Mobile Testing – Page 4 – Continuous Testing and DevOps Blog

August 5, 2016

4 Benefits of Using the Espresso Test Automation Tool

If you’re an Android developer, you’re probably familiar with Google’s Espresso test automation framework. As an open-source tool, it’s very easy for developers to use and extend within their working environment (Android Studio IDE).

But before discussing the benefits of Espresso, let’s understand the motivations and pains developers and test automation engineers face today while trying to validate their Android application (APK) throughout the build/dev/test workflow.

Each build needs to be validated after code changes are made.
Dependencies on remote servers and other workstations for testing slow down the process.
Unit and functional tests need to be easy to execute from both an IDE and continuous integration perspective.
Apps need to be tested using the latest Android OS APIs that support new platform features and OS versions.
Testing needs to occur on both emulators and real devices.

In light of these challenges, it’s clear why the adoption of the Espresso automation framework is high. Even though Espresso is an instrumentation-based test framework, it has many benefits to both developers and test automation engineers. It uses Junit underneath the hood, so Espresso is easy to use within leading IDEs and provides useful testing annotations and assertions. It’s also fully integrated within the leading Google Android IDE – Android Studio.

Here are four main benefits of using Espresso:

1. Espresso workflow is simple to use

The way Espresso works is by allowing developers to build a test suite as a stand-alone APK that can be installed on the target devices alongside the application under test and be executed very quickly.

2. Fast and reliable feedback to developers

As developers are trying to accelerate deployment, Espresso gives them fast feedback on their code changes so they can move on to the next feature or defect fix; having a robust and fast test framework plays a key role.

Espresso does not require any server (like Selenium Remote WebDriver) to communicate with; instead it runs side-by-side with the app and delivers very fast (minutes) test results to the developer.

3. Less mobile testing flakiness

Because Espresso offers a synchronized method of execution, the stability of the test cycle is very high. There’s a built-in mechanism in Espresso that, prior to moving to the next steps in the test, validates that the Element or Object is actually displayed on the screen. This eliminates test execution from breaking when confronted with “objects not detected” and other errors.

4. Developing Espresso test automation isn’t hard

Developing Espresso test automation is quite easy. It is based on Java and Junit, which is a core skillset for any Android app developer. Because Espresso works seamlessly within the Android Studio IDE, there’s no setup or ramping up and no “excuses” – to actually shift quality in the in-cycle stage of the app SDLC.

In addition to the above, there is of course the large community powered by Google that pushes the Espresso test automation framework and allow easy and fast ramp up for newcomers.

Learn more using the Espresso Cheat sheet below:

Espresso Test Automation Framework

Perfecto is offering support for both Android Studio IDE as well as the ability to install and launch an Espresso test suite (APK) on real devices in the cloud across various locations and user conditions. For more information, please refer to the Perfecto Community and search for “Android Studio” or “Espresso.”

July 11, 2016

Joe Colantonio’s Test Talk: Mobile Testing Coverage Optimization

How does a company nowadays put together a comprehensive test strategy for delivering high-quality experiences for their applications on any device? I think this is the question I get asked most frequently and it is the biggest challenge in today’s market, how to tackle mobile testing and responsive web testing. The solution can be the difference between an app rated 1 star or an app rated 5 stars.

Play Podcast

I had a lot of fun talking to Joe Colantonio from Test Talks about how to create a successful app starting with my Digital Test Coverage Optimizer. Listen to the full talk to hear my ideas on moving from manual testing to automation, tracking the mobile market, the difference between testing in simulators and emulators versus real devices and more.

https://joecolantonio.com/testtalks/110-mobile-testing-coverage-optimization-eran-kinsbruner/

July 8, 2016

#30DaysofTesting – Day 8 Reporting

As the #30daysoftesting challenges continues, i have decided today to put the famous iOS Native LinkedIn mobile app and perform some exploratory testing on it using my iPhone 6 Plus device running iOS 9.X

Today’s challenge was about finding up to 5 different defects and reporting them back to the app vendor.

