Technology continues to advance at a lightning pace when it comes to mobile applications. With every new trend comes new challenges, especially when it comes to the area of QA testing.
As mobile phone usage increases every year, application demand increases as well. These new apps contain more advanced features, such as virtual and augmented reality, Artificial Intelligence, and a need for enhanced security. All of these new features have to be properly tested across a multitude of new mobile devices.
Here are 5 current trends in mobile development testing that application creators will be most concerned with in 2018.
- Security
With more and more high-profile companies experiencing cyber-attacks on a frequent basis, security has become top priority. This is especially important when it comes to mobile devices and apps, as users tend to store so much personal and sensitive information on their phones.
Today, mobile testing has to not only cover how well the app itself works, but also how secure it is and how it will perform during attempted hacking efforts. App developers will be designing more built-in security features that will need additional testing procedures.
Users are also paying a lot more attention to permissions granted when using mobile apps and utilizing higher-level security features, such as two-step authentication. All of these new trends in mobile app security will need to be considered and planned for in the overall testing process.
- Crowdtesting
We are living in an age of crowdsourcing and crowdfunding, so crowdtesting seems to be a natural progression of the popular trend.
Crowdtesting is the evolution of user groups and focus groups as it relates to mobile app development. By finding the exact types of users for a specific app and letting the “crowd” utilize it in the real world, app creators are able to get solid information and feedback on performance and bugs.
Hackathons are basically crowdtesting by a group of experienced developers or QA experts and are another modern tool when it comes to testing.
- Big data
Big data as a trend has been around for quite some time now. We are collecting and storing more information than ever before, and a lot of that information is collected by and stored on mobile devices.
App creators are obviously looking to make money off of their applications. One way they do that is through the data they collect from the users. Developers are creating more ways to collect and analyze information through the app, and all of these new ways will need to be properly tested.
More data means more room for error when it comes to the performance of an app. Therefore, look for more automated and built-in testing features that can help speed up the overall QA process.
- The Internet of Things
We are living in the age of connectivity. We have more devices that are connected to other devices than ever in the history of technology. And all of these devices are connected via wireless services that must be protected from cyber-security risks.
The Internet of Things poses a whole new level of problems when it comes to testing applications. You’re no longer just testing the app itself. You have to consider all the devices that app may interact with and test on all of them. On top of that, you need to ensure that the app is safe from being hacked during communications with any of these other “things” in the Internet of Things.
When considering that some applications are literally life-or-death, such as medical wearables, hospital devices, and even self-driving cars, precise testing has never been more important.
- Automation Testing
With all of these new trends…big data, IoT, and enhanced security procedures, testing mobile applications will become more complicated and more time-consuming. This is why automated testing processes will become so important.
Developers will be challenged with creating state-of-the-art automated testing programs to handle this new demand for faster and more intensive application testing. And technology and app testing companies will need to invest more money into testing as well.
Expect Artificial Intelligence and machine learning to play a bigger role in automated testing procedures. These new technologies will be able to anticipate problems in the apps themselves and alert programmers much earlier on in the development cycle.
In conclusion, the more advanced mobile applications become, the more advanced testing will be required. Look for organizations to be outsourcing a lot of their testing processes and startups bringing in outsourced development teams to help get their products to market quicker. The QA testing industry itself is set to experience a big boom in profits, thanks to an ever-increasing focus on security and performance.
Top comments (0)