Are Mobile Apps Destroying Software Quality?

I recently wrote a post for the uTest Software Testing Blog about the degradation of software quality. I pinpointed three reasons that might be contributing to poor software quality recently, one of which is the rise of mobile apps.

The advent of mobile apps has opened the world of development to an unprecedented number of people. People without a formal software development or software testing background are creating apps because they have an idea and mobile app creation is fairly accessible. This is awesome and injects a wealth of outside ideas into the field. But it is also the reason mobile app quality is so hit and miss. Bob Binder, President of System Verification Associates, pointed out in a uTest Testing the Limits interview that many mobile apps are created by individuals, rather than companies or development houses. Binder calls these people “App Artisans.”

“App artisans often have a good intuitive sense of ‘coolness,’” he said in the interview. “But they don’t as often have an appreciation of how easily dependencies and oversights can lead to both annoying and catastrophic bugs.  And, they don’t know how to be systematic in searching for these bugs.”

Even professionally produced mobile apps are lacking in quality when compared to other software. The iPhone was released five years ago, but many companies still regard mobile apps as a lesser medium.

“The mentality around mobile testing is, ‘Most of the app should work. What’s the big deal if there are defects?’” Steve Woodward told TechTarget.

Because these companies are already behind when it comes to mobile apps, they are sacrificing application testing in their rush to market. The 2012-2013 World Quality Report produced by HP, Capgemini and Sogeti found that only 31% of the 1,500 enterprise-level businesses surveyed currently formally test their mobile apps.

“Enterprises seem to have been caught by surprise at the speed by which mobile application adoption has taken place,” said Murat Aksu, vice president and global head of HP Alliance for Capgemini, in a Network Computing article. “We’re finding enterprise quality assurance teams are falling behind. They’re not carrying out an end-to-end process that includes testing for functionality, usability, performance and security concerns.”

The numbers don’t get much better when broken down by testing type.

Do We Worry About App Security Enough?

Do we worry about security enough? Does it keep us up late at night, constantly in the back of our minds? If not, it should.

The reality is, as developers and app users we hardly focus on security enough. Jon Evans of TechCrunch says as users instead of worrying about it ourselves, we let the Facebooks and Googles of the world take care of it for us – which puts both us and the companies and apps we rely on in some treacherous territories:

“Alas, right now it seems that many-to-most people value conformity more than privacy.What’s more, instead of worrying about security ourselves, we trust others — Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google — to take care of it for us. As the great Bruce Schneier points out, in some ways we’ve regressed to a feudal notion of security.

… Security is, by its very nature, something most people generally hardly worry about at all – until and unless that one awful day comes when it’s the only thing they worry about. By then it’s usually too late to start taking it seriously. “

As users we can certainly become more security-savvy. But more importantly, as app developers, security needs to be top of mind.  Security failures usually occur because of poor design and a lack of testing. Therefore, if there was more forward thinking during the design phase developers would be able to produce better, more secure apps.

As T.L. Neff of Wired says, when it comes to development and security “less is more” and forward thinking is essential:

“Overall, users must include security factors while designing the app. Sure, you can be conservative about what you expose in the first place. Definitely consider some limits on what can be downloaded, and think about using graphical cues instead of text. By taking these kinds of steps, you’ll likely end up with apps that are more streamlined and user-friendly, and minimize security risks for your company.

The bottom line: don’t approach security as a set of utilities you put in place after apps are deployed. You’ll get better security through more of a life-cycle approach where you design with security in mind, and also test for security.”

It seems like it will take a collective effort from companies, developers and users alike in order to really improve mobile app security. Looking for resources on mobile app security? Here is a free whitepaper with security testing tips on common attacks, security tools and ways to build a better QA team: Security Testing and Software Testing.

Apps for Surviving Black Friday

It’s sad, but the Black Friday shopping rush is starting even earlier this year – we’re talking Thanksgiving night. If you’re going to venture into the mad rush, be safe. And maybe download some of these helpful utility apps that will make shopping a bit more manageable.
Pre-Gaming - Plan your attack before the big day

• Santa’s Little Helper (iOS): Create lists to help you remember who you need to buy for, what you need to get them, what stores you need to stop by and how much you can spend per person or per store.
  
• TGI Black Friday (Android, iOS): See ads from major retailers and build a shopping list all in one convenient location.
• SnipSnap The Coupon App (iOS): Forget the envelope of pre-clipped coupons. Simply take a picture of a coupon and let this app be your envelope. SnipSnap will also keep track of those pesky expiration dates.

In the Thick of It - When you’re in the middle of the rush things can get crazy. Keep calm, focused and level-headed with these apps

• Calculate Discount & Sales Tax (iOS): There are plenty of sales tax calculators available, but this app let’s you calculate tax and discounts from a single screen.
• Fast Mall (Android, iOS, Windows Phone): Whether you’re in your hometown mall or a mall half a country away, this app is worth having. It will give you a map of your chosen mall, but more importantly, it will help you remember where you parked AND find the nearest restroom!

Follow-Up - The damage is done. See how bad it is.

• Shoeboxed Receipt Tracker (Android, iOS): Take a photo of your receipt and this app will automatically pull and organize all the important information.

Thanks to The Windsor Star for finding these great apps!

Facebook’s Mobile-Only Usage Booming

Facebook has 1.01 billion users. Of those billions of users, 604 million (around 60%) use the social network’s mobile app. Of those mobile Facebookers, 126 million (21%) visit Facebook elusively via mobile. That’s a pretty big percentage for a company who historically has had a hard time fine tuning its mobile offering. And the number is only increasing. According to quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (and reported on by Venture Beat), the number of mobile-only users has increased 24% since June. And that trend is expectedto continue, possibly at the expensive of the network’s traditional website.

