The Art of Software Testing, 3rd Edition

Chapter 11

Mobile Application Testing

Computer technology changes rapidly. In a blink of an eye the computer went from the desktop to the laptop and now to the handheld mobile device. This migration has changed the way we conduct our lives, businesses, and governments. It has also significantly affected the way software developers and testers do their jobs.

Most software testing professionals find testing mobile applications very challenging—more so than almost any other software types or platforms. Actually, it's the devices and mobile environment more than the “application” that impose the challenge. These two components add many variables and complexities that may skew or mask problems in your application, which makes designing a robust test plan difficult. Briefly, you need to consider network performance and reliability, consistent user interfaces, transcoder influences, device diversity, and limited resource platforms.

In this chapter, we introduce a relatively new area of software testing: testing mobile and smartphone applications. We begin by describing the mobile application environment, which differs from that of a stand-alone application on desktops, laptops, and servers. Next, we enumerate the challenges of testing mobile applications—some of which we touched on earlier in this book. Finally, we cover some testing approaches and test-case considerations to help lower your learning curve in this new territory. After reading this chapter you should better understand ...