Here are my findings:

Searching through the contact list (my list of contacts overpasses 2500 members) is simply unusable since the A-Z side bar is non proportional with the page size, so basically trying to filter by letter (e.g. “K”) is very hard

App crashed twice when entering long string of characters into the search bars either for searching contacts/groups or messages
Sharing a message from the app – DOES NOT WORK. You can only share from the app main screen an update but not a message.

Redundant “Close Page” link in various EULA/Privacy web pages – accessible through setting screen (Privacy Policy, User Agreement, EULA)

I’ve reported back to LinkedIn about these defects, below is their confirmation email – pending their response.

Happy #30Daysofesting To All Of You.

Eran

July 1, 2016

30 Days of Testing Challenge – I’m In!

For those who aren’t familiar with this month program led by Ministry of Testing, the full details are HERE.

I plan to stand up for this challenge (Tweeter handle to follow this program is: #30daysoftesting

For day 1, I’ve bought the following book (Testing in 30+ open source tools, 2nd Edition), and i plan on reading it (well – large portion of it, it’s more than 1200 pages) – the book highlight the main trend i am seeing over the past 12-18 months in the digital space (especially Mobile) where many new open-source test frameworks are being introduced to the market aiming to make both Dev and Testers lifes easier.

With the amount of new open-source tools in the market agile teams can achieve the following:

Faster test development
Fine tune the test environment to meet complex product requirements
Develop and execute tests from the Dev/Test native environment (IDE)
Execute and receive actionable feedback faster

With the above benefits, it is clear that today’s agile teams have a lot to gain by embracing open-source compared to traditional proprietary testing solutions.

Looking forward to update on 2nd-30th day of this program

Eran

May 7, 2016

7 Mobile Test Automation Best Practices

Developing a mobile test automation scenario isn’t that complicated. Developers and testers use a variety of commercial test automation frameworks or open source tools such as Selenium and Appium to do automation. However, when trying to execute these tests on real devices or integrate them into an Agile or CI (continuous integration) workflow, things get a little complicated.

The major challenges around mobile test automation

The essence of developing test automation is to be able to use and re-use scripts many times, across platforms and environments. Test automation should be as maintainable as possible, especially as new platforms and product features are released. Many organizations that develop test automation for their mobile apps face the following challenges:

Executing the tests against a variety of real mobile devices
Executing these tests in parallel
Leveraging existing test code (re-usability) for new tests
Including real end-user environments/conditions (changing network conditions, low battery) in the tests
Overcoming unexpected interruptions (incoming call, apps running in background)
Running these tests unattended — over night, as part of a Jenkins CI job

These are just few of the challenges organizations confront when trying to progress from older SDLC processes and meet faster releases and enhanced Dev–>Build–>Deploy–>Test–>Deploy cycles.

7 practical test automation tips

Overcoming these challenges starts with few changes in the overall mobile app dev and test processes.

Consider these seven recommendations for building sustainable unattended automation.

The key to mobile test automation is to start with a small number of test cases, automate them, and assure that they are robust enough and can be executed in parallel and unattended. Only then should you invest more and grow the test suite.

An important question to ask at the start is: What should I be automating? Organization often do not choose the right tests to automate, resulting in lost development time, weak ROI, and an over-reliance on manual testing.

To learn more about the 7 Ways to Overcome Test Automation Obstacles, please join us next week for a webinar hosted by myself, automation expert and author Daniel Knott, and Perfecto’s Director of Technology Uzi Eilon.

May 1, 2016

Responsive Web: The Importance of Getting Test Coverage Right

When building your test lab as part of a RWD site test plan, it is important to strategically define the right mobile devices and desktop browsers which will be your target for your manual and automated testing.

For mobile device testing you can leverage your own analytics together with market data to complement your coverage and be future ready, or leverage reports such the Digital Test Coverage Index Report.

For web testing you should also look into your web traffic analytics or based on your target markets understand which are the top desktop browsers and OS versions on which you should test against – alternatively, you can also use the digital test coverage index report referenced above.

