What are the advantages of automating your mobile testing on the cloud?
According to Gartner, in the second quarter of 2021, mobile phone sales reached 328.8 million units with an increase of 10.8% year-on-year growth. It is remarkable and quite expected too!
This outlines the need for using cloud-based automation platforms for mobile testing. Because when we are dealing with huge numbers and a global audience, it is the best bet.
1. Ideal companion of Continuous Testing and Agile
Reference: https://quotesgram.com/img/scrum-funny-quotes/9995035/
Agile methodology and CI/CD require continuous testing, review, and incorporation of changes quickly on a continuous basis.
- Whenever there are code changes and additions, the tests get triggered automatically.
- The test results are evaluated and based on the pass/fail status the code is moved to production.
- If considerable tests have failed then the code will be fixed, tested, and then deployed.
- CI/CD requires all of these steps to run through automation.
For these scenarios, cloud-based testing is the best companion since tests are initiated automatically on all the required mobile devices, without any human intervention.
Moreover, tools like Testsigma require zero time to set up the testing tool and can be used directly via browser from anywhere, anytime.
Unit tests, functional tests, regression tests, performance tests, etc. are executed via cloud-based testing seamlessly. Automation testing on the cloud helps in moving the new code quickly into production and having a good market capture ultimately.
2. Provides cost control
When mobile test automation infrastructure is set up, the associated costs are as below:
- Acquisition of physical devices
- Setting up space for the lab
- Upgrade/Wear and tear of devices/Maintenance
- Procurement and licensing cost of testing tools, software, third party installations
- Network setup
- Training costs if the programming language or test tool is new to the team
- Security measures to keep the vulnerabilities away
Above are the direct costs, which are incurred on an upfront basis. On the contrary, when the mobile testing is automated on the cloud, costs are saved in several instances-
- No physical acquisition of devices needed
- No need for extra space for setting up the lab
- Wear, tear, and, maintenance is taken care of by the service provider
- No need to set up the cloud or network
- No training is required if a codeless test automation tool (such as Testsigma which uses simple English for test creation) is used
- Licensing costs, third party installations are managed by the service provider
- Security measures, policies, and agreements are maintained and followed by the service provider
The cloud automation testing services are on a pay-per-use basis, and the service charges are minimal as compared to the services provided. This saves a lot of upfront and indirect costs for an organization.
3. Better time management
*Reference: https://www.apriorit.com/qa-blog/197-testing-time-estimation
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Automation testing has numerous benefits, the most important is time efficiency. Automation helps to test faster since it can be run 24×7, round the clock, around the globe, and parallelly.
During the automated mobile testing process below are the areas where time is spent considerably for setting up test automation:
- Acquire devices
- Set up devices, network, and infrastructure
- Install the required software, browsers, etc.
- Testing tools, IDE’s, third-party integrations
- Maintain and upgrade whenever there are new versions of software released in the market
This incurred time adds up to the overall testing time or more precisely delay.
Cloud-based automation testing removes all these roadblocks from the whole testing process because there is zero setup time. The time-consuming activities of procuring, updating, maintaining the environment are already taken care of by the cloud service provider. Also, the test execution is totally automated, this is really a time saver!
Therefore, when mobile test automation is combined with cloud-based testing platforms – the time efficiency is increased manifolds.
4. Infrastructure management is delegated
According to Technavio market research analysts, the global cloud infrastructure services market will grow at a CAGR of over 28% during the forecast period 2018-2022.
Reference: Cloud-based testing provides the opportunity to delegate the IT and infrastructure management tasks to the service provider. This takes away a chunk of responsibilities from the organization’s IT team and thus reduces effort on their part.
The service providers have a dedicated team for the same purpose and customer support is available 24*7. This increases the reliability, availability, and scalability of the infrastructure.
5. Great quality and test coverage
Physically setting up thousands of devices for perfect test coverage is unachievable and painful. Without great test coverage, the product quality is bound to degrade, and we want to avoid this at all costs!
The cloud-based automation testing platforms provide access to thousands of real test devices in no time. Just pay and start using immediately, this ensures testing on a wide range of required devices.
Moreover, these tools provide the capability to test 24*7, parallelly, and from anywhere. You just need a browser and internet connection to get started! With these features, the test coverage can be extended and a great quality product is the result of it, which everyone aspires to achieve.
6. Distributed testing across locations
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Today we live in a small world, and we are connected 24*7 with people around the globe. Cloud-based automation tools provide the ability to test from multiple locations in different time zones with minimal changes in the tests.
This ensures that the product is market-ready to be released for a global audience as well. Imagine the effort it will require if we try to do it with the actual physical devices.
7. Results and reviews are real-time and the teams can collaborate better
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In today’s world where teams are distributed, team collaboration is the key to the success of any organization. With cloud-based test automation platforms, the team has access to real-time test results, data, information, and reviews if any – from any time, anywhere. This facilitates making quick defect fixes and moving the code to production faster.
Also, with the latest information at your fingertips, the best management and business decisions can be made for the overall success of the organization.
8. Scale-up and down as required
Let us take an example of a physical on-premise test lab. The lab has 100 Android devices for testing activities and now the product is required to be tested on iOS as well.
This will require procurement of physical iOS devices from the market and then setting up the required application and software manually over them. Additionally, the charging of the devices is also to be taken care of manually.
Does it look like a lot of work? Yes, it is. However, let us assume that the enthusiastic IT team completed the task successfully and the iOS devices are also ready for testing.
Down the line, the iOS mobile app did not work as expected and the market share reduced considerably. So the organization decided to remove the iOS offering and keep only the Android version of the app.
Next question is – what will happen to the newly procured iOS devices? Time, money, and effort all got wasted! This whole sequence of events and misfortune could have been avoided by using cloud-based mobile testing tools which provide the easiest options to scale up or scale down as per your requirement.
9. Stringent security measures are present
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There is a myth doing rounds in the market that the cloud-based test automation tools are not secure. It may be true for some tools however, top-notch quality tools like Testsigma understand the criticality of security concerns.
They have security measures in place to keep your data, test scripts, and other sensitive information completely secure. Moreover, you have an option to use VPN to connect to your own on-premise lab via Testsigma and test securely.
Why Testsigma for mobile test automation on the cloud?
Testsigma is a completely cloud-based test automation tool that lets you automate your web, mobile as well as API tests from the same place. Not only that, it makes it very easy to create and maintain your test cases. You can create your test cases in simple English which is just as easy as documenting your tests for the first time.
Review more features that can help here: Testsigma for mobile test automation on the cloud
Conclusion
The current digital landscape is huge and it is bound to grow leaps and bounds in the coming years. This clearly states adopting cloud-based test automation is the need of the hour to stay relevant.
This fact is further endorsed by the plethora of cloud-based automation tools available today. The key is to recognize the testing requirements and choose a good tool that fulfils the requirements completely.
Cloud-based tools have a lot of advantages over traditional automation testing, however, it is the choice of tool which matters the most for a successful product release.
