If you plan to implement mobile test automation or are already creating a mobile application, you will need automating mobile app testing. You can only release a high-quality and adaptive digital solution without unnecessary expenses with mobile automation testing.
Interesting fact:
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global market for automated mobile testing reached a value of $13.5 billion in 2022. By 2030, this figure is projected to increase to $51.26 billion, with a forecasted CAGR of 18.8%.
This tells us that automating mobile app testing services are gaining popularity among IT companies involved in software development.
The importance of test and automation tools for mobile apps is understood by developers and business analysts (BA), project managers (PM), and investors. This is not surprising, as it minimizes risks and improves the chances of success for IT solutions.
ZappleTech experts have prepared a comprehensive guide for you on automating mobile app testing. In the material, we will cover the following topics:
- Why automated mobile testing is an essential component of product development.
- How the service enhances product competitiveness and viability.
- Why it is important to involve professionals in software maintenance.
- Which methodologies are best to use, and what to focus on during mobile automation testing.
- How to choose an experienced contractor for the job.
And this is far from all the information available to readers. Stay tuned; we are getting started!
Table of Contents
Significance of Mobile Automation Testing in Modern Software Development
Do you know that automating mobile app testing addresses several project challenges at once, such as:
- It improves the product’s quality and, consequently, its viability in the market.
- It minimizes risks associated with deadlines, market value, and quality.
- It frees up a significant portion of the team’s resources, allowing them to focus on other development aspects.
- It reduces costs in both the short and long term.
- It increases the speed of product implementation, deployment, and modernization.
In addition to the above, test automation for mobile apps is the only way to bring a project to an MVP with a reasonably adequate quality and user experience (UX). Manual testing or its absence will result in such a poor product state at the time of release that any ROI metrics should not even be expected.
Therefore, let’s look at the importance of mobile automated testing in the context of three key impact factors of the service.
Risk Mitigation
First and foremost, automating mobile app testing is designed to minimize the risks associated with project development. While it does not replace a full-fledged business analyst (BA) and project manager (PM) in terms of risk management, it allows for reducing the technical side’s negative impact on product implementation and beyond.
Digging deeper into the concept of automated and best mobile testing tools, we can see that it affects:
- The product’s state and its modules, minimizing functionality and software performance risks.
- Navigation logic and user interface (UI) control methods related to UX and user satisfaction.
- The project’s value to potential users and their satisfaction with the solution.
Thus, mobile automated testing ensures that industry specifications and requirements are met in the product. This, in turn, guarantees an effective market debut and ROI, without which the very essence of development falls apart.
Enhancement of Product Viability
Some time ago, it was widely believed that 9 out of 10 projects (startups) fail to compete or fail for other reasons. This remains relevant today, as new digital products are released almost daily, saturating the market and weeding out weak players.
Automating mobile app testing enables achieving the levels of quality and value needed to compete in the target market. Furthermore, with the help of a newly created product, you can address a portion of the target audience’s needs, ensuring the project’s success in the industry.
Increasing the Value of IT Solutions
The value of a digital solution is measured by how much the audience needs it and how much revenue it generates for the owners. It is precisely mobile automated testing that can guarantee that the state of the product will not be the negative factor that derails it in the market.
Effective QA is focused not only on the technical side of the IT solution but also on its value to the target audience and the project’s business objectives. In fact, automating mobile app testing covers a significant portion of the business’s needs in terms of ensuring that the project gains popularity in the market and becomes essential to users or the brand’s customers.
However, the correct mobile automated testing is still required to achieve these goals. We will further focus on this matter.
Advanced Testing Methodologies and Frameworks Relevant to Mobile Applications
Indeed, there are numerous relevant methodologies and tools for test automation for mobile apps. However, not all of them are actively used in practice for various reasons. Some solutions are highly specialized, while others do not meet specific industry standards or project requirements or simply do not cover certain project needs.
Today, let’s focus on the relevant positions related to automated mobile testing and the effectiveness of these processes. We will concentrate on popular solutions widely applied by leading industry experts who provide mobile automation testing services.
Note: We will briefly cover key positions without delving into CI/CD or SDLC components.
Appium/Katalon
Both programs are best suited for implementing automating mobile app testing. These frameworks were specifically created for mobile automation testing and, therefore, excel in handling tasks of any scale and complexity.
These tools have complete support for key algorithms, APIs, and SDKs for iOS/Android, covering up to 100% of mobile automated testing needs. Furthermore, they are actively evolving and expanding their feature arsenal, allowing for even more QA process optimization and increasing efficiency of test execution.
ZappleTech experts also actively apply these frameworks in their projects, particularly for automating mobile app testing.
