Automated testing: a game changer for mobile app quality assurance

Worldwide it is estimated that there are over 6.6 billion smartphone users, and the mobile app industry is thriving – around 90% of mobile device usage is devoted to apps. This insight focuses on the quality assurance of mobile applications and outlines why automated mobile testing-as-a-service (AMTaaS) is considered a game changer for mobile app quality assurance.

More utilization, more quality assurance

Not only have the number of mobile phone users increased, but even tablet users continuously evolved over the past years e.g., reaching 1.14 billion users globally in 2017. The leading app providers are Google Play Store for Android, Apple App Store for iOS, and Amazon App Store. In total, an estimated 142.6 billion apps were downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store in 2022. The entire mobile app ecosystem requires more and more quality assurance to fulfill the demands of updating and releasing apps in a shorter time.

Key QA challenges for mobile app testing

At BearingPoint, we test mobile apps effectively and efficiently. Six key challenges in our mobile testing framework should be a part of every comprehensive app test for the best functionality, performance, and usability.

^{Six key challenges for mobile app testing}

Benefits of automation on mobile testing

Considering these six key challenges, we have defined an automated mobile app test approach that offers the following business benefits and added value by enhancing the quality assurance of mobile app testing:

A reliable and consistent testing strategy

No matter who created the script, a tester can run any test anytime. Results are more consistently produced by repeating an automated script execution.

Test progress monitoring

A common tactic is to compare performance with similar or past event projects based on test execution reports to determine quickly how the current implementations are progressing, the number of defects found, and their level of severity recognized.

Testing effort reduction

More tests are executed in less time. Instead of manually reentering test data each time with the risk of human error, testers can spend more time fine-tuning automated scripts for increasingly complicated scenarios.

Faster time to market

As testers of mobile apps can accomplish more with less, development projects are completed faster and mobile apps are released in a shorter period of time.

Regression testing outside business hours

Automation has a lot to offer in this area. At the end of a workday, start several automated tests, and the following morning, assess the pass/fail percentage.

Reassure security

Even when customers modify their security settings, automation enables you to build specific security-related scripts that may be executed whenever there are security updates.

Optimizing mobile app QA with Automated Mobile Testing-as-a-Service (AMTaaS)

BearingPoint’s optimized mobile app test approach – automated mobile testing-as-a-service (AMTaaS) – is a game changer for mobile app quality assurance. Our AMTaaS offering combines a standard and effective mobile test automation strategy, framework, and reusable tool services for different app layers, test environments, and test types.

^{AMTaaS in a nutshell}

Our AMTaaS approach to enhance your mobile app quality

To provide performing mobile apps, we recommend following the complete BearingPoint life cycle for automated mobile testing-as-a-service, which focuses on providing customers with a safe and flawless product. It is characterized as customer-centric and based on eight phases of success.

^{Life cycle for automated mobile testing-as-a-service}

Based on customer needs, we build a tailor-made test plan and choose the correspondent automation tool for testing. The test case design is a prerequisite for success. Tests that are not reliable can generate false positives, which lead to bad quality if undetected.

The creation and execution of the test cases are recorded step by step, and an engineer can detect the failures, which are then forwarded to the developer.

Due to continuous testing, we assure agility for an application of high quality. The mobile testing strategies include Scrum and DevOps for a scalable solution for a team´s best organization.

Conclusion

We recommend automated mobile testing-as-a-service (AMTaaS). You immediately benefit from holistic and continuous testing, which saves time and money and delivers apps faster to the market.