How to Test Your Mobile App? An Introduction to the Automated Testing Pyramid

The exponential evolution of Technology and Digital Transformation enabled businesses of all types, from Entertainment and Food to Banking and Education, to launch their mobile applications. With this boost in application development, several users rely on mobile devices to access the internet every second.

Developing a mobile application comes with additional requirements like providing a bug-free experience to the user and bringing advancements, modifications, and added features since the ultimate goal is to gain more users for your application. It’s pretty unlikely if the app is faulty.

Research by eMarketer showed that 88% of mobile users of their mobile time on applications.

To stand out from the competition of flooding mobile apps, you should build a high-quality, scalable, user-friendly mobile application.

This gives rise to the need for mobile application testing to ensure that each functionality in the application works fine and as desired irrespective of the device type.

The primary need for mobile app testing is to ensure every user experiences an error-free smooth working of the application. Business figures know that when customers see a big-free UI, they get engaged with the application and recommend it to others.

Test your Mobile Application with Automated Testing Pyramid

Using the pyramid approach is one of the best ways to perform automated testing while and after developing your mobile application.

The automation testing pyramid defines the several test types and their appearance frequency in the codebase’s test suite. It gives the developer prompt feedback that code changes don’t spoil the existing features and enables developers to deliver a high-quality, scalable application.

In general, the automation test pyramid has three specific sections.

• Unit tests are at the lowest level; the starting point,
• Integration tests constitute the middle tier, and
• End-to-end tests form the base of the pyramid.

An automated pyramid testing approach reduces the mobile testing load and smoothly completes the entire testing process. Using a mobile test pyramid method can make your testing process short and fast. Even the cost of testing goes low by using the pyramid testing approach.

The pyramidal approach divides the whole testing process into small testing units to make application testing easy. Like the pyramid structure, the tip goes for the first testing procedure and one-by-one move to the base. Below we have embedded the structure of a Mobile Automation Testing pyramid segmenting and its different levels.

1. Unit Testing

At the top of the testing pyramid, it’s Unit Testing, where you have to take a single unit/component individually and then test it for any bug; if trust passes, then move to the other segment. When a module gets developed, the developers move for Unit testing immediately to clear tracks for further development.

Spotting the bug in the developing stage reduces costs and time. For example, when the software spots a bug during the functional or performance testing phase, it requires high costs as the underlying code goes to the QA engineer.

The other primary reason why the bug needs to get fixed in the earlier stage is application crashing.

2. Manual Testing

Manual testing in the mobile application helps spot UI bugs while a customer interacts with the mobile application interface in the operational phase. Every aspect and embedded feature of the application is observed during the manual testing level. 

User-side testing is crucial for any application. It starts from downloading the app, accessing different app features, and using the application for an unfixed length of time and an unfixed number of users at a time.

3. Integration Testing

Integration Testing is the next most crucial testing level that tests all individual units together and checks if they collectively work fine or not. If there’s an issue with the interaction between the units, the testing result reveals it.

It’s not the same as what we do in the unit testing phase, where the unit/components are tested individually. Once all the components are assembled, they need to test the whole using LambdaTest’s integration testing tool.

4. Functional Testing

Functional testing focuses on the functional behavior and the working interface of an application. For example, an application requires login with the right credentials to access. The functional testing level tests the provided username and password and grants access if the data input meets the data stored in the application database.

5. Regression Testing

This testing level includes components testing when new functionality gets added. Regression Testing ensures that the existing functionality should not break or raise bugs after bringing any new functionality.

For example, suppose you added a Google Maps API in your application, but it overlaid on other features columns or changed the complete UI after successful implementation. To fix this bug Regression Testing process is used.

6. Beta Testing

Before an application is made available for all users, it’s shared with a few users to check the application in a real environment. This testing process takes user feedback and works on glitches or bugs found in the product.

The business team shares a feedback form to collect their views regarding the application’s working and usability. They also ask for any recommendations that should be there in the application to enhance user engagement.

7. End to End testing

End to End testing is the last process where the application’s complete functionality is tested end-to-end. If there’s a failure in the application functionality or one unit either from the user or the business end, the testing process will detect it and list it down in the test result.

The automation testing pyramid is undoubtedly the best way to detect test failures to save time and money. However, you can improvise the steps in the pyramid as per your application specifications or requirement.

What Are The Different Specifications To Check While Testing An Application?

Before or during the mobile application development, you must check for certain specifications for a clear development and testing idea. Here are a few things you can check for and add to your specifications checklist:

• Devices supported by the application
• Operating systems required
• Network barrier for using the application
• iOS or Android support
• Phone features needed, ex: Camera, Messages
• Tablet Supported or not
• Geographical restriction
• In-app purchase requirements

You can add specifications in your checklist while developing for your mobile application depending upon the type and use of your application and design your automated pyramid testing approach accordingly.

Perform Automated Pyramid With LambdaTest

Automation Testing is the best helping hand for the old and lengthy manual testing procedure; also, the mobile application testing process became easy and quick with automation testing. The testing pyramid is nothing but a level-based testing process to test your application in all aspects.

LambdaTest is a cloud-based cross-browser testing platform that lets you perform automated testing, manual testing, and live interactive testing. It has over 600,000+ users in 132+ countries.

LambdaTest supports Selenium testing and Cypress E2E testing with over 3000+ Real Browsers and Operating Systems online, making it one of the best mobile app testing platform to implement your automated pyramid testing approach. So, launch your application bug-free with our robust cloud testing platform.