End to End
It’s incorrect to single out end-to-end testing from the general QA pyramid, but this type of testing is crucial. This is because, one way or another, all processes ultimately come down to end-to-end testing.
In general, automated mobile testing encompasses all types of QA, such as:
- Functional
- Productivity
- Unit
- UI
- Acceptance
- Regression
- Security
These are just some of the basic algorithms included in mobile automation testing. Step by step, from manual tests and case descriptions, they transform into comprehensive QA scenarios that scale and adapt but remain with the project until the end of its SDLC.
Emphasis on UX
No matter how the development industry and QA transform, the primary focus of automating mobile app testing over the past 10 years has been UX.
The popularity of a product and its viability in the market depends on UX—how convenient it is to use a digital solution and whether it meets the customers’ needs.Mikhail BodnarchukCDO, ZappleTech Inc.
This statement is based on research into the lifecycles of current mobile software and that which has disappeared from Google Play and the App Store.
So, what does test automation for mobile devices and apps have to do with it? It is QA that determines the final state of the product, its quality, and UX, which are key factors for competitiveness.
We suggest you continue exploring the methods that will enable your IT solution to achieve the level of UX and technical quality that will make it valuable to the audience and the market.
Best Practices for Testing on Various Mobile Platforms (iOS, Android)
The technical foundation for automated mobile testing of software on different platforms is not significantly different.
However, the methods and QA principles are quite situational and depend on various factors, such as:
- The type and purpose of the app and its scale.
- The functionality and its integration into the system.
- The technical peculiarities of the project.
It is in these nuances that the devil resides. While the situation with iOS is relatively stable, as the system doesn’t allow much room for maneuvering, Android presents a less straightforward scenario for automated tests. Therefore, let’s consider the emphasis and specifics of mobile automated testing for each OS separately.
iOS: Focus on Performance and Integration
In the context of automating mobile app testing, iOS has its own nuances. For example, the mobile application testing itself’s performance needs to be comparable to native (built-in Apple software) and for system interfaces and APIs to be tightly integrated into the system.
Therefore, iOS app automated testing services are characterized by:
- An emphasis on UI/UX.
- A focus on performance and security.
- Adaptation of interaction commands to system protocols.
This means that in addition to standard QA algorithms, additional test automation scenarios for mobile apps should be applied to achieve the best results.
Android: Focus on Platform Device Support
With Android app automated testing services, the situation is somewhat more interesting. The complexity of automating mobile app testing lies in the vast number of different devices and their specifications. While the spectrum real devices used in iOS is limited to just a few current product lines, Android requires consideration of a vast array of characteristics.
Even within a single device model, such as Realme, there can be 2-3 different processors, screen sizes, types, shell configurations, and more. Therefore, focusing more on device support is essential, although UX should not be overlooked.Sergey AlmyashevCOO, ZappleTech Inc.
It’s also important not to try to do everything yourself, as most tasks related to test automation for mobile apps can be delegated to contractors.
Benefits and Potential Challenges of Outsourcing Automation Mobile Testing Services
If you plan the development with your own in-house team or hire an external team for QA, you should know that automated mobile testing requires different skills and experience. It would be logical to entrust automated mobile testing to external professionals.
Yes, this is not always the ideal solution as it has its drawbacks (which are easily compensated for today). However, it is still the optimal way to implement mobile automated testing.
Challenges
Among the most common challenges of external mobile automation testing are:
- Process control
- Work quality
- Regional nuances
What is meant by this? Sometimes, contractors may not be well-versed in CI/CD methodologies and may ignore them. This is often due to time zone differences or other factors. However, such situations do not always arise in test automation for mobile web and apps. These issues can be mitigated by selecting the right project contractor (we will discuss this further).
Advantages of Hiring Specialized Contractors for Testing Tasks
There are significantly more advantages of external automated mobile testing than drawbacks, especially if you choose a reliable contractor for automating mobile app testing.
Let’s briefly consider the benefits of collaborating with external mobile automated testing teams.
Speed
Automated mobile testing is a somewhat time-consuming process, especially if you try to do it with an in-house team, dividing resources between development and QA. Outsourcing mobile automated testing allows you to speed up the whole mobile testing tool and process and meet product deployment deadlines.
Furthermore, you will have extra time to address critical or cosmetic issues.
Quality
The essence of automating mobile app testing is to maximize product quality. External experts in test automation for mobile apps are the factor that can take your IT solution automated mobile app testing to the next level.
However, this is only the case if the team specializing in mobile automated testing has sufficient experience in these services, as do the experts at ZappleTech.
Understanding the Value
You won’t achieve the desired results if you simply decide to conduct automated mobile testing because everyone else is doing it. However, when working with outsourcing teams, it’s the opposite.
