- User Expectations
- Mobility and Data Networks
- Mobile Devices
- Mobile Release Cycles
- Mobile Testing Is Software Testing
- Summary
Mobile Testing Is Software Testing
Let’s come back to the story I told at the beginning of this chapter when the guy at the conference didn’t believe in the importance of mobile testing. He had the attitude that mobile testing is not real software testing. In his opinion, mobile apps were only small programs with less functionality and no real challenges when it comes to software testing. But this is definitely not the case. If you look at the topics I described in this chapter, you should have an initial impression about the challenging job of a mobile tester. Mobile testing is totally different from testing software applications such as Web or desktop applications. With mobile apps, physical devices have far more influence over the software that is running on them when compared to other software such as Web applications. Because there are so many different smartphones available on the market, mobile testers need to focus a lot more on hardware during the testing process. In addition, users moving around and using different data networks force mobile testers to be on the move while testing.
Besides the hardware, user expectations play an important part in the daily business of a mobile tester and need to be taken seriously.
There are many more topics and issues mobile testers need to know about in order to help the whole team release a successful app. The rest of the chapters in this book will cover the following topics:
- More challenges for mobile testers and solutions to those challenges
- How to test mobile apps systematically
- How to select the right mobile test automation tool
- The different concepts of mobile test automation tools
- How to find the right mobile testing strategy
- Additional mobile testing methods
- Required skills for mobile testers
Keep the topics from this chapter in mind as a starting point. Keep your app simple and fast (remember KIFSU). Test while you’re on the move, and test on different devices based on your target customer group.