How To Ensure End To End Quality With Mobile Test Automation?

The software industry has gone through a dynamic transformation over the past few years, and so does the Quality Assurance process. Whether it is the introduction of the agile model or the use of advanced technologies like automation, AI, or ML, the need for advanced apps, websites, and software has made it quintessential to upgrade the entire development approach.

End-to-end testing has proven to be one such powerful approach to software testing that has redefined the whole concept of development. Especially when we talk about mobile applications, end-to-end testing offers an advantage to simulate real-life scenarios. Besides, the model allows enhanced validation on the system and meets all the requirements related to data integrity and component integration.

As it works on testing a solution from the most initial stages of framing the requirements to the post-deployment response, it allows testers to aid DevOps teams in a much practical manner. Nevertheless, testers who need to foster mobile test automation through an end-to-end testing approach need to consider a few important factors in mind when needed to drive ultimate success.

Today, we will dig into the detail of all these factors while highlighting how they must be aligned into the process to take your approach for end-to-end testing a notch above. Let’s begin.  

1. Adding More Automation In The Process

If your mobile test automation project has bandwidth for some extra automation, make sure anything that comes as repeating must be automated. As the present industry landscape is all about launching quick technology, staying alive in competition by delivering high-quality products leaves no other option to the testers than to automate more.

Also, yielding quality of code needs effective retesting, while integrating changes into the product requires frequent regression. Automation testing services helps to keep a check on any unforeseen consequences of the bad code or changes made in the functionality. After all, you don’t want to land on the market with a sub-standardized application. Do you?

2. Introducing Codeless Test Automation

When it comes to automation, there are a lot many ways to do it. However, working on most demands effective coding skills, which are completely fine as a part of the process. Consider, unit testing allows testers to validate a code for the defined assumptions. However, the present scenario to development involves a large number of professionals in the process, even including those who cannot do coding.

In simple words, working on End-to-End testing can be made more effective when the coding part is skipped, and codeless test automation serves as a great solution here. It allows you to involve more people in the test process and reduces the burden on developers where they need to create code-based test cases. Rather, developers could use the extra time to work on new features and fix any defects in the existing ones.

Also, it is necessary that developers and testers using codeless test automation must be flexible about adding code to the test process whenever required. It will give the advantage to insert code into any given step and can future proof the test process.

3. Selection Of Page Elements

When you have too many elements on your website that do not load in synchronicity, any attempt made to work on end-to-end testing could get vague. In such circumstances, you have to allow the test script to wait for a fixed time or until the element meets some defined criteria.

Besides, it is equally necessary that any changes made to the attributes must be checked to avoid brittle tests. Such issues might need you to apply custom data attributes, or you can either plan on adopting a test tool that can accommodate elements with a few extra attributes without breaking the test.

4. Risk-based Testing

The initial phase of testing might make you feel like testing everything. Though aiming for high coverage seems to be a great idea, the scarcity of resources often makes it difficult to achieve. Even when you are making the most out of automation, testing everything can be overwhelming. Therefore, testers working on end-to-end mobile test automation should practice risk-based testing.

The approach not only measures various parts of the application on different criteria but even keeps a check on factors like code complexity, the area of application, and other details. The approach even helps to identify all the parts of the application that are prone to defects along with those that can prove to be damaging.

5. Define A Test Order

The next big step that you need to take on your way to upgrading your end-to-end testing approach is learning what to test and how to test. Though risk-based testing can help you work on the ‘what’ part and codeless test automation can answer the ‘how’ part, the when part is something that usually brings the trouble.

Here comes the role of the shift-left testing approach, a process that helps to keep the test process moving from the earliest stages of the software development lifecycle. It brings you all the ease and relaxation you need to work on any defects as long as you follow the right order for testing.

The standard approach usually involves the application of test-driven development and behavior-driven development before end-to-end testing could be worked. Also, due to the slow and complex nature of E2E testing, you must consider them working in the last when other test practices have been implemented, giving no returns.

6. Proper Test Data

Poor test data could fail even the greatest test cases and when you need to drive quality into your test efforts, nurturing effective data becomes necessary. Some testers might consider using the production data to work on the test process, the production data often lacks the representation of edge cases.

Besides, the approach might even lead to exposure of sensitive business data, which can be secured by using a solid test data management process. Also, you can consider the use of automatically generated test data to meet the data requirements of the End-to-end test strategy. Moreover, you can try data masking capabilities to avoid any sensitive data leaking into the non-production environment, especially in situations when you are bound to use production cloning.

7. Keep Your User In Mind

Last but not least, the end-to-end test strategy must consider the user’s perspective. The process only requires considering the user’s vision towards an application or software and working on a test approach that could help users achieve their goals.

Also, testers might even try to involve stakeholders in the process and foster Behavior-Driven Development to create highly desirable and user-centric test cases.

The Crux

End-to-end testing is a highly significant part of the Quality Assurance process these days. However, it is frequently misunderstood for its relevance and is usually mistaken for other types of testing, declining the chances of adoption.

We hope the above information could be considered as best practices or guidelines to yield maximum out of an end-to-end testing strategy while ensuring timely, consistent, and reliable deliveries through mobile test automation.

Author Bio: Kanika Vatsyayan is Vice-President Delivery and Operations at BugRaptors who oversees all the quality control and assurance strategies for client engagements. She loves to share her knowledge with others through blogging. Being a voracious blogger, she published countless informative blogs to educate audience about automation and manual testing.