Testing a mobile app is certainly a completely different ball game compared to a standalone app or a web application testing. The testing industry has over time evolved from testing desktop applications to web applications to applications on the cloud (including SaaS) and the whole gamut of mobile app testing. In the mobile app space, it has again varied from testing native apps to web apps to hybrid apps, each requiring its own strategy. Amongst the varied attributes that get tested across these mobile apps, the non-functional areas are probably the most challenging including performance that needs to include in lab, in lab simulation as well as some end user/field testing.
As an organization that has been doing performance testing and also mobile app performance testing for the last several years, we strongly believe that getting mobile app performance testing right has a lot to do with the overall strategy and getting it right – the implementation is more of an execution routine to follow. Subsequent to the execution the actionable analysis is also an important part of the success mix, which the strategy should consider.
So, what does it take to arrive at the optimal mobile performance testing strategy? A few key points to remember here include:
- Keep end users and markets in mind
- Understand the mobile penetration in your target markets, as it is important to get performance right or at least optimal on such devices rather than focusing on just a few top end phones/models
- Consider app performance specific to not just client – server interactions but also device level interactions
- Consider local market nuances such as network, bandwidth etc. in the local mobile market to understand what simulation strategies are needed
- Keep pace with the mobile evolutions of the local market in ensuring updates to the strategy – for example, the strategy you built last year may not still hold good given how the mobile market and government regulations around them are evolving especially in developing nations
- Accommodate testing in production environment
- Seek user feedback in understanding performance relative to overall user experience’
- Explore using freeware mobile performance testing tools to do some of the initial heavy lifting for you
While the overall strategy/approach is important to test any area, it is even more important in the case of mobile performance testing where the parameters at hand are many, the scope for digression and wrong priorities are high, the reach may be tough to achieve in global markets – with all of these a robust strategy is a critical step in getting the overall mobile performance app testing right.
