Introduction
The technology industry is rapidly evolving, leading the development of new web and mobile applications daily. This implies an increase in the need for web and mobile application testing services. This is why app developers use a variety of app testing methods to evaluate both mobile and web applications to stay competitive in this fast-paced technological environment and keep their apps well-integrated and flexible to changes. A complete app testing strategy is the only approach to assure that applications are fully functional. Testers accomplish this by following various test scenarios that the app is subjected to and employing the most appropriate apptesting techniques. We’ll talk about mobile and Web app testing techniques, as well as various testing scenarios, as we progress through this blog.
Mobile App Testing Techniques and testing scenarios
We all know how mobile apps have become an integral part of today’s world. Statista shows that the number of mobile applications downloaded worldwide will reach 230 Billion by 2025. A majority of the world’s population is using mobile phones. To ensure that apps function properly, it becomes important for QA engineers to maintain the quality and functioning of mobile apps by performing mobile app testing to strengthen their usability, stability, and functionality.
What is mobile app testing and what are the various techniques used to perform mobile app testing? It is a process of evaluating mobile apps and websites by testing their compatibility across different devices and enhancing their performance in different scenarios. Different firms create different mobile applications based on various business requirements. The choice of mobile application testing techniques depends on the type of mobile application. There are native, mobile web apps, hybrid apps, and progressive web apps tested either on emulators or real devices.
Mobile and Web application techniques and scenarios:
The testing techniques for web and mobile apps are somewhat similar but there are some key differences as well. Let us look at the various Mobile App Testing Techniques broadly used by the testers:
1. Documentation Testing: This app testing method is used in the very early stages of mobile app testing when the testers examine the wireframes, navigational charts, and other elements for consistency and accuracy. All the issues are resolved before the actual testing starts. The documents related to functional requirements, product requirements, test cases, test plans, test coverage, and traceability matrix are covered in this testing stage.
2. Functional Testing: This mobile and web app testing technique is used to check all the specific functionalities of the mobile application to ensure that there is no error in the app and the quality of the app is maintained. Testers should keep the following factors in mind before performing functional testing:
-Business functionality of the app (like banking/ online shopping/ gaming/ social/ food ordering, etc.)
-Target Audience (consumer/ education/ enterprise/ traveling, etc.)
– Application Distribution Channel ( App stores – Apple and Google Play/ Direct distribution, etc. )
Here is a list of the test scenarios that need to be covered in the functional testing stage:
-Validate that all the mandatory functions are working as specified.
-Check whether the mandatory fields are displayed distinctly from other fields.
-Check if the app works well in the specified device and OS versions.
-Check if the app downloads and installs smoothly for all the users.
-Check if the device can multitask when the app is running in the background.
-Check if the app restricts the functioning of other apps on the device once installed.
-Check if the social networking features on the app work as expected.
– Check if the app accommodates payment gateway transactions like VISA, MasterCard, etc.
– Check if the page scrolling in the app works as expected.
-Does the app notify network error messages when there is any network issue?
-Is it easy to navigate between the relevant modules in the app?
-Validate if the truncation errors are within the manageable limit.
-Validate that the app resumes the last operation whenever there is a system crash or hard reboot.
-Validate that the app performs the auto start smoothly as specified in the requirements.
-Check whether the app performs well in all network versions of mobile i.e. 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G.
-Check to see if the application provides the user guide to the users.
-Check to see if the app works as per the specified instructions in case of stop/start action.
-Check to see if the app minimizes automatically when there is a phone call.
-Check to see that your phone SMS service is functional (store, process, receive SMS) when the app is running.
3. Performance Testing: This app testing techniqueassures that the app, whether web or mobile, runs well under any stress or workload situation. It is performed to validate how stable the app performance is in terms of operability, resource utilization, etc. in extreme working conditions.
-Mobile app performance testing is performed to check its stability for normal vs. extreme loads.
-To check its ability to sustain a continuous period of stress so that it doesn’t crash.
-To check the App’s performance while handling a huge amount of data is also tested.
-Concurrency testing is also run to check the performance of the app in case of multiple user logins.
Here are a few of the test scenarios in performance testing:
-Validate how the app performs in different load and stress conditions.
-Check the app performance in the given network coverage when the user levels are at peak, average 7 and the lowest.
-Validate the performance of the existing client-server configuration set up.
-Validate application response time as specified.
-Evaluate if the battery life performs well in extreme load conditions while using the app.
-Evaluate the app performance during network switch from WiFi to 2G, 3G, 4G or vice versa.
-Validate app performance in intermittent connectivity.
4.Security Testing: This app testing technique is used to check how secure the app is against any security flaws, loopholes, and risks caused by viruses, malware, hackers, unauthorized access, etc. This type of testing will ensure the app’s data and network security requirements follow the set guidelines. Here are some of the testing scenarios to cover in security testing:
-Check to see if the app security system asks users to set a strong password.
– Ensure that the user data like login credentials, passwords, payment credentials, etc. are secured
– Ensure that the app does not allow any data access without user authentication.
-Ensure protection against Hackers, CSS, SQL injection, Denial of service, distributed denial of service attacks.
