Recently, OWASP published a Secure Coding Practices Guide – a comprehensive checklist that can be integrated into the development life cycle. This is an essential step for unique security policy for mobile testing domain. Security testing knowledge and skill is what differentiates a good mobile testing team from a great one. 

6. Virtual and Augmented Reality

VR and AR are the technologies that add artificial objects to the real environment or create artificial environments simulating sounds, senses, hearing, and touch. They are growing extremely fast, and that growth is creating a niche for testing.

Giant companies like Google, Microsoft, or Facebook invest heavily in VR/AR and are buying start-ups concentrating on this type of technology. The biggest companies are eager to be the first to jump into this new and challenging space. QA vendors tend to base their VR testing approach on mobile testing experience as the mobile gaming industry is the biggest domain for VR/AR technologies, however VR/AR has unique considerations.

All VR/AR applications have a unique logic and vary greatly. However, it’s clear that the nature of technologies makes non-functional tests as important as functional ones. UX testing specialists should track the usage of the software and pay attention to the users’ comfort. User fatigue should be minimized. Are you sure that users won’t get dizzy or sick while using the VR app under test? Extensive testing is required to ensure the experience is a good one.To ensure top-notch user experience, all testers should undergo device-specific training to make sure the users will use the app comfortably.

As VR apps will be new to most of the customers, it’s also necessary to check whether user error could affect the usage of the whole app, and other user's experiences as well.

7. Accessibility

Apps are increasingly becoming a wide-spread tool for people to interact with the government and state institutions.

Government-created or supported mobile apps already offer a wide range of opportunities for delivering services, such as finding parking lots and paying for them, as well as engaging citizens in car sharing or recycling of waste. Apps may notify the neighborhood about the potholes or send emergency notifications of all kinds. Despite their diverse nature, all of these apps have one thing in common – they must be easily accessible by people with disabilities. 

There are well-known standards and regulations that must be taken into account to deliver powerful and versatile apps for all users. And software testers must take the responsibility for meeting them all.  

8. Domain Knowledge is a Must

Mobile apps today could serve any domain: BFSI, healthcare, gaming, e-commerce, etc. To make the most of it, testers should understand each domain specifics perfectly. Testing apps only for functionality and security issues isn’t enough. Testers should know the unique business, industry and user requirements and test the app according to them. Before assigning the project to the team, make sure they are aware of the business domain too, and how the apps should perform within its unique environment.

Bottom line

With digital transformation and rapid changes in mobile technologies, business is expecting mature mobile apps testing approaches from QA vendors. Software testers should not only be able to support a wide array of devices and operating systems, but also make sure the app serves the purpose for which it was developed.

Aspects of social concepts and much-discussed increasing possibilities of mobile apps are also changing the way software is being built. Keeping an eye on the upcoming trends, QA and testing organizations should be able to adopt comprehensive testing approaches and deliver powerful mobile products for business and customers.