This document provides an overview and agenda for a presentation on practical mobile app testing. It discusses trends in mobile devices and platforms, differences between mobile web and apps, platforms for mobile development, challenges in mobile app testing, and strategies and best practices for testing. It also presents a case study of a mobile app called "SOS! Sick Bird" that helps users in Hong Kong locate nearby government clinics.

1. Practical software Testing for
mobile apps --- 24May2014
By Alex Hung (alex@crossover-int.com)
CEO, Crossover
MBA, MSc(ISM), BSc(CS)

2. Agenda
1. Mobile Trends
2. Mobile Platforms
3. Mobile Development Platforms
4. Mobile Apps Testing
5. Practical case sharing

3. Feature phone
• Contains a fixed set of functions
beyond voice calling and text
messaging
• Not as extensive as a smartphone.
• For example,
– offer Web browsing and e-mail, but
generally cannot download apps from an
online marketplace, such as Whatsapp
Difference between feature phones
and smartphones
Page 3

4. Smartphone
• With built-in applications and
Internet access.
• Advanced application
programming interfaces (APIs)
• Able to run different kinds of
free and paid third-party
applications to have better
integration with the phone's OS
and hardware
Difference between feature phones
and smartphones
Page 4

5. Marketplace
Mobile Platform

6. iOS Android Windows Phone BlackBerry OS
Company Apple, Inc Google Microsoft BlackBerry
Current Version 7 4.4 8 7.1
License Proprietary
Free and open-
source
Proprietary Proprietary
Accessibility
features
Yes Yes Yes Yes
NFC Payment
Software
No
Available on any
device that
supports the
hardware.
Available for
Version 8+
Yes
Official
Application Store
App Store Google Play
Windows Phone
Store
BlackBerry World
Voice Recognition Yes Yes Yes Yes
Multitasking Yes Yes Yes Yes
Desktop
interactive
widgets
No Yes
Yes (through "live
tiles")
No
Comparison of various mobile platforms
Page 6
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

7. Evolution of Mobile Devices
Source: mobileworldcapital.com
Page 7

8. Evolution of Mobile Devices
Page 8
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

9. Evolution of Mobile Devices
Page 9
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

10. Mobile Evolution

11. Mobile Evolution

12. Mobile OS

13. • Type of Apps:
– Communication, calendar, clock, calculator
– Photos, weather, maps
– Games, eBooks
– Tablet applications
• Total Apps Number:
– Over 800,000 Apps available on Google Play
(2013 May)
– Around 850,000 mobile apps in the Apple App
Store (2013 May)
Evolution of Mobile Applications
Page 15
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

14. Difference between Mobile Web
and Mobile App
Mobile Web Mobile App
Storage of application In server side Download and install to
the mobile device
Activation of application Access through mobile
browser
Directly access by clicking
the icon
Require user to install any
application
No Yes
Data traffic over network More Less
Integration with phone
specific features
No Yes
User experience Normal Richer
Page 17
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

15. Difference between Mobile Web
and Mobile App
Mobile Web Mobile App
OS dependence Low High
Development effort Less More
Application Update Only on server side Users are required to
download and install a
new version
Maintenance and support
effort
Less More
Page 18
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

16. Moblie Apps Development platforms

17. • Development Kit for some of the popular
platforms:
Overview of Development
Platforms for Mobile App
Development
iOS Android BlackBerry
Windows
Mobile/Windows
Phone
Symbian
iOS SDK Android SDK BlackBerry Java
Development
Environment
(JDE)
Windows Mobile –
Microsoft Visual
Studio 2008
Windows Phone –
Windows Phone
Developer Tools
Qt SDK,
Symbian^3 SDK
Page 20
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

18. • Other than SDK, each mobile platform has
additional development tools for facilitating
the programming.
Overview of Development
Platforms for Mobile App
Development
iOS Android BlackBerry
Windows
Mobile/Windows
Phone
Symbian
Xcode IDE Android
Development
Tools (ADT) Plugin
for Eclipse,
Android Native
Development Kit
(NDK)
BlackBerry Java
Plug-in for Eclipse
Visual Basic for
Windows Phone
Develop Tools
Carbide.c++ IDE
Page 21
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

19. • Xcode IDE
Overview of Development Platforms for
Mobile App Development
iPhone Simulator
Page 22
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

20. • Eclipse with Android SDK
Overview of Development Platforms for
Mobile App Development
Android Emulator
Page 23
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

21. • Developing multiple mobile apps with single
source code
• Some tools use web standards for development
while some need to use proprietary
programming languages.
• For development tools using web standards,
they work in two approaches.
– generate the codes as embedded web content
within the mobile app (e.g. PhoneGap)
– recompile the web codes into native codes (e.g.
Titanium Mobile)
Cross-Platform Development Tools
Page 24
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

