Automation testing - why it has become essential for mobile app development?

The mobile app testing method has faced significant changes in recent times. The article explains as to how automated mobile testing method is superior to conventional manual testing.

The proliferated usage of mobile devices and the emergence of new technologies have opened up a competitive market for mobile applications. The multitude of new devices, various operating platforms and fragmented OEMs have created immense challenges for the mobile app development companies to offer the end users the best solutions at a rapid rate. As mobile applications incorporate complex features, the code bases also turn out to be larger than usual. Thus, the quality testing process of mobile apps becomes complex and time-consuming as well. In this scenario, the mobile app service providers should keep abreast with the latest trends to stay ahead of the competition, which is not possible without the mobile test automation process within a limited time frame. Due to the advent of paradigms like DevOps and Agile, the mobile testing process has gone through noticeable changes.
Here are a few key points as to why businesses should embrace mobile test automation instead of the conventional test approach.

Reduction in turnaround time and increased efficiency:

In the battle of quality versus quantity, the results are not always desirable. However, with the help of automation, both aspects can be achieved in a practical way. The automated mobile app testing process assimilates parallelisation to look after the delayed commits. It is worth noting that the parallelisation process helps reduce the execution time to approximately 50%, thanks to automation.

Increased focus on the performance and user experience:

The primary objective of developers (and testers) is to offer bug-free high-performance applications to edge out other competitors, which can only be possible with the help of automated mobile testing. Furthermore, mobile testing automation can validate the performance, usability, and security of any type of mobile application across operating systems, device platforms and networks.

Enhancement of test coverage:

The automated testing process provides depth and an array of scopes to augment the quality of the mobile apps. Mobile testing automation offers a large number of test cases and reports with every test run compared to manual testing.

Robust security testing with DevOps and DevSecOps:

Security testing is one of the major aspects of the mobile testing process due to the prevalence of threats from hackers and other cyber criminals. The testing process should take into account various aspects of security including identifying (and eliminating) the existing code vulnerabilities. DevSecOps is slated to fill the gaps unaddressed by manual testing process by focusing on vulnerability assessment, continuous monitoring and providing an additional layer of data protection measure like encryption.

Cross-platform testing:

Conventional manual testing methods do not allow users to test more than one device at a time. Whereas automated mobile application testing methodology allows testers to validate the application in several environments within a shorter time frame, where the environments can be Windows OS, Android OS or iOS among others.

Measurement of the Scalability:

Automated mobile application testing methodology helps to measure the scalability of the app to determine the user load and experience. It also includes the response time, throughput and screen timeout of the application. The mobile test automation process simplifies the repeatable and regressive testing process by reducing complexities.

Hardware accessibility and compatibility testing:

The hardware accessibility and compatibility testing are one of important factors that can add additional features to the mobile application. Due to the presence of sensors like proximity sensors, gyroscope and magnetic compass, the apps must be able to access them to perform better. The automated mobile application testing methodology checks these compatibility factors without any additional effort from the developers.

Conclusion:

The automated mobile testing method helps the team of developers and testers to work in a synchronized manner irrespective of their varying fields of work. With the rapid development of mobile applications and associated technologies, it is important to implement automated testing to get the optimal ROI along with a faster turnaround time. The automated solution ensures greater productivity by removing the bottlenecks and minimizing errors to a great extent. So, to keep pace with the ever-changing and growing technological advancements of the day, it is essential to implement the automated testing of mobile applications as an approach to incorporate the best practices.