Experts in mobile automation testing understand the value of QA and strive to bring the project to an ideal state.
How do you find such professionals? We will delve into that further.
Detailed Checklist for Project Managers When Evaluating Potential Contractors
ZappleTech experts understand how challenging it can be to find QA professionals in practice, as well as onboard them. So, here you will learn how to select a responsible provider of automating mobile app testing services right from the source.
Consider the following factors to find and hire true professionals:
Expertise
First and foremost, you should ensure that the experts understand automating mobile app testing. To do this, you can offer them a test assignment or simply ask them to show you some test cases from previous similar projects.
If the experts truly understand the topic and have completed similar orders before, you will receive confirmation of their expertise.
Experience
Extensive experience in the team with automating mobile app testing guarantees that your project will not encounter issues or that they will be resolved without unnecessary hassle, using the provider’s own resources.
In general, experience is often mentioned on the service provider’s website. You can also check various resources such as G2, TrustPilot, and DesignRush, and see when the first reviews about working with them appeared.
Industry Knowledge
Again, this relates to experience, specifically industry knowledge. Automating mobile app testing has specific features that differentiate QA algorithms from checks of other types of software.
Similar to the previous point, you can use specialized resources to check if the team knows how to work with your type of project.
Past Performance
How do you evaluate the effectiveness and productivity of QA, especially automating mobile app testing? Easy, using KPIs and other metrics that the contractor’s team should report to you.
For instance, at ZappleTech, we have our own tools for measuring productivity and effectiveness, which we share with our clients.
Guidance on Assessing a Contractor’s Proficiency in Mobile Automation Testing Tools, Languages, and Platforms
Before signing a hiring contract, we recommend discussing several vital questions about the processes of automating mobile app testing with the contractor. For example:
- What toolkit is used and why for aQA (automated QA)?
- Which programming languages are used to develop algorithms and why?
- Which platforms (cloud-based or otherwise) does the QA team utilize?
While the tech stack may not directly impact automating mobile app testing, it is important to ensure adaptability between development and QA teams in advance.
Importance of a Contractor’s Adaptability to Evolving Technologies and Methodologies
Modern methods and approaches to automating mobile app testing differ somewhat from those relevant five years ago. Nowadays, AI and ML have taken the stage to take over part of the experts’ routine, along with NLP tools that allow for faster and more efficient algorithm creation.
It is important that the automating mobile app testing team understands the value of these innovations and actively incorporates them into their processes operating systems. For example, ZappleTech’s experts are already using NLP and AI for automating mobile app testing.
Methods for Evaluating the Performance of the Testing Contractor During the Project Lifecycle
Not only the actual test results and bugs: your contractor should document their productivity coefficient in automating mobile app testing and actively report it. This will enable process improvement and a focus on performance.
Such practices also allow for routine and resource optimization, some cost savings, and the acceleration of certain processes in automating mobile app testing.
Guidance on Addressing and Rectifying Any Issues That May Arise in Mobile Automation Testing
Stressful situations often arise in automating mobile app testing. These can include:
- Missed bugs
- Deadline shifts
- Technical issues
- Internal team difficulties
- Lack of focus or distraction
In such cases, you will need to adapt and collaboratively find solutions to mitigate the negative consequences of these problems. Prepare for a measured response to such situations and discuss potential action plans with your contractor.
It’s better to anticipate and mitigate the risks in automating mobile app testing rather than dealing with their consequences.
Practical Insights Based on Industry Experiences
Everyone can make mistakes, even the most experienced developers or QA professionals. However, as humans, we are here to learn, especially from the experience of those who have successfully faced various problems and challenges.
Drawing on the experience of ZappleTech experts in automating mobile app testing, we can recommend the following:
- Sign a contract with the contractor.
- Collaboratively develop a roadmap and terms of cooperation (defining boundaries of influence and responsibilities).
- Include risk management, productivity metrics, reporting formats, and reporting frequency.
- Agree on strategies and the scope of work.
- Launch the project and periodically monitor its progress.
- Respond adequately to problems and cooperatively resolve them.
- Focus on user experience and the overall state of the product.
Ultimately, this will help form a close partnership that leads to the timely release of a high-quality product to the market and its success with the target audience.
ZappleTech Will Provide the Best Services for Mobile Automation Testing
Don’t know which contractor to choose for automating mobile app testing? The experts at ZappleTech are always at your service!
With over 10 years of expertise, hundreds of completed projects, and just as many satisfied clients. High ratings on leading service platforms, a deep understanding of key industries, needs, and values of the target audience. Profound knowledge and skills in all QA methods, platforms, and their variations.Mykhailo PoliarushCEO, ZappleTech Inc.
Not sure about our expertise? Request a consultation or demonstration from a team manager!
