5 THINGS

TO CONSIDER
WHEN ADOPTING
MOBILE TEST
AUTOMATION

Software failures -- bugs, crashes or other unexpected behavior -with mobile apps can quickly cost their creators reputation, and
pushthe app down in a search order. Only those 5-star ratings will
keep the app in front of hundreds of millions of downloaders,
and every appcreator should be aware of that.

In this context, the name of the game in

todays competitive mobile application
landscape is a speed combined with
robustness. The speed means a time
how often developers can publish
updates to their applications. And
the robustness is the most relevant
factor to popularity -- and will the
app be exposed to hundreds of millions of users. So, what should app
creators do to get their app quickly
out and more robust?
For starters, test automation can provide various benefits to its adopters: coverage to detect bugs and errors -- early and later
during the development -- and significantly to
reduce the cost of failure, save time through its
repeatability and earlier verification, and leverage
the improved resource productivity.

As applications under development

constantly change and become
more complex, the feature set in
those keeps growing and need for
tests should increase with the same
tendency. For instance, just one new
critical feature added in your app and all
features should be tested to ensure correct behavior. Well, manual testing cant
keep up these sorts of iterations. Automation -- when built properly and adopted professionally -- will solve this for developers.
However, if test automation is not correctly implemented, it is going to be trickier
for testers in a long run. If tests have to
be rewritten each and every time, users
will keep starting over and over instead
of building on prior efforts. Therefore,
it is essential to adopt an approach that
supports maintainability over the PLC of
the application.
Ready to learn 5 things to consider when
automating mobile app testing?

Lets get started!

T
U
O
B
A
K
N
THI
T
N
E
M
T
S
E
THE INV
S
T
E
S
S
A
.
S
V
S
T
S
CO

Test automation for mobile is already a

critical factor for larger mobile app companies, but for some reason it is often thought
to be too expensive or difficult to adopt by
smaller companies. This is probably due
to historical reasons: smaller companies are hesitant to make up-front
investments. However, regardless
of if company selects manual and
test automation, they will need
the following assets and resources
and those will cost some money:
Time, People, tInfrastructure, Tools,
and Training.

APP
APP
APP

ROI

Depending on the size of the project

and application it is quite obvious
that test automation will provide a
return on investment (ROI) how
big is the ROI entirely depends on
how test automation is adopted
and executed. Acquisition costs are
typically higher in test automation
but those will quickly pay off and
increase the ROI in the long run.
For example, once tests are created, those can be executed over and
over again at no additional cost. In
fact, automated testing can reduce
the time to run repetitive tests from
weeks to hours. This is a significant
timesvaving that translates directly
into cost-savings.

T
N
E
M
P
O
L
E
V
E
D
P
P
A
E
L
C
Y
C
G
& TESTIN

R
E
H
T
E
G
O
T
S
ALWAY

Increasing the efficiency and productivity starts with a new mindset. Every time source code is modified tests should be repeated -- during any
phases of the development. For each app build, tests should be executed
on as major set of real devices as possible, with different OS versions and
HW configurations. Manually that would be too costly and time consuming.
Furthermore, humans are not infallible. Were not and never will be as
accurate and precise as machines and generated test cases. Even the
most conscientious tester will do basic mistakes during manual testing. Automated tests perform the same steps precisely each and every time and
never forget any details.

D
N
A
S
L
O
O
T
Y
G
O
L
O
N
H
TEC
N
O
I
T
A
M

O
T
U
A
T
TES AMEWORKS
FR

To get the most out of your testing efforts, the

selection of the most robust and even cross-platform automated testing framework is truly the
best way to ensure maximal test coverage, on time and with great results.
Keep in mind that testing frameworks,
l
l
e
w
such as Robotium, uiautomator, Sele Its a
t
tha
t
c
a
nium, Calabash, Appium, and many
f
n
w
kno
sting
others, are just methods. Some of
e
t
d
e
t
a
m
auto
those are better suited for native app
s
k
r
o
w
frame
testing, some better for web and hyr
o
f
d
e
s
brid app testing, but to get the most
can be u ting
out of those frameworks you need
ida
l
a
v
h
t
o
b
nd
a
professional testing tools and fully
s
t
n
e
m
e
r
i
requ
utilize benefits that those framets
s
o
c
e
h
t
works have to offer.
reducing
h

