Mobile applications are the sole reason for the rise in popularity of smartphones. The ease and convenience of mobile applications usage has created a huge dependency on it. Over the years, the number and variety of consumer and enterprise mobile applications has grown phenomenally.

1. White Paper
Mobile Application
Testing

2. Introduction
Understanding Mobile Application Testing
Challenges faced while testing mobile applications
Why are we amongst the best in mobile application testing?
Methodology
Automation Testing Strategy
Conclusion
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Index

3. 3
With the advent of smartphones, a mobile phone has evolved from being just a communication device to a highly
sophisticated business utility equipment. With smartphones no longer remaining a conspicuous consumption, they have
become an efficient tool for handling finances, managing mails & agendas, and executing other business functions.
Statistics highlight that 1.6 billion smart phones are sold at a rate of 1.8 to 2 million devices a day since 2007, and 1.5 billion
smartphones will be shipped in 2016 – a 5.7 percent increase from 2015 – and will reach 1.92 billion by 2020.
Mobile applications are the sole reason for the rise in popularity of smartphones. The ease and convenience of mobile
applications usage has created a huge dependency on it. Over the years, the number and variety of consumer and
enterprise mobile applications has grown phenomenally. Considering the abundance of mobile applications and the
low cost of purchasing one, uninstalling a non-responsive application is just a touch away. This puts a lot of pressure on
organizations developing mobile applications. They must adhere to stringent quality control measures to ensure they
do not lose out on the business significance.
The development of mobile application is a very complex process and hence the possibility of bugs and errors cannot be
ruled out. Testing of mobile applications becomes a pre-launch mandate for organizations to ensure that they stay ahead
of the competition. Another aspect highlighting the importance of mobile testing is the variety of applications available for
the public. Hence an error-prone 'app' is very unlikely to be forgiven by people and soon the app would be on its way out
(of business).
Introduction

4. 4
Testing is an activity of verifying whether a system or a product meets customers’ requirements.
While functional testing verifies the intended functionality of the system/product, non-functional testing however
verifies how the system operates and the parameters which are not related to specific function or action.
Mobile application testing verifies installation, compatibility, responsiveness, consistency, and layout of the application in
addition to functional and non-functional aspect of it.
Wikipedia defines the term Mobile Application Testing as, ‘’Mobile application testing is a process by which application
software developed for hand held mobile devices is tested for its functionality, usability and consistency.
Mobile applications either come pre-installed or can be installed from mobile software distribution platforms.’’
Mobile application testing is not a conventional desktop testing and has to be device and platform agnostic. Due to
varied OS platforms and browsers, numerous compatibility issues can be identified in addition to the functional and
non-functional issues. So there is a need for focused application testing on mobile devices.
Mobile applications are classified into Native, Web and Hybrid, the testing strategy for each would differ as per the
nature of the application. Native applications are built for the specific device and its operating system, for example an
application built for android device may work only on android devices. Mobile testing for native app ensures smooth
download and installation of the app. It will also cover backward compatibility.
Understanding Mobile Application Testing

5. 5
Web applications are for different platforms and are accessible across the internet without being explicitly installed on
any specific device or platform. Web application can be accessible from anywhere so testing strategy would not require
downloading and installation of the application.
Hybrid applications are a combination of both native and web applications. Most crucial and complex testing would be
testing of hybrid applications, which can be executed anywhere and on any device. Checking compatibility on each
platform with intended functionality is cumbersome.
Thus in all to have robust testing strategy for the mobile application is important.
Developing testing strategy in end user’s perspective is very important. While using application the common
challenges faced by mobile application users are:
∠ The application is unresponsive for long time
∠ The application crashes
∠ The application consumes significant bandwidth
∠ The impending security concerns

6. 6
The multimodal platforms, operating systems, and device types create a plethora of challenges for a mobile application.
Some common challenges include:
Range of Mobile Devices
There are innumerable types of mobile devices available in the market. Consumers have multiple selection
choices – ranging from handsets to smart phones, tabs, iPads, wearable tech etc. This creates a huge diversity of
environments that your mobile app faces. Mobile testing in this wide range of devices and environments is challenging,
especially when the size of the device plays a major role with over 130 resolutions.
Device Fragmentation & Various OS Platforms
As per the customer’s requirement, mobile apps can be installed on any operating systems like iOS, Android, Blackberry,
Windows etc. Real world testing on these many OS is challenging, as mobile apps behave differently on each OS. Mobile
application can also be deployed on any environment or device that encompasses multiple versions of an operating
system such as iOS 8, iOS 7.X, BB 10.X, Windows 8.X, windows 7.X, 2.
Mobile App Types
Mobile apps are not just limited to being native, it has evolved to being web and hybrid app. Mobile testing of each type
of app is different. The end users always require the mobile app to be supported on all kind of environments.
Numerous Test Interfaces
Exhaustive testing on real device is not possible all the time with numerous test interfaces. Emulators and Simulators are
important tools and they are used to verify general functionality and perform regular regression testing. Since the testing
in virtual environment will not give the real world test results, so their scope is very limited.
With the huge quantum of mobile applications competing to capture the biggest market share, there is a greater need for
a robust testing methodology. Thus to say, ‘Mobile Testing is important’ is an understatement!
Challenges faced while testing mobile applications

