A Complete Guide to Mobile App Testing for Beginners

Here is a concise guide for mobile app testing to create a website that engages users, increases retention, and delivers app features flawlessly.

Gone are the days when businesses could develop a subpar app and get away with it. In today’s time, considering your end users not well-versed with at least basic mobile tech is the biggest sin and a major turn-off. A well-developed app can enhance the product experience. And, this is the reason the use of mobile app testing is empirical.

However, you don’t have to worry in terms of a resource to help understand mobile app testing. In this article, we have disclosed its importance, types, phases, and most importantly cost for you to get your first app tested. So, let’s get started…

What is Mobile Application Testing?

As the name implies, mobile app testing is a comprehensive process of implementing app testing strategies. It ensures great product experiences, increases trust and loyalty, increases adoption, customer retention, and whatnot. 

In simple words, if the mobile application developed has the potential to meet or even exceed end users' expectations, that’s it! It means you have succeeded in conducting proper mobile application testing procedures.   

A sincere evaluation and validation of the mobile application are conducted among a variety of platforms, devices, and OSs, just to look around for potential loopholes, and defects. This ensures seamless performance just to deliver an amazing user experience. 

You see earlier mobile app testing strategies were all about functional testing and verifying if the developed app has the potential to meet the intended purpose or not. However, over all these years the process has evolved to quite an extent. 

In the present times, a mobile application testing strategy comprises several aspects such as functional testing, usability testing, compatibility testing, performance testing, security testing, and a lot more. After all, the ultimate goal of every mobile app development procedure is to deliver a seamless and well-optimized experience featuring high-end stability, security, and up-to-the-mark performance. 

So here is a synopsis of mobile app testing as a whole:

• Testing the app performance among different OSs.
• Ensuring high-end compatibility, and performance, especially in general and specific settings.
• Ensuring the app is well synced with different mobile sensors such as Gyroscope, Accelerometer, GPS, etc.
• Lastly, testing the app GUIs; how are the menus, is the navigation button working well, and how is the overall functionality of the developed app?  

Importance of Mobile App Testing!

Well, as mentioned earlier the ultimate goal of mobile app testing is to develop an app that turns out to be a huge success in a small amount of time. As a result, this increases business outreach and attracts the attention of more and more users across the globe. 

In those cases, when mobile apps are thoroughly or should I say rigorously tested, chances of encountering errors and bugs increase. This means the scope of creating bad user experiences automatically decreases. Not just that there is no longer a worst-case scenario such as immediate uninstallation of the app. 

• So if your app is lacking in terms of expectations
• If your application turns out to be too spacious
• If your application is slow in comparison to other available options

That’s it, you are doomed! Therefore, Mobile app testing is a must! 

Also, prevention is way better than cure. Fixing technical glitches at the last minute can cost you a fortune. 

Exploring the Different Types of Mobile App Testing!

A lot of entrepreneurs often struggle to bifurcate the types of testing that are available for testing apps. So, to give you a complete overview, types of app testing are:

Also Read: Need mobile app testing companies for your brand new application? Here’s a resource!

• Hardware Testing - This one is to test the physical attributes and interactions with the device. 
• Software Testing - Here in this test, the features and functionalities are tested.    
• White box Testing - Here testing is done from the point of view of a developer. 
• Black Box Testing - Different QAs (Quality Analysts) and focus groups are roped in to test the app from the end user’s perspective.  
• Gray Box Testing - This one is a pretty hybrid approach to debug software and evaluate any vulnerabilities. 
• Functional Testing - As the name implies, has the functionality been met or not? 
• Compatibility Testing -  Can the developed application seamlessly work across different operating systems, versions, platforms, etc? Here the app is ensured to be bug-free and highly scalable.  
• Usability Testing - For this, the testers conduct user testing by evaluating the functionality of the app by reviewing the real-time activities.
• Performance Testing - This is a no-brainer. How the app performs is evaluated here.  
• Security Testing - Here testing is conducted to make sure that no user data is being violated or taken advantage of. Since the scope of security breaches is pretty high with the time passing by. 
• Storage Testing - Now here the app is checked on how it performs when it retrieves, stores, or deletes any kind of data especially when there is a lack of space. 
• Interruption Testing - Any calls, messages, notifications, how are they minimized? Also, do they result in crashing the app entirely? 
• Battery-usage Testing - Here the app is supposed to go through different battery capacities. 
• Beta Testing - The app is tested in real-world environments just to see whether it ensures high-end functionality and UI or not. 
• Installation Testing - How the app is installed and whether the mobile app can work smoothly. 
• Hardware-specific testing - Here is how the app works with different hardware and configurations. 
• Exploratory testing - All the key errors are detected here.

