Agil Tools for Mobile - In this presentation I discuss various tools and strategies for improving agility on mobile teams. This includes unit testing, crowd testing, and continuous integration.

1. Agile Tools
for Mobile
By Kevin Rohling

2. ABOUT ME
• Shipped apps on iOS, Android, Windows Phone… even a Blackberry app once.
• Founded cisimple (CI for Mobile), sold it to Electric Cloud, now it’s called Ship.io
• Startup junkie, currently VP of Product at Emberlight
• Likes to hack on hardware things

3. WHAT IS EMBERLIGHT YOU ASK?
PRE-ORDER at emberlight.co

4. WHAT DOES AGILE MEAN (TO ME)?
MOVE FAST AND ADAPT QUICKLY

5. WHAT DOES AGILE MEAN (TO ME)?
MOVE FAST AND ADAPT QUICKLY
Release&
Collect&
Data&
Build&
Test&

6. WHAT DOES AGILE MEAN (TO ME)?
ALWAYS BE READY TO SHIP

7. ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
Business Drivers Engineering Challenges
Early Startup
Initial Traction,
Funding
Stability, UX
Consulting Firm
Client Status
Updates, Deadlines
Ad Hoc Distribution, Unit Testing
Large Product Team
Retention, Growth,
Revenue
Automation, Communication
PROCESS

8. MOBILE IS HARDER
• Testing, Simulators or Devices?

9. MOBILE IS HARDER
• Testing, Simulators or Devices?
• App Stores

10. MOBILE IS HARDER
• Testing, Simulators or Devices?
• App Stores
• Code Signing

11. MOBILE IS HARDER
• Testing, Simulators or Devices?
• App Stores
• Code Signing
• Distribution

12. TOOLS TO PROMOTE AGILITY-NESS
• Carbon-Based (Human) Testing
• Distribution
• Crowdsourcing
• Testing Tools
• Unit Testing
• Functional Testing
• Continuous Integration (CI)

13. CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING
• Fast, Detailed feedback
• Avoid disrupting your actual users
• Real people do the darn’dest things

14. CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING
• Fast, Detailed feedback
• Avoid disrupting your actual users
• Real people do the darn’dest things
YOUR ENGINEERS DON’T COUNT.

15. CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING
Challenges:
• Distribution
• Quality vs. Ranty feedback
• Latency

16. CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING
Strategies:
• Friends & Family
• Curated Group of Testers
• Testing Services
• In-House Testing Team
$

17. CARBON-BASED TESTING
DISTRIBUTION

18. CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING - DISTRIBUTION
Good: Great iOS support, acquired by Apple, iTunesConnect integration
Bad: Only supports iOS, mediocre UX
Note: TestFlightApp.com no longer available after 2/26/15

19. CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING - DISTRIBUTION
Good: Supports iOS and Android, great API, great UX
Bad: iOS UDID nightmare

20. Good: Alpha/Beta Program, Staged Rollouts, Uses your actual users
Bad: Can result in negative app reviews, Android only
CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING - DISTRIBUTION

21. CARBON-BASED TESTING
CROWD TESTING

22. CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING - CROWD
Good: Massive curated audience
Bad: Expensive, Very enterprise-y

23. CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING - CROWD
Good: Starts at $49
Bad: Value of video recording is debatable

24. CARBON-BASED (HUMAN) TESTING - CROWD

25. TESTING TOOLS

26. UNIT vs FUNCTIONAL
• Unit Testing - testing small pieces of code
• Functional Testing - testing button clicks and UI interaction

27. UNIT/FUNCTIONAL TESTING
BENEFITS:
• Instant Gratification (GREEN is good!)
• Repeatable
• Can automatically test every commit

28. UNIT/FUNCTIONAL TESTING
CHALLENGES:
• Unit Tests are not users
• LOTs of work to write and maintain them
• Which framework to use?

29. • What language/framework do your developers know?
• Open Source/Community Support
• 3rd Party Framework requirements
UNIT/FUNCTIONAL TESTING FRAMEWORKS
WHICH ONE TO USE?

30. TESTING TOOLS

31. POPULAR TESTING FRAMEWORKS (iOS)
Good: Baked into Xcode,
Performance Testing
Easy Async Tools
Bad: ?
XCTest

32. POPULAR TESTING FRAMEWORKS (iOS)
Good: Functional (UI) testing, Easy test recorder
Bad: Part of Instruments, Uses JavaScript
UI Automation

33. POPULAR TESTING FRAMEWORKS (iOS)
Good: Open Source, Functional (UI) testing, Focus on usability
Bad: Requires integrating 3rd Party Framework
KIF

34. TESTING TOOLS

35. POPULAR TESTING FRAMEWORKS (Android)
According to a recent survey by Xamarin:
-77% of developers said app quality is “very important or mission critical”
-80% of mobile developers test their apps manually
-Only 13% of mobile developers use automated testing

36. POPULAR TESTING FRAMEWORKS (Android)
Good: Baked into Android/Eclipse/Android Studio
Bad: Running tests is slow

37. POPULAR TESTING FRAMEWORKS (Android)
Good: Functional (UI) testing
Bad: 3rd Party Framework, Running tests is slow

38. POPULAR TESTING FRAMEWORKS (Android)
Good: Tests go fast
Bad: 3rd Party Framework, Flaky

39. TESTING TOOLS - CROSS PLATFORM

40. POPULAR TESTING FRAMEWORKS (Cross-Platform)
Good: Built on Selenium (Web Driver)
Bad: Requires a running web server

41. POPULAR TESTING FRAMEWORKS (Cross-Platform)
Good: Popular Cucumber syntax
Bad: Requires a running web server on the device

42. CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION

43. CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
AUTOMATICALLY…
Build Test Deploy
EVERY COMMIT.

44. CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
HOW DOES IT WORK
1. Developer commits code

45. CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
HOW DOES IT WORK
2. CI Server picks up the change.

46. CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
HOW DOES IT WORK
3. Code is automatically compiled

47. CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
HOW DOES IT WORK
4. Tests are run

48. CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
HOW DOES IT WORK
5. Application is deployed

49. CONTINUOUS INTEGRATION
WHY?
• Reduce the need for human-based testing
• Faster Feedback
• Automate EVERYTHING

50. CI TOOLS/SERVICES FOR MOBILE
Good: Open Source, Lots of plugins
Bad: Self-Hosted, DIY solution
Jenkins

51. CI TOOLS/SERVICES FOR MOBILE
Good: Hosted solution, OS X support, Lots of plugins
Bad: Tedious setup process
Travis CI

52. CI TOOLS/SERVICES FOR MOBILE
Good: Hosted solution, Designed specifically for mobile, Easy setup
Bad: Less flexible than other solutions
Ship.io

53. CI TOOLS/SERVICES FOR MOBILE
Good: Integrated w/ Xcode, Apple-Supported
Bad: Self-Hosted, iOS Only
Xcode CI

54. KEVIN ROHLING
@kevinrohling
kevin@kevinrohling.com