Consumers expect a mobile app to be responsive within three seconds, and only 16 percent of consumers are willing to give a mobile application more than one attempt when they encounter a problem, according to “The State of Mobile Software Quality,” from Keynote, a provider of Internet, mobile and cloud testing and monitoring. However, mobile testing continues to be a challenge for many companies and the lack of mobile tools is their biggest hurdle, the company said.
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On a scale of 1 to 10, the availability of testing tools rated 6.60; having enough time to test rated 6.43; access to mobile devices rated 6.35; implementing the right testing method/process for mobile rated 6.26; and availability of mobile testing experts rated 6.18, according to the survey.
Functional testing continues to be a problem, with build acceptance testing, regression and new features noted as the leading area of concern, as per 47 percent of participants. Performance testing was second, as per 24.6 percent of participants; usability, as per 21.9 percent; and 6.5 percent said stress testing the site or app for how it would respond to high load.
Among financial services companies, including insurance carriers, the security of test data rated as a primary concern, as did integration with application lifecycle management tools, Keynote said. More than a third, 35 percent, said testing is done on real mobile devices, and less than 25 percent said mobile web tests are automated, underscoring the need for testing mobile apps and websites on real mobile devices, Keynote said.
While the amount of time allocated for mobile vs. non-mobile releases was the same, Keynote said, the quality expectations for mobile apps is higher than for desktops, but quality assurance resources for mobile were slightly lower.
For mobile Web testing, 26 percent test on more than 10 device models; 35 percent are doing most of their testing on real mobile devices and less than 25 percent of testing is automated, Keynote reported.
For mobile app testing, 34 percent test on more than 10 models; 37 percent are doing most of their testing on real devices and less than 20 percent of testing is automated, Keynote said.
Respondents included professionals in quality assurance, mobile app development,
Website development, and IT organizations; 38 percent were in quality assurance and more than 17 percent were in app development and IT, Keynote said. The top five industries in terms of participation were software, financial services/insurance, media, retail and telecommunications. More than 60 percent were in North America.