Facebook App Testing

“While most of our mobile users also access Facebook through personal computers, we anticipate that the rate of growth in mobile usage will exceed the growth in usage through personal computers for the foreseeable future and that the usage through personal computers may be flat or continue to decline in certain markets, including key developed markets such as the United States, in part due to our focus on developing mobile products to encourage mobile usage of Facebook,” the company disclosed in the 10-Q report.

Get more information at Venture Beat >>>

3 Things You Need To Know About Apps for iPad Mini

So a miniature version of the iPad is joining the Mac family. As with each new device that hits the market, there’s going to be shake up in the mobile software testing world. From a technical development standpoint, it doesn’t look like the iPad Mini will present too many challenges (unlike the new iPad (#3) and the iPhone 5). But it might attract a different type of user, which will dictate which types of apps are most successful. James A. Martin, a blogger for CIO.com, came up with a few things everyone can expect from iPad Mini apps. Here are the three points most pertinent to the development and testing world:

Software Testing

 iPad mini apps won’t need to be updated. The iPad mini has a smaller screen than the iPad 2 or current-generation iPad, but developers won’t have to downscale their apps. That’s because the iPad mini has the same pixel resolution as the iPad 1 and 2. Even so, smaller in-app buttons might make tapping them more difficult.

• Gamers should be happy. Compared to the bigger iPads, the iPad mini is lighter and thinner and you can hold it in one hand. Translation: The mini should be a killer tablet for game apps. However, keep in mind the iPad mini uses Apple’s A5 processor, and the new fourth-generation iPad has the faster Apple A6X chip.
• Productivity won’t be a selling point. Let’s face it, the bigger iPads are only marginally viable as laptop replacements, because tablet apps simply aren’t as full-featured as their desktop software equivalents. … Throw in a smaller screen, and the iPad mini is even less attractive as a laptop alternative.

Mobile Revenue: Companies Play the Waiting Game

Mobile is big – really, really big – but don’t expect revenue numbers to back it up. Not for now anyway. Over at TechWell, Noel Wurst takes a look at why mobile revenue seems to be lagging behind and asks if mobile will ever live up to the hype. Here’s a good excerpt:

Mobile technology may very well be the future, but without a current guarantee of mobile advertising revenue, where exactly will the money come from?

Mobile Money

It shouldn’t come as much of a shock that companies like Intel, Microsoft, and AMD are hurting as PC sales plummet. Their CEO’s have seen it coming, and they’ve claimed that they’re making the business model changes necessary to right the ship during this rapid shift to a mobile technology world.

The reemergence of the success of these companies isn’t hard to imagine, not because they’re “too big to fail,” but because they don’t rely heavily on online advertising dollars. On the other hand, Google and Facebook clearly stand out as companies that must figure out how to generate advertising revenue in the mobile world.

Twitter and Facebook both are doing everything in their power to make life easier for advertisers, when what advertisers want more than anything is clicks. That is, purposeful clicks.

EBay Profits Prove the Power of Mobile

Companies that have centered their business strategy on the web are feeling the heat from the push toward mobile. This is especially true for ecommerce companies, as mobile payment and purchase apps become more prominent.

However, a lot of companies are reaping the benefits from revamping their strategy to include mobile. Take eBay for example, who just announced a 15% revenue increase this quarter. Tom Taulli of MSN cites the eBay mobile app as the source of the company’s growth:

“Ebay also has created compelling mobile apps, which saw more than 100 million downloads in the quarter, and were used by sellers to post roughly 2 million items per week.

 It’s inevitable that the smartphone will become the wallet of the future, considering it’s ideal not just for purchases but for doing research on the products you’re about to buy. And through its numerous deals with PayPal, eBay certainly is poised to be a huge beneficiary of this e-commerce trend.

EBay shares are up more than 60% this year. But despite that fantastic run, eBay still fetches a reasonable valuation. It currently trades at a price-to-earnings ratio of only 17 — not cheap but certainly still compelling in light of eBay’s full-year revenue growth rate of roughly 20%.”

If  EBay continues to grow and improve their mobile apps, the company could see some long-standing growth. Have you used the Ebay mobile app? Let us know what you think about it in the comments section.

Samsung Voted Top Android Testing Devices

What’s the best Android for app testing? While there isn’t really a good answer to that question (because you need to test across makers and models) Evans Data asked more than 350 developers anyway. Samsung took the top spot by a hefty margin, getting half of the vote – 20% higher than its closest competitor HTC.

But even with Samsung and HTC capturing so much favor, the report cautions that developers should continue to test their apps on as many devices as possible:

“Developers must test their applications to work on numerous implementations of Android that vary by manufacturer, or even within a single manufacturer’s collection of offerings. Android fragmentation is a reality that developers will have to face if they decide to work on Android.”

Software Testing - Mobile Application Testing Slideshow: Mobile’s trip to Hyderabad was created with TripAdvisor TripWow!

New Worldwide Record for Active Mobile Devices

Are you reading this post from your mobile device? If so, you make up the one billion people worldwide using a mobile phone.

Mobile Application Testing

More than one billion smartphone devices out there right now are navigating a native app, browsing the mobile web, texting or talking. Research firm Strategy Analytic's has reported that we have hit a major mobile milestone – there are now over 1.038 billion smartphones in use worldwide. According to TechCrunch, this milestone took quite a while to reach:

“It’s taken 16 years to pass 1 billion, but the analysts believe it will only take three years for the next billion smartphone users to come on board.

When it comes to the big things in technology, billion, it seems, is the new million.

The analysts do not go into the specifics of which handset maker accounts for the bulk of these. At the moment, Samsung is the leader in terms of…
Read the rest on the Software Testing.