8 mobile test automation challenges to consider when designing your testing strategy

The rising adoption of mobile applications means that users are increasingly sensitive to user experience and performance and that these applications need to be adequately tested before being released. Mobile applications must be evaluated against a range for functionality, usability, security, accessibility, performance, and other factors.

Mobile Test Automation has gained significant popularity for this reason. Mobile automation testing is the process of running an automated script to test native, mobile web, and hybrid applications, with minimal human involvement. This type of testing helps ensure that the application works as expected and meets all requirements on different devices with various platform versions, screen resolutions and more.

Mobile Test Automation offers a range of benefits, including the ability to:

• Accelerate and streamline testing.
• Automation scripts can be executed in different OS, Devices, Versions which will increase the test coverage.
• Increase the accuracy of your tests.
• Deliver high-quality applications.
• Capture real-time feedback.
• Support continuous integration/continuous development implementations;
• Perform tedious tests that can be demanding for manual testers.
• Conduct regression testing easily and faster.

While mobile test automation brings with it a multitude of benefits, it is not without its own set of challenges. This blog explores some of the most common challenges of mobile test automation.

Selecting the right Mobile Test Automation tool for your business can be one of the most important decisions you make, as this one-time decision will impact the success of your project. We have to consider a few factors when choosing the best solution because many different mobile automation tools are available on the market.

• Business Requirement: Does the framework meet your usability, speed, parallel testing, and hosting requirements?
• Reusability: Will the new framework accommodate your future testing and business needs as they change?
• Security: There are several security-related challenges you may encounter when selecting a tool, including:
• Adding/searching for sensitive information hard-coded (or if those are easily visible) in the tool might become a threat to security
  – Verifying stored credentials
  – Checking SSL certificates and signatures
  – App permissions required for the tool
  (Eg: Requesting permission for the unintended transmission of data, such as the user’s phonebook, when it is not required)
• Cost: Depending on the business requirements, evaluate cost differences among other available tools.
• Capability: There are several special capabilities to take into account, such as:
  – Integrations with App Testing Frameworks and Tools
  – Reporting, Error Capturing and Debugging
  – Support for Different Testing Techniques
  – Application support services – Does the vendor provide good online support and resources? Does it have an active community to help troubleshoot your issues?