The business value of Mobile Test Automation

Mobile apps can bring with them a lot of glitches and vulnerabilities, which if not nipped in the bud by employing a robust mobile test automation strategy, can deliver a poor user experience.

Today, every second person seems to have a smartphone teeming with a plethora of apps. These apps may deal with communication (WhatsApp, Facebook, Snapchat, etc.) transport (Uber,) games (PokeMon, Candy Crush, etc.) food and beverages (Swiggy, FoodPanda, etc.) online stores (Amazon, Flipkart, etc.) banking, and many others. It goes without saying that these apps have made lives convenient and easy by helping people carry out a host of activities like paying utility bills, booking products or services, etc.
Additionally, these apps have helped businesses accelerate their digital transformation initiatives as well. However, along with the positives, there is a downside to this growth as well - in the form of defective apps. Given the growing menace of cybercrime, downloading a defective app can spell trouble. It may unleash dangerous bugs in the device leading to the siphoning of sensitive personal information (and money) of the user. So, if your business be developing mobile apps with the provision of conducting financial transactions, it must ensure the app remains free of bugs. The best way to go about that is by implementing mobile test automation.

Why is mobile test automation necessary

The success of a mobile app depends on its seamless performance, besides the presence of a host of features and functionalities. It is arguably the most important differentiation parameter for the customer to adopt or reject it. No matter how fancy looking your app may be, should it falter on performance, users are likely to abandon it without even giving a second thought. The failure of a mobile application does not only impact its adoption but can batter the image and bottom line of the company developing it as well. Importantly, concerns about the quality of an application can generate poor reviews and ratings about the brand thereby impacting its sales.
However, a simple mobile application can add value to its makers if it functions flawlessly. This is because most reviews on the app stores veer around poor loading and performance, crashes, and drain on the battery. Thus, it becomes important for mobile app developers to adopt a robust mobile application testing strategy in right earnest. Since mobile apps need to function across a swathe of device platforms, operating systems, browsers, and networks, they need to be tested for various dependencies by using mobile test automation.
Let us understand how mobile app test automation can add value to a business.

# Enhances app quality: During the development process, several bugs may enter into the app’s codebase thereby hindering its performance. Investing in manual testing can decrease the speed and scope of testing and leave a lot of vulnerabilities and bugs to remain unidentified. It is only through implementing mobile test automation in the Agile DevOps mould that a business can save time and money, besides enhancing the quality of application significantly.

# Release quick updates: To be in-sync with the changing customer preferences, businesses may go in for upgrading their existing mobile apps. However, with every upgrade in the source code, intensive regression tests should be carried out to check if the changes have impacted any existing functionality. The repeatable testing so required, necessitates automation in mobile application QA testing. With quick regression testing, businesses can accelerate the delivery of apps to the market, save costs, beat the competition, and achieve ROI.

# Improve test coverage: As any mobile application needs to operate seamlessly across platforms, it should be tested for variables and dependencies that are connected to the respective platforms. This can only be possible by implementing automation in mobile app testing. Moreover, mobile app test automation can execute crucial tasks such as validating memory and database.

# Improved user experience: A bug-free mobile app delivers an improved user experience by ensuring better security, performance, and seamless functionality. Since an improved user experience can stimulate trust, word of mouth publicity and better adoption of application, the organization developing the app can achieve ROI. No wonder, mobile testing services are increasingly using automation as a part of their mobile application testing strategy.

Conclusion

The ubiquitous mobile apps have become an integral part of everyday life and help businesses to usher in digital transformation. To ensure their seamless functioning across different platforms, they need to be tested rigorously using automation. It is only through mobile test automation that businesses can add value in terms of better test coverage, quality, customer experience, and ROI.