ug
o
r
h
t
g
n
i
of test
.
n
o
i
t
a
r
e
test gen

JENKINS
Also, one essential tool for mobile developers to use in order
to automate their testing effort
is Jenkins, which is currently the
leading open source continuous
integration (CI) server monitoring
executions of repeated jobs, such
as building a software project or
jobs.
Here are two jobs that the current
Jenkins focuses on:

Monitoring
executions of
externally-run
jobs

Building/testing
software projects
continuously

E
G
A
R
E
V
O
TEST C LITY
I
B
A
S
O
U
N
E
R
S
&
N
A
S ME

D
R
A
D
N
A
T
N
S
I
N
K
E
C
P
O
O
L
R
O
D
N
VE

Lengthy and thorough tests -- that are often not

covered with manual testing -- can run automatically, and test all aspects of it:
memory contents, data tables, file
contents, and internal program
Test automation for
states to determine if the product
mobile apps can
is behaving as expected. As an automated tests can easily execute
significantly increase
thousands of different complex
the depth and scope of
test cases during every test sestests and improve the
sion, providing the coverage that
quality.
is not doable with manual testing.
One important thing to consider
here is that developers and testers
should stick with open standards and
only test cases relying on open, transparent APIs should be used for testing. This will
help in reusing tests later on.

E
M
O
C
T
OU G EFFICIENCY,ING

N
T
I
T
V
E
O
G
R
D
P
N
IM
A
,
S
S
E
N
E
V
I
R
T
E
C
E
N
F
O
F
O
E
OUT S

In a nutshell, professional test automation can be seen as a

solution to a common business problem:

HOW TO
INCREASE TEST
EFFICIENCY?

HOW TO
INCREASE TEST
EFFECTIVENESS?

HOW TO
SHRINK TIME TO
MARKET?

HOW TO PRODUCE
HIGH-QUALITY, ROBUST
AND RELIABLE APPS WITH
EVER-GROWING COMPLEXITY
WITH TECHNOLOGY UNDER
MASSIVE COMPETITIVE
PRESSURE?

Testing efficiency is the average number of tests you can run for an hour of
tester time. Higher testing efficiency
drives down product development
time and costs, improving your
bottom line. Testing effectiveness
is the rate at which your testing
technology reveals bugs before
your systems are released. Increased

effectiveness

reduces

costs through a better product,

improving your bottom line now
and your top line later by building
customer satisfaction and loyalty.
The mobile ecosystem is very dynamic, but also suffers from both software
and hardware fragmentation.As OEMs are launching
new devices with new customizations and new OS versions are
also delivered constantly, it is important deliver constant updates to your application.
To meet the market and device compatibility it is recommended to test you app against
all real devices. In this, test automation has you covered -- you already have those tests
that are reusable -- without any investment costs or manual intervention.

To summarize:
TEST AUTOMATION
REQUIRES KNOWLEDGE,
SKILLS AND NEW MINDSET

BUT IT WILL SURELY PAY

BACK!

TIME SPENT ON
A TEST AUTOMATION
WILL GUARANTEE
RETURN ON INVESTMENT

INTEGRATING THE TEST

AUTOMATION INTO
OVERALL DEVELOPMENT
LIFECYCLE IS A GREAT WAY
TO START

CREATING AND ADOPTING

TEST AUTOMATION
FOR YOUR MOBILE APP
IS NOT DIFFICULT

TAKE A LOOK ATTESTDROID

CLOUDFOR STARTERS!

START AUTOMATING
APP TESTING

Want to learn more on the how to start mobile app test automation?

Sign up for a dedicated free online

live demo from Testdroid.