7. 7
Jade Global has created its own Mobile Testing Lab with range of devices for real world testing. We understand mobile
apps and its intended use, and then target the most important devices. It gives confidence and maximum testing
coverage. Jade Global adopts a holistic test strategy encompassing emulators, real devices and Cloud to reducing cost
and manual effort. Having the right mix of emulators, real devices and Cloud apps, Jade Global has adopted a unique
testing strategy for maximum testing coverage.
It covers four main aspects while developing mobile application testing strategy:
Special focus is given to critical cases like poor network, low signal strength, unexpected impacts on memory,
low battery power, specific constraints as per device, and recovery after fatal error.
Why are we amongst the best in mobile application testing?
Mobile
Application
Testing
End User
perspective
Configuration
and Installation
Perspective
Functional and
Non-functional
perspective
Compatibility
perspective

8. 8
Real Devices
Real world testing is required with different screen sizes to check the downloading and installation process for the native
and hybrid app, checking responsive screen with change in resolutions, configurations and technical compatibility.
It covers functional and usability testing, and validation of all tests in testing lab before the app goes live.
Emulators
Requirement keeps changing till the time app ships. So it’s not feasible to repeat real world testing after every
requirement change or implementation. Jade Global uses emulators to identify bugs and functional problems.
To consider the impact of security and the network we then move the testing to real device.
Unlike conventional scenarios, it is important to anticipate about the unexpected behavior of the mobile app in certain
situations, and check the performance and other conditions end users may often run into. Jade Global testing team
considers following key considerations while testing using emulators:
∠ Bad Network
∠ Low signal Strength
∠ Unexpected impacts on memory
∠ Low battery power
∠ Specific constraints as per device
∠ Recovery after fatal error
Cloud Solution
Many times the budgeting is low with strict timelines, with high costing per test or large number of test cases.
In such scenarios, Jade Global testing team adopts Cloud testing solution. It has unlimited storage, quick availability of
the infrastructure with scalability, flexibility and availability of distributed testing environment to reduce the execution
time of testing of large applications and this leads to cost-effective solutions.
Methodology

9. Performance testing
In addition to conventional testing it is important we test the performance and security of mobile apps. This is quite
different from performance testing of web or desktop application. With more and more users moving to smartphones
the margin of performance is getting slimmer and hence performance testing becomes an integral part of mobile app
testing.
Using emulators, same test can be run on thousands of devices to check the performance of the application, since it
also reduces the testing cost and time. This cloud testing solution can also be used to web based and hybrid apps.
It is difficult to test the performance of a mobile app in real world using actual devices. Depending on customer specific
need performance testing on real devices can be achieved.
Security testing
With people executing huge monetary transactions over their smart phones, the hackers also start targeting mobile
apps. To avoid the penetration of hackers to the mobile apps - security testing is essential.
Following techniques are used for mobile security testing:
1. Penetration testing:
This test is done with the intention of finding security weakness by penetrating dummy data into the system
2. Password cracking:
This is the process of recovering password from data which is stored in the system
3. SQL injection:
Inserting malicious SQL statements into an entry field for execution
4. Cross site scripting:
Inserting malicious script
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10. 10
Jade Global has devised a solution that has tremendously reduced the manual testing efforts with approximately 70-80%
ROI. We have delivered Regression, Smoke and Functional mobile automation suite to our clients.
An automation test suite is discovered from the manual test cases, and a strategy is devised to automate required
test cases. Around 70% to 90% manual test cases will be automated to ensure a maximized ROI. Depending on the
requirement and application under test, a customized automation framework is created that is device specific.
The reporting and quality metrics are also customized as per the requirement, and updated on the client’s Knowledge
Base along with other process improvements.
Automation Testing Strategy

11. Devising a testing strategy goes a long way in minimizing bugs and increasing efficiency of the mobile application.
The testing strategy has to ensure 100% test coverage with the best-fit tools and simulators. With new technologies
introducing new mobile ecosystems, it is also necessary to manage a proper Knowledge Base.
Though mobile application testing has innumerable challenges, the key is to devise an end-to-end testing strategy
that blends manual and automated testing. The testing methodology should also evolve with the evolving mobile
ecosystems.
Conclusion
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12. About the author
About Jade Global, Inc.
Snehal Landge
Associate Manager - QA
Snehal Landge is an Associate Manager – QA with
Jade Global, having 13 years of experience, including
leading teams and developing testing expertise in
different areas (mobile application, functional, security,
performance, automation). She has worked on mobile
application testing projects for more than 6 years.
Snehal has extensive experience in manual and
automation testing using the tools like Quality center,
JIRA, Selenium, Ap -Test manager on multiple OS.
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Jade Global is a premier Advisory, Integration, Testing, Cloud & Consulting Services, Business Solutions and IT
outsourcing company headquartered in San Jose, California with offices in San Diego, Atlanta, Reading, Pune, Noida
and Hyderabad. With more than 600 employees worldwide, Jade Global is a trusted partner of choice to its clients.
Jade’s global team of experts successfully deliver business and technology solutions across diverse industries to
drive its customers' long term growth and success.