Mobile Application testing Challenges - 

Mobile application testing is a process of testing applications which are developed for hand held mobile devices. In mobile application testing, we would focus on testing the functionality, usability, performance and security of the application. Mobile testing is more challenging than testing based on desktop or Web applications

Key Challenges in Mobile Application Testing

1.       Variety of Mobile Devices: One of the key challenges of mobile application testing is tons and thousands of mobile devices which are available in the market. Many companies are coming up with different types of smart phone, be in touch phone, and flip devices or tablets. Apart from that these devices would have different hardware capabilities in addition to QWERTY and touch feature and different screen sizes and resolutions. As a tester we need to consider that the mobile software app works in all these types of devices. It is extremely difficult and not feasible to have physical access to each and every one of these devices. Testers cannot guarantee that if an application works perfect in one device, then it would work the same way in another device because the screen resolution, CPU usage and hardware could be different. This challenge can be handled by testing with a combination of real time devices and emulated devices.

2.       Diversity in Mobile Platforms/OS- There are different Mobile Operating Systems in the market. The major ones are Android, IOS, Symbian, Windows Phone, and BlackBerry. Each operating system has its own limitations. Testing a single application across multiple devices running on the same platform and every platform poses a unique challenge for testers. This challenge also needs to be handling by testing with combination of emulators and real time devices.

3.       Mobile network operators- The number of mobile network in the world is huge. In addition they are further categorized as CDMA, GSM etc... Each network operator uses a different kind network infrastructure and it is not compulsory that the application flow would be same across different network operators. So as a tester one needs to test the application across different operating network also which are different across the world. To handle this problem testers usually resort to real devices in the cloud network.

The significant challenges and risks involved in mobile application testing can impact production of mobile apps. The various tools available in market for mobile application testing can help with testing

The following best practices are recommended for mobile testing.

1.       Plan a smart testing strategy by combining emulators and real physical devices.

2.       It is always a good approach to use cloud services for testing mobile apps.

3.       Select the right automation tool. Multi-platform support, script re-usability, price and support are some of the criteria that one should keep in mind while selecting the tool for mobile app testing automation.

4.       Mobile test case automation is expensive. Hence, automation should not be performed for the features which are expected to change. Such test cases should be avoided from automation.