Coverage is a cross organizational priority where both business, IT, Dev and QA ought to be consistently aligned. You can see a recommended web lab configuration for Q1 2016 below which is taken from the above mentioned Index – Note the inclusion of Beta browser versions in the recommended mix due to the nature silent updates of these versions deployment on end-user browsers.

WCReport
For ongoing RWD projects – once defining the mobile and web test coverage using the above guidelines, the next steps are of course to try and achieve parallel side by side testing for high efficiency, as well as keep the lab up to date by revising the coverage once a quarter and assure that both the analytics as well as the market trends still matches your existing configuration.

As a best practice and recommendation, please review the below mobile device coverage model which is built out of the 3 layers of Essential, Enhanced and Extended where each of these layers includes a mix of device types such as legacy, new, market leaders and reference devices (like Nexus devices).

MobileCoverageLayers

To learn more, check out our new Responsive Web Testing Guide.

April 26, 2016

Responsive Web: Test for the Real User Experience

One of the great benefits of building a responsive web site (RWD) is it can give the user a consistent web experience across any digital device, in any location.

When it comes to RWD testing, it’s important to test the navigation and functionality on desktop web browsers and mobile devices, but that alone is not enough to guarantee a consistent user experience at all times. The end user is constantly moving between environments throughout the day, and these environments have various attributes, including:

Network conditions (Poor, good, no network)
Locations
App context based on platform and location
Background activities (apps running and consuming resources)
Ads and other popups that block your site content (see image below)

With so many real user environments to consider for both mobile and the desktop web, testing teams should include user conditions in their RWD test plan on top of the traditional testing for UI, navigation, functionality and client-side performance. It will give your DevTest team peace of mind and reduce quality risks significantly.

To learn more, check out our new Responsive Web Testing Guide.

March 24, 2016March 24, 2016

Responsive Web: Five Testing Considerations

With more and more consumers expecting to shop, bank, work and socialize across different devices, organizations are embracing responsive web design (RWD) as a tool to help them deliver a consistent digital experience on every screen.

Growth of cross-device transactions (Source: Criteo’s State of Mobile Commerce Report)

But due to the complexity of digital environments and user experiences — responsive web is easier said than done. Organizations that develop RWD sites often face challenges when testing to assure smooth website navigation and a great user experience across multiple devices and platforms.

For more information, read our new Comprehensive Guide to Building a Responsive Web Testing Strategy

To get there, we recommended including the following five building blocks as part of your RWD test plan.

Testing for these five areas will help achieve sufficient test coverage, a great user experience and higher traffic to your site.

To download the complete guide for testing RWD Site, go here

February 11, 2016

Tests to Include Within Automation Suite

When developing a mobile or desktop test automation plan organization often struggle with the right scope and coverage for the project.

In previous post, i covered the test coverage recommendations in a mobile project and now, i would like to also expand on the topic of which tests to automate.

Achieving release agility with high quality is fully dependent today more than ever on continuous testing which is gained through proper test automation, however automating every test scenario is not feasible and not necessary to meet this goal.

In the below table we can see some very practical examples of test cases with various parameters with a Y/N recommendation whether to automate or no.

As shown below, and as a rule for both Mobile, Web and other projects the key tests by definition which should be added to an automation suite (from ROI perspective and TTM) are the ones who are:

Required to be executed against various data sets
Tests which ought to run against multiple environments (Devices, Browsers, Locations)
Complex test scenario’s (these are time consuming and error prone when done manually)
Tedious and repetitive test cases are a must to automate
Tests which are dependent on various aspects (can be other tests, other environments etc.)

Bottom line: Automation is key in today’s digital world, but doing it right and wisely can shorten time to market, redundant resources and a lot of wasted R&D time chasing unimportant defects coming from irrelevant tests

Happy Testing!

February 11, 2016

Q1 2016 Calendar Overview

The year just started but as you can see, the market is already busy and we can see as a continuation to 2015, that Apple is much more active on its bug fix releases compared to Android.

Sign up for my quarterly Digital Test Coverage index report to stay up to date with the market trends, top devices, OS versions and desktop browsers.

Digital Test Coverage Download Page

Happy Testing!