The Challenges in the Quality of Mobile Applications
Tags: mobile, development, application, challenges
Published: 2024-01-03 06:11:04

It is a fact that one of the fundamental challenges that organizations have to face today is Mobility. Not in vain, according to Gartner in its study Market Guide for Mobile Application Testing Services, 70% of the interactions that will take place in 2024 will take place on a mobile device, and in 2020, there will already be 21 billion connected devices.

If this forecast is fulfilled, a large part of the business of any type of company, especially a mobile app development company, will depend on the correct functioning of its mobile applications. Ensuring the quality of these applications becomes a priority factor when it comes to guaranteeing the competitiveness of the organization. Testing activity is one of the most relevant factors within the software development process; however, testing activity in a mobile environment presents certain singularities. Thus, in the aforementioned Gartner study, it is emphasized that a **[mobile app development company](https://www.sparkouttech.com/mobile-application-development/)** must address these unique challenges to maintain a competitive edge.

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– Testing services in mobile environments are substantially different from traditional application testing services, as added complexity appears in terms of multiple platforms, networks, operating systems, as well as the variety of devices and sensors.

– User experience is key when talking about mobility, since it can generate specific requirements related to the testing process, as well as special considerations that have to do with the geographical and security aspects.

– Using Agile and DevOps to achieve results as quickly as the business needs, requires different approaches and skills in mobile testing, including greater automation and a more collaborative approach.

To the previous points, we should also add the complexity of the new digital environment, with increasingly shorter time-to-market, increasingly tighter budgets, users with a high level of demand and regulations that exist. To comply with and that affects multiple functionalities of the application: content, accessibility, data protection, etc.

With this panorama, testing increases, if possible, its role in the development of mobile applications, starting in the earliest phases and extending throughout the entire process. Continuous testing is the only possible formula to ensure the quality of the application, taking into account, precisely, its mobile context and considering compliance with the functionality, usability, security and performance characteristics that guarantee the rest of the requirements. . Let us not forget that finally the objective that we must always keep in mind is to develop a mobile application that allows the company that owns it to increase its sales, improve brand reputation, meet user expectations and minimize the approval time of the application in the different market stores.

**Tests and Methods to Assure the Quality of Mobile Applications**
This quality assurance activity must incorporate, first, a series of functional tests, which are carried out considering the characteristics of the different devices. Likewise, it is necessary to observe the behavior and possible failures of the application when the transaction or operation may be affected by a low battery situation, incoming calls or messages while an operation is being carried out with it, or communication interruption.

On the other hand, the usability characteristic becomes especially relevant when it is aimed at mobile devices. Here, the tests should be aimed at verifying that its design and interface are simple and intuitive, as well as that the communication flow between the application and the user is established in a natural and logical way. It is also advisable to pay attention to the special writing characters of the different languages, the currencies of each country, the postal code formats, dates, addresses, telephone numbers..., ensuring their correct display depending on the geographical area in which they are located. Find the user at all times.

On the other hand, in order to prevent errors that cause the application to be abandoned due to crashes or excessive execution time, it is most appropriate to perform performance tests. A high battery consumption, the speed at which the application is developed depending on the browser used or the characteristics of each operating system, can be factors that have a decisive influence in this section.

The behavior of a mobile application also worries the user from a security point of view, since they will be available on devices that may be susceptible to theft or fraudulent use. In this sense, it is essential to ensure, among other factors, that the app maintains the confidentiality of the private data provided, verification that the user is who they say they are, the different profiles that a user may have within the same application or the auto-save of a history of operations or activities carried out.

Finally, when it comes to **[mobile application development services](https://www.sparkouttech.com/mobile-application-development/)**, there is still one factor to take into account. "Mobile apps are often led by business units rather than IT departments because they drive digital business and success is determined by user experience," according to a Gartner research. This reality represents a change in traditional development strategies, in which the teams involved had been working in isolation. The solution would involve the incorporation of new work models and techniques, such as DevOps and Agile, that facilitate the collaboration of all parties involved, streamline and make processes more flexible and guarantee the final quality of the application.