Phases of Mobile App Testing

The ultimate objective of mobile app testing is to ensure a pleasant user experience. To do so, a top-notch strategy must be created. Below, we have provided the mobile app testing phases for you to understand the general testing process in brief.

Also Read: Want resources to conduct mobile app testing? Check out these mobile app testing tools.

Define Objectives

The first and foremost aspect to take into account is to define objectives. For instance:

• What is the core purpose of doing so? 
• What is it that you are willing to give 100% priority to? 
• Do you want the app to be compatible with different devices, operating systems, and networks? 
• How should the app be performing? 
• How much security do you want to develop the app?

So when you know exactly what you want to test, the rest can be taken care of. At the same time, you can take care of the documentation for SRS (software requirement specification). Some of the things that you can do in this case and more are:

• Creating a document for software requirement specifications with a test design
• Specify different kinds of test cases.
• Type of testing that should be used.
• Incorporate test logs, test plans, bug reports, test data, etc.
• Reporting testing incident
• Analysis post conducting those tests.

Plan Mobile App Tests

Once you have figured out the objectives now you need to focus on how to conduct the mobile app testing project. So what exactly is your plan of action, how will you execute tests and what will be the timeline?  
 
First and foremost you need to figure out whether you want to conduct manual mobile app testing or automated mobile app testing. 

Now both of them are different and have different advantages and disadvantages. Here is a table showing the difference between the two:

Creating Test Cases

The next crucial step is to create different kinds of test cases. Think of it as a detailed blueprint, where quality analysts and software testers are roped in to come up with different scenarios and conditions under which the apps are being tested. 

Comprehensive tests are what everyone now seems to be opting for. A robust testing strategy is developed to ensure seamless user interaction, input validation, and error-handling mechanisms. So, here are some of the mobile app testing best practices for you to consider:

• Early and continuous testing
• Real-world testing
• User experience testing 
• High-end security
• Regression testing 

Execution

Once different test cases and scripts are created, it’s time to run them. The specifics of executing these tests mainly depend highly on test scope and coverage. When executing these tests, you will see that the overall user churn rate is improved, several bucks are saved, and in the end, you ensure to offer defect-free software. 

• Test Planning - Here one has to design the test plan as per specific documentation. Then one must define different test objectives, set up the entire test environment, identify numerous test tools, and so on.  
• Test Execution - Once the test plan process is ready, test execution takes place. This includes creating, managing, and running different test cases. Here different test cases are created, test scripts are written, and test cases are possible to run. 
• Test Evaluation - This is the final step where all the test results are thoroughly analyzed, and new defects can be reported seamlessly. All the cases can be monitored, bug closure, tests can be reported seamlessly, and so on. 

Review

Finally, the review stage. Once, the tests are completed, it can be tricky for an entrepreneur who doesn’t have a technical background to understand the level of testing. So, here is an approach for you to take:

Understanding the Reports:

• Don't get bogged down in technical jargon and ask the testers to explain the terms.
• Outline the areas tested, bugs identified, and their severity (critical, high, medium, low).
• Look for recurring problems across different features.

Collaboration and Communication:

• Schedule regular meetings to discuss testing progress, identified issues, and their potential impact.
• Ensure that you understand the testers' plan to address the identified bugs and how you will be informed.
• Maintain clear communication while asking important questions and seeking clarification.

Evaluating the Testing Process:

• Check if all the critical features and functionalities are thoroughly tested.
• Ensure testing covers a wide range of devices that are relevant to your target audience.
• Make sure that critical or minor bugs are identified and fixed.
• Did the testers employ a variety of testing methods (manual & automated) to ensure comprehensive coverage? 

Cost of Mobile App Testing Project

The mobile app testing cost depends on a variety of factors. For example, requirements, performance, functionality, security, compatibility, and app usability. However, the ideal range lies between $5,000 to $25,000. But, there are several ways you can reduce this cost. Some of them are:

• Make sure to use the most advanced and high-tech tools
• Conduct the fastest test cycles
• Using app testing best practices
• Reusing test scripts again and again 
• Detection of bugs during the early stages Clear understanding of project requirements in the entire team.

In a Nutshell

Mobile app Testing is a must, whatever application you are developing, regardless of the genre. Mobile and mobile apps have become quite a necessity. Right from banking to entertainment purposes, to education, eCommerce, etc, a user tends to spend at least 3 hours in a day or maybe quite more. So if you want to make your business visible 24/7, creating a high-end mobile app is surely the key. And because the situation is highly competitive these days, mobile app testing cannot be ignored at any rate.