Mobile App Testing Is Not The Same As Desktop App Testing

The Strategy

Apps developed by the company included Web Apps, Native Apps and Hybrid Apps. Jeff took stock of all the technology and testing methodologies and was confident that he would crack the deal for an Automotive Service Giant, where he was to first deliver his premier sales presentation for an App that the company had developed for such business models.

The Mobile App

The App was built on Jelly Bean Android Platform Version 4.3 specifically designed for Car Service Center chains across North America and Canada.

The App would help the Supervisors and the Technicians working at the Service Center make informed decisions while routing the car owners to a particular Service Station within 4 miles in case that the car bay at any given Station was at full capacity. This situation would mostly happen over weekends and the customers would experience long wait times to get their cars fixed or serviced. The App would also correctly route customers to stores based on the availability of parts.

The App would provide a benefit to the client – effectively manage the inflow over weekends and would also improve Customer Satisfaction, which in turn would positively impact the bottom line of the business. It was tested thoroughly and a limited-feature version was put on the Android Play Store available as a FREE download.

The Presentation

Jeff flew to Orlando, FL to present the App at the Car Service Company. This deal would be a milestone for his company if it was cracked.

Jeff was to present the salient features of the App to the top brass of the company which included 12 people across the different verticals of the organization. He started his presentation with his Android device connected to a device projector.

He ruled the roost when it came to presenting the App and the value it would add to the company. Soon everyone was impressed and the work seemed done before he even closed on the presentation to solicit any queries. He was standing on the podium with confidence until…..

The Bug

A rather amplified voice from the Manager of Services asked Jeff whether he could download the same App to his Android device. Jeff smiled and gave him the instructions to download. The Manager became busy with his mobile device for some time and soon he found out that he was unable to download the App on his device and every time he would do so, he would get an error:
“<insert app name >” could not be downloaded due to an error. (403)

After a couple of attempts in vain, he raised his voice yet again “it just won’t get on my phone”. Everyone in the board room seemed curious about what was going on. Jeff was left with no answer and he was just beating around the bush handling queries. Then someone from the team suggested to try downloading the App on WIFI without using the Carrier provided Network.

That worked and the App downloaded in a flash. But it would not work on the Carrier provided network. There it was, “A BUG”, everything seemed so well if this nasty bug had not surfaced. Skepticism overruled optimism and it all came to a grinding halt!

The Retrospection: Autopsy of Disaster

Jeff‘s disappointment slowly transformed into a thorough retrospection during the long trip back to the pavilion. “Why was this not tested?” was the question that was hitting the neurons of his brain again and again. “What’s going on? We are a service-based company with a special focus on Products, how could such a thing happen?”

Jeff’s retrospection uncovered that the QAs were accustomed to testing their Apps only on a selection of devices, but carriers required more money for procurement. It was not long before Jeff realized that Mobile Testing was completely different compared to Desktop Testing.

At BitWise, we understand this. Our Mobile App Testing approach focuses on covering the following salient features:

• Crowd-Sourced Testing: Accommodate the need of a wide array of devices and different carriers to cover testing the app on all the possible hardware combinations
• Performance Testing: Mobile Apps NEED to be tested on various Networks such as 3G, 3G+, H+, and 4G LTE
• Mobile App Battery Consumption Testing: Usage of Freeware tools to analyze the battery consumption by an App on a device.
• Automated Testing: Stress the use of Automation testing but the main challenge in Automation is technicality and Cost of the Tools. Cloud-based tools which provide a gamut of devices on various carriers also require technical knowledge but as far as the Cost is concerned; such tools are at times out of budget for many organizations.

The Out of the Box Solution: Automation

To beat this budget problem, BitWise has come up with a clever combination of testing strategies based on various cloud-based mobile testing providers with complementary strengths. Apart from reducing the cost, the user gets a multitude of choices for mobile platforms and carriers. Best of both worlds!