifying the challenges and resolving them is the first step towards streamlining the process and building perfectly performing apps. There is a wide range of tools that can help you in redefining your quality goals, one such tool to test you apps is Tenjin Online. It is a SaaS-based, codeless, efficient test automation tool for testing web, Android, and iOS apps with varied capabilities. To learn more about Tenjin Online, check out the website.
Challenges in App Testing
As the development processes are advancing, so is the testing process. Gone are the days when software testing was performed manually. Today, testing processes are advancing to support the evolving development trends, hence, organizations are witnessing a major shift in the way testing is performed. As the trend is slowly shifting, there are a set of challenges that come in the picture. It is important to address these challenges in order to improve the app quality. Here are some of the top challenges discussed and the ways to resolve them.
Choose the right automation tool: There are thousands of test automation tools available in the market, choosing the right tool is challenging. From free to paid, code-based to codeless, there are a diverse range of tools that puts one in dilemma as to which one to choose. This is one of the critical aspects of the testing process, once the right tool is chosen, it’s considered that half of the work is done.
One should choose the right tools based on the requirement, customizable options provided, and cost. Cost is also a criteria as small firms or start-ups may not be able to invest heavily in testing tools. Hence, organizations also look for tools offering personalization at a decent cost range.
Device fragmentation: Fragmentation is one of the serious issues faced by the app testing team in recent times. With same devices being manufactured in different screen sizes, resolutions, operating systems etc, makes the testing of apps across all the devices extremely difficult. To test the apps on all the devices, organizations should invest in arranging all the phone models to test on them. There are nearly 24000 models of Android phones alone, with this huge number, the feasibility of testing the apps on all the devices is low considering the high investment. Though, emulators and simulators can be used for testing, they are not proven to give excellent outcomes.
The issues of device fragmentation can be resolved by testing the app using Device Farms. Here, a virtual environment is created on the Cloud using emulators and testing can be conducted on all the available phone models and versions. This is the most efficient and cost-effective way to resolve fragmentation issues.
Security issues: The increase in open-source platforms has given rise to security concerns among organizations. Weak encryptions and increasing vulnerabilities are rising the threat of security issues. To resolve the security issues, companies should implement end-to-end encryption and implement elaborate security testing. Organizations are also moving to private and hybrid Cloud rather than opting for open-source Cloud for security issues.
Integration challenges: Apps have dependencies on third-party tools to fetch data. Hence, it is challenging for the testers to check for integration errors across the tools the app is linked to. To resolve these issues, thorough integration testing should be carried out to ensure it is working without any flaws.
Regulatory compliances: Organizations are facing issues of data leakage increasing the security breach concerns. Hence, testers should ensure that all the app components that are related to preserving user privacy are appropriately placed. It has to be checked if all the regulatory compliances are met.
Usability issues across browsers: As the web applications are available on the web browser, the app should have the ability to interact with the users from any browser. To make sure usability across all the browsers, the testers perform usability testing of both the native apps and desktop apps on all browsers.
A diverse range of mobile apps: Mobile apps are diverse that can be categorized based on various criteria like app category, operating systems, native apps, and hybrid apps to name a few. The diverse range of mobile apps makes it difficult to test them. To ensure that this issue is resolved, organization should strategize a plan and test the app for better outcomes.
Conclusion
App testing is a critical criteria that cannot be neglected; a well-tested app will perform well and allow more people to download it. There are a number of challenges associated with app testing, the top 6 have been mentioned in the article. It is the testers' duty to identify the challenges and be well prepared to resolve them. No matter what challenges lies ahead, a good testing approach will help resolve the issue.