In a highly competitive industry like that of mobile apps, quality plays a paramount role. An app that works in a bug-free manner across all devices and OS versions can easily beat the competition. But to ensure this, a mobile app development company must have a Quality Assurance (QA) testing plan.
What are the critical steps in a quality assurance process? Let us have a look.
Establish a QA testing process
The QA plan should offer a clear roadmap for app testing. The plan should provide clear specifications for the testing all through the projects and different testing levels. It should also mention the testing process scopes and related assumptions. Lastly, it should come with a checklist to fulfill the completion criteria.
Incorporate QA from the beginning
You need to include the quality analyst team in the project right from the start. This would help to detect the bug-prone areas right from the start and ensure better quality.
Documentation
Documentation is always an essential part of the QA process. All the changes and correlated activities of the testers should be mentioned within the document for future reference.
Communicating the developers
QA testing teams and developers come from separate domains, and therefore a successful QA process needs clear communication between them.
Common Quality Problems in Mobile Apps
Most mobile apps face the below-mentioned quality problems.
Functionality problems
Functionality problems refer to the issues concerning the user journey and app navigation flow. The app must have a highly functional User Interface meeting the functional needs of the app. Some of the common problems under this category include app installation, signup, and login, device feature integration, error messages, app updates, and usability issues.
Performance bottlenecks
Performance problems account for the greatest number of user complaints about apps.
Ensuring scalability to accommodate the greatest number of apps is essential to maintain performance. Other performance metrics include a battery, data consumption, RAM, etc.
Security vulnerabilities
Mobile apps are exposed to security vulnerabilities of different types. Some of the critical areas in this category of issues include user authentication, user authorization, the confidentiality of data, security of data storage, and vulnerabilities generated from web services.
Time-tested practices for Quality Assurance in-app projects.
Over the years, some practices in quality assurance have stood as effective and tested and tried for mobile app projects. Let us have a quick look at some of these practices.
Device Grouping
Since there are more than 3 Billion active devices and still counting across Android and iOS, testing the app on all significant devices is challenging. Therefore, QA testers need to group devices.
First, get a realistic analysis of the devices used by your target audience in different regions. Go deeper into the segmented analysis of the trait of the audience related to devices in the specific areas, at last prepare a list of popular devices in every area.
Since smartphone brands continue to come with new devices now and then, you need to study every instrument and how long they will be in the market, and when they are going to be deregulated. Check out the plans that the brands behind these devices have for updating them and new releases shortly.
When you make a detailed list of device concentrations in different regions, you know the device-OS combinations in every area to focus upon. Once the list of priority devices is ready, you can optimize your app for them,
Make testing as comprehensive as possible
Testing is at the very core of the Mobile App Quality Assurance process. There are different tests, and you can choose to limit to a particular test or go for testing across multiple categories. It is better to have a comprehensive testing approach.
The QA team should carry out the tests, including Performance and Load Test, User Experience Test, Integration and Compatibility Test, and Security Test.
Testing on different device capacity
Since there are too many types of devices with different configurations, most developers prefer using emulators to deal with screen size differences. But other device-specific issues need to be addressed as well. Therefore, test in as many devices as possible representing different device capacities.
Make a list of the leading ten smartphones used by the target audience, and make sure your app is tested on all these devices.
Evaluate resource utilization
Make sure you have a clear idea about the resource usage by the app well before the app is launched. If the app consumes too much battery or RAM, it risks being uninstalled by the users.
Therefore, run the app when the target device has 100% battery and use the same app for 3-4 hours on an average charge. It is also essential to compare the battery consumption by other similar apps on the same device.
Testing under different stress levels
An app should be tested under different stress levels, including high and low memory consumption, high data, high processing power usage, high level of user inputs, high memory utilization, different signal strength, etc. This will give you a clear picture of the app’s performance under other usage conditions.
QA Automation
These days, QA testing teams help automation testing tools carry out different tests under different environments and stress levels. Testing automation streamlines the process while consuming fewer resources and offering results less prone to human errors and biases.
Testing automation best works for compatibility, interoperability testing, functional testing, stress testing, and all tests carried out on many app components and build.
Conclusion
Quality Assurance happens to play the most crucial role in building a great app that can stand apart from the competition. These practices set the standard for QA processes, but different app projects can also embrace more rigorous testing by choice.
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