-Check to see if the insufficient session expiration impacts the app.
-Check to see if the app prevents any insecure data storage in cookies, the cache memory of the application.
Here is a helpful poster that captures these App Testing Techniques
5. Compatibility Testing: Compatibility app testing technique is another important testing technique to ensure that the app is compatible with different combinations of OS, browsers, mobile devices, networks, etc.
The following are the prime test scenarios for compatibility:
-Validate that the user interface(UI) of the app matches the device size.
-Ensure that the text is legible for all its users.
-Validate that the call function is active when the app is running, the app is minimized during the call and then resumed when the call stops.
6. Usability Testing: This mobile app testing technique is used to determine how user-friendly an app is and to identify any faults with the app’s overall user experience.
Top test scenarios for usability testing:
-Validate that the app works well during multitasking
-Check to see that the app navigation works well
-Ensure that text and button sizes are visible to the user and are easily clickable. Ensure that colors are vibrant, and that images and icons are not blurred.
– Ensure that the app menus are not overcrowded, zoom functions are working as expected
-Ensure that the app enables the undo and cancel function in case a wrong button is pressed
-Validate that the screen load speed and response time are not slow.
7. Recovery testing:
Recovery Testing is a mobile app testing technique that is conducted to check the ability of the app to recover easily from any potential failures and issues related to hardware, software, network, server, etc.
Let us see a few test case scenarios that a tester should cover in the recovery testing:
-Validate the app’s ability to recover from unforeseen crashes, network failures, system failures, battery failures, accidental app shutdown, etc.
-Ensure that the app can recover the data affected by suspended connection
8. UI Testing: UI Testing ensures that the Graphical User Interface of the app meets the specified expectations of the consumers.
Here are the test scenarios to cover in this case:
– Check to see if the app UI is compliant with the set standards and is compatible with all screen resolutions and various device types
– Ensure that the advertising banners don’t overlap other elements and buttons on the app.
– Test to ensure that the portrait and landscape mode displays properly
-Test that all GUI elements like buttons, icons, fonts, layouts, pop-ups, alerts, text boxes, etc. function properly.
9. Localization Testing:
This app testing method is used to check the adaptability of the app for the location-based audience as per their cultural, language, and geographic differences.
The following test scenarios cover this case:
-Check to see if the language, translations, currency conversions, date, time zones are supported by the application as per the user’s geographic location.
10.Regression Testing: Regression Testing is performed to ensure that the bugs discovered at different phases of the testing process have been fixed by the development teams (re-testing) and ensure that the new code changes do not add more defects in the application.
Web Application Testing Techniques and testing scenarios:
We all know that software will never be bug-free, but software testers all over the world utilize a variety of app testingmethods to ensure that issues are addressed as soon as possible. Web applications, mobile apps, come in a variety of types, including simple static web apps, dynamic web apps, e-commerce, and mobile app websites. Apart from the above mentioned mobile application testing techniques like performance, regression, compatibility, Usability, Security testing, testers use various web application testing techniques such as:
-Cross-Browser testing : A web app testing technique to check the compatibility of a web app across different browsers on mobile and web. Cross-browser testing is important because browser versions are updated frequently and sometimes users use the new website on the old browser which starts to crash if non-compatible.
– Web UI testing to verify if the web app is connected well with the web server, app, and database server interface.
–Unit testing to check the correctness of small units of code to view detailed code performance and app behavior
-Integration testing to verify the behavior of code units and interactions of app elements with each other.
-System testing to check if all components are integrated well and check if the system meets all technical and functional requirements.
-Acceptance testing to check the app quality and verify the system compliance with the business requirement.
-Functional testing for web apps checks if the links are working properly, testing cookies, form database for security, or validating HTML/CSS.
-Security Testing for web apps checks things like testing SSL for security, CAPTCHA for automated logins, whether direct access to a web directory is possible or not, etc.
Top web application test scenarios are:
-Verifying web app performance when there is a high load on the server, the web server, database query response, etc.
-Check the server downtime, maintenance, and upgrades
-Check website Content updates, check any grammatical errors, etc.
-Check the reliability of the Site’s internet connection to support backups and manage redundant network requirements
-Verify that the page appearance / graphics/ buttons/ links/ images/ scroll bars, etc. are properly aligned to the specified page
– Check if the website is compatible across various browsers
-Check the security of the database by verifying important user data pass through HTTPS (SSL)
Conclusion:
Quality issues with mobile and web applications can bring a lot of disappointment to your customers and damage the brand image. For any application to be successful there has to be an effective app testing technique and strategy in place to enhance the quality of the apps.
Mobile app testing and web app testing techniques are different from each other. They have their own challenges; hence both have specific testing techniques to mitigate risks associated with their functioning. The above mentioned scenarios give us much more clarity into the issues that the app developers need to consider for testing in order to deliver the best quality web and mobile applications.
Published on Java Code Geeks with permission by Priyanka Charak, partner at our JCG program. See the original article here: Top App Testing Techniques and Testing Scenarios for Web and Mobile Opinions expressed by Java Code Geeks contributors are their own. |