22. These tools have some common limitations:
• Most of the tools cannot support all common
mobile OS platforms.
• Although web standards are used by some of
these tools, some advanced features like AJAX
are not supported by tools like MotherApp.
• Performance of mobile apps developed by
these tools may not as good as those
developed by native programming language.
• Most of the tools do not provide API for
interfacing with Bluetooth and video capture.
Cross-Platform Development Tools
Page 25
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

23. PhoneGap
Titanium
Mobile
MotherApp Rhodes Corona
Company Nitobi Appcelerator MotherApp Rhomobile Ansca
Product Type Open Source Open Source Proprietary Open Source Proprietary
Programming
Language
HTML, CSS,
JavaScript
HTML, CSS,
JavaScript
MotherAPP
HTML
HTML, CSS,
JavaScript,
Ruby
Lua
Online
Conversion
Service
Yes No Yes No No
Development
Kit
Nil Titanium
Studio
Nil RhoStudio Corona SDK
Cross-Platform Development Tools
Page 26
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

24. Supported Platforms
Cross-Platform Development Tools
PhoneGap
Titanium
Mobile
MotherApp Rhodes Corona
iOS Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Android Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
BlackBerry Yes Yes(beta) Yes Yes No
Windows
Mobile Yes No No Yes No
Windows
Phone No No No Yes No
Symbian Yes No No Yes No
Others WebOS Nil Nil WebOS Nil
Page 27
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

25. MOBILE APPS TESTING

26. Mobile Application Testing

27. Mobile Testing

28. Mobile App Diversity

29. • Integration with existing Systems
• Accelerated Development
• Performance & Security
• Backward Compatibility
Challenges

30. • Quick swipe (user experience, quit app
scenarios)
• Orientation
• Different devices (resolutions, compatibility)
• No network scenario
• Features Test (esp. cross app cases)
• Stress Test (including server side)
Testing Strategy for Mobile App
Page 36
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

32. Components of Mobile Testing

33. • Mobile emulator provides an easy way for testing
the application without the needs of actual device.
• Emulator cannot perform some hardware related
testing
– onboard camera
– GPS,
– sensors,
– multitouch,
– telephony,
– accelerometer feedback
• Testing with actual device must be conducted
before the application is released.
Testing Strategy for Mobile App
Page 39
Understanding of Mobile App and Its
Development Life Cycle

35. Tool Selection Criteria

36. Some Popular Mobile Testing Tools

37. Mobile Automation – Desktop Based
• Mobile test automation tools are installed on a desktop locally
• Interacts with the mobile devices Through USB connection or
Wi-Fi
• Mobile Apps can be installed & tested on both Emulators and
real devices

38. Mobile Automation - Image vs Object
Recognition

39. Comparison of Mobile Test Tools in Market

40. • Stable Automation Framework
useful across multiple
Platforms
• Use Emulators for Automation
early in the development
cycle
• Use Real device for
automation only to emulate
real time usage
When to plan Automation?

41. 1. Define the automation scope
2. Select the Test Automation Tool suitable for
your application and supports multiple Oss
3. Start by building automation scripts for
smoke testing
4. Gradually build a basic test suite for
regression testing that represents business
critical use cases
How to implement Automation
Tools?

42. • Supports Android applications for
Auotmation
• Robotium RC can be utilized to run
testscripts in a Test Lab setup
Robotium

43. Mobile Infrastructure - Emulators

44. Mobile Infrastructure – Real Devices

45. • Test Early and Often
• Create matrix of Platforms, Device, Network
Connections (2G, 3G, wi-fi, LTE, etc.), Carriers for
Testing (Including different OS versions)
• Test for Performance and Security
• Keep Target Audience in mind while testing
• Tool selection should take into account
emulator and real device support across
platforms
Best Practices

46. PRACTICAL CASE SHARING
Sick Bird Free

48. SOS! Sick Bird
病咗鳥

49. SOS! Sick Bird 病咗鳥
• Search location & provide information of HK government clinics

50. • Search the nearest government clinic
• Provide telephone number and address of
the clinic
• Provide map view to identify the locations
• Augmented reality (AR) function
• Service target: Hong Kong residents / visitors
Introduction

51. • Multi-language:
Traditional Chinese,
Simplified Chinese, and
English
• Positioning function(GPS):
Identify the current location
• Facebook Login:
Sign in Facebook accounts to
facilitate sharing of content
Setting

52. Map View (with GPS function)

53. • Clinics under the Hospital
Authority
• Clinics / Health Centres
under the Department of
Health
Clinic location

54. • Find the location of the clinic based on the
actual circumstances by the AR function
Augmented reality (AR) function

55. • Top right radar displays the
position and the number of
clinics within a specified range
• Range of the radar can be
adjusted by the bottom bar,
increasing or decreasing the
number of clinics
Augmented reality (AR) function

56. • Different clinic information can be shared
with friends and relatives via Facebook
Facebook sharing

57. • http://www.gov.hk/en/theme/psi/datasets/
Database - Data.One

61. Thanks
More Apps in
www.crossover-int.com
Contact: Alex Hung alex@crossover-int.com