There is no doubt that in the new era of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices, people have become used to accessing information when and where they want it, these mobile devices enable them to stay connected. However, it is no longer individuals who want to do this just for social networking; businesses have now become major players in the game and are providing their employees and customers with instant access via bespoke applications targeting these devices.
As a direct result mobile applications become more and more attractive to companies as a means of 24/7 connectivity and information access especially with technological innovation in superfast 4G networks, NFC (Near Field Communication) devices, and availability of augmented reality and bar codes scanning. Mobiles devices using these technologies are revolutionising ways in which companies are conducting their business and spending in this area is increasing substantially.
Given the appetite for mobile devices from all sectors, there seems to be a rapid growth in different types of such devices coupled with a number of different operating systems to support them. We believe that testing these new applications is going to be a critical factor in making them successful and ensuring that companies do not suffer brand damage from releasing them in an unstable state.
So what are the challenges in testing applications on mobiles devices? First of all they don’t simply imitate Desktop environments but have their own user interfaces, business workflows and infrastructure dependencies. There is a choice of thin and thick clients and they must operate on a 24/7 basis, so businesses need to build new services and infrastructure separate from those servicing their normal applications. All this of course increases the risk of quality and performance problems occurring. Hence not only functional but performance validation of these applications is very important to mitigate the risks. Over the next few weeks I will be covering the various challenges in testing these applications.