Key Factors Considered While Devising a Successful Mobile App Strategy

Mobile apps are in trend now for all the right reasons. Easy use and accessibility to important information all the time has led to the increasing use of mobile apps. However, testers who are entrusted with the responsibility of bringing a well-functioning mobile app in the market know the real complexities of devising a mobile app strategy. It should be devised keeping in mind customer expectations. At the same time, quality assurance, business goals and industry best practices must come together to create an app that takes the market by storm. So, what are the pre-requisites of a winning mobile app strategy? Let’s take a look.

Mobile Device Selection

The foremost consideration before beginning the mobile app testing activity is the method of testing the app. and the selection of the device in which the app is tested. Such a device is selected on the basis of the following aspects:

·         OS Version- It is advisable to test the app on all stable OS versions.

·         Form Factor- Mobile applications that run smoothly on mobile may not do the same when run on tablets. So, if the app is meant to run on both, it should be tested for both form factors.

·         Screen Resolution- It is good to use a mix of different screen resolutions for the purpose of testing the mobile app. This is because user operations vary depending on screen size and resolution.

Apart from these, several other factors like memory size and connectivity options should also be accounted for while selecting the device.

Cloud-Based Mobile App Testing

Cloud-based testing is now a preferred option for testing mobile apps primarily because cloud enables multiple scenario combinations easier to manage. Cloud computing makes way for a testing environment where applications can be deployed, tested as well as managed. It keeps a check on the project costs as well. Also, cloud-based testing delivers the following benefits:

·         The environment provides pre-configured and highly synchronized architectures. This helps in reducing defects arising from unstable test configurations.

·         The cloud-based environment offers real-time results, thereby, enabling detection of defects while the tests are running.

·         Cloud testing makes testing of dynamic applications easy as they have the ability to support complex testing scenarios.

·         With huge scalability, cloud testing enables leveraging an application’s capacity to the fullest.

Network Connectivity

This is another important component of a winning mobile app testing strategy. Most mobile applications depend on network connections to work in a proper way. Since network connectivity significantly affects mobile applications, testing the apps in the actual network environment is necessary to get an idea of the application’s performance. Even while testing the mobile apps in an always-on internet connectivity, certain factors need to be considered. These include connectivity with high latency, limited connectivity, zero connectivity and metered connectivity. 

A good number of network simulation tools are also available to test the mobile apps against bandwidth limitations, network speeds, connection drop outs and so on. These simulation tools add additional value to the overall testing activities.