The Goal of Mobile Application Testing

I’m often asked what makes mobile testing so different that testing anything else?

The simple answer is your goal.  When we test a web application, per say, the goal of our testing is to often ensure that the application fulfills the requirements as directed by the product owner, that it meets any standards set by the organization or federal mandates, and that it is general defect-free.

In mobile application testing, we strive to achieve four major goals:

• Functionality – We look to ensure that the functionality required by the business owner is met.
• Usability – We look to ensure that the end product is usable and intuitive for any end-user trying out your application for the very first time. We also look to ensure that our application does not have a detrimental effect that may impact the overall usability and performance of the mobile device.
• Consistency – We look to ensure that the end product has a consistent look, feel, behavior and experience across a variety of mobile devices and operating systems.
• Security – We look to ensure that the end product provides the appropriate level of security and privacy to meet the end-users expectations.

A mobile application end-user has different motivations and expectations that we have to take into effect when testing our application.  Users are willing to forgo an application with a few bugs if it provides intuitive functionality that improves their lives. We need to adjust our mindset to be able to apply QA Testing to meet the end goal.