5 Mobile App Testing Challenges to be Avoided

 Testing mobile applications is much more complicated than the traditional web or desktop based applications, resulting in the challenges for Quality Assurance team and developers. Users of mobile phones have a mindblowing variety of apps to choose from, which means that users will not stay patient if an app is not according to their desired set of expectations. And hence resulting in the less ROI for an organization. 

There  are always some challenges in a path to success - seeming to be the obstacles towards victory, but one must be a champ of tackling those challenges. In case of mobile app testing pitfalls, mobile app testing company need to pay more attention and invest their efforts in developing a best match strategy to their testing needs. 

Here we’ll discuss some of the pitfalls while testing mobile applications, which testers may avoid in testing process;

1. Compatibility across platforms and devices

With the rapid growth of mobile market, more advanced features are coming up in full swing across competition. This can be a threat to organizations, if mobile apps are not compatible with various operating systems. An application which runs smoothly in one operating system may not operate well in another OS. 

2. Peeking in Customer’s Shoes - One shoe will not fit every foot

It is of great importance to understand what your target audience prefers to see in your application and what is that unique feature or element your app has, instead of what competing apps offer. 

For such types of user concerns, it is better to strategize your mobile app testing in such a way where you evaluate an application as if you are its user too. Don’t limitize your evaluating criteria as a tester, instead try to behave like a user who’s having an eye on what an app has within it.

3. Wise Choice of Tool

Testing is the pivotal aspect in Mobile development life-cycle and the market is brimming with tools. It is therefore necessary to carefully select a tool while matching its specifications with your predefined set of requirements.

4. Rooting/Jailbreaking

Test results will not be considered accurate if jailbreaking or rooting is not avoided. Moreover, devices are vulnerable to performance relevant issues that may lead to the reporting of false issues.

5. Artificial intelligence Test Automation

AI automation testing is becoming an emerging yet vital part of the security testing in application development lifecycle. AI Bots can create test cases and test codes automatically. Yet there are some organizations which have still strong beliefs in traditional testing approaches instead of appreciating an ease of testing via Bots. 

Final Thoughts

Multiple devices and platforms, not realizing the customers requirements, lack of a potential tool, jailbreaking and absence of AI automation testing can significantly be a great cause for the failure or challenges your organization may have to suffer, in the overall mobile application development lifecycle. It is highly recommended to forecast the concerned challenges and hence an appropriate strategy must be developed.

Code review guidelines for coders and reviewers

 Systematic inspection of computer codes is said to be known as code review process. 

The purpose of this reviewing process is to suspect and fix errors & omissions overlooked in the initial development phase, while improving the overall software quality. 

Code reviews are robust means to improve the quality of codes, set up best practices and to proliferate knowledge. Nevertheless, code reviews can be useless and harmful towards interpersonal relations, when they are not performed accordingly. Thus, it’s vital to pay attention to the coders and reviewers aspects of code reviews. Code reviews require a certain mindset and phrasing techniques to be successful. For an organization to maintain its software development life-cycle, they can either outsour code review services or ask their own team to do so.

Code Review Guidelines - With Respect To Coders

Submissiveness

Coders are also human beings and humans make mistakes. So if humans are writing software then it would definitely have some errors in it. This does not mean that coders remain frightened at all. Instead this means that coders must have a mindset, they can face criticism and rejection as a part of the learning process.

The key takeaway here is to “Be Submissive”. Coders must be ready to accept the critical point of view of reviewers and have a tendency to learn from the mistakes they’ve made.

Insensitive

Coders must understand that “they are not their codes”. If someone has said that your code is not written well, then there isn’t any need to take it personally. You may understand that this criticism can help enhance your technical skills.

Exchange of knowledge & expertise

Coders need to keep this in their minds that reviewing is not a process of just communicating what's wrong and how to make it correct. Instead it's a two way process in which there is an exchange of best practices and expertise between coders and reviewers.

Code Review Guidelines - With Respect to Reviewers

Use I-Messages

Reviewers must formulate their feedback in “I-messages” i.e I suggest, I think, I would prefer etc. Because, in contrast if reviewers would provide their feedback in the form of insinuation and an absolute statement, it would definitely be an attack on the coder. And instead of improving codes, they would find ways to argue with reviewers. 

Feedback on code not on coders

Just keep this in mind all the reviewers around the globe, provide feedback on the codes written by the authors instead of commenting on coders ability. This will result in harsh coders feelings.

Ask Questions 

While communicating with the coder about the code being written, it is recommended to avoid statements and ask questions more often. 

For instance; 

Wrong: “This variable should have the name ‘userId’.“

Right: “What do you think about the name ‘userId’ for this variable**?**“

Conclusion

It is widely being observed that sometimes they are coders who are reluctant to accept any feedback and sometimes its reviewers who provide their feedback in form of insinuation and an absolute statement, therefore both must be concerned about the mutual gain and not hurt anyone’s feelings. Only this way codes can be reviewed effectively, teams would be able to learn and organizations will be able to reap productivity.

Why should you focus on conducting pen testing?

 With the increasing revolutions of technology, our lives have been positively yet negatively influenced. There are plenty of benefits that technology brings for us. But simultaneously it has given birth to some of the most deadly threats to the organizations and individuals as well. When it comes to a crucial and complex industry like the software development industry, adversities of technology can be seen in form of the birth of malicious attackers or hackers.  In today’s world, cyber threats are rapidly evolving at their best while the business world is at a great stake and is increasingly under intense pressure by the stakeholders in order to prevent their sensitive data, information, and credentials against security threats like ransomware, malicious attacks, phishing, etc. 

Strengthening the quality of software products is the main aim of every organization in the software development industry for the sake of fulfilling the product expectations set by customers. For this purpose, many organizations rush to implement the use of large-sized, heavy costs software testing tools without even knowing how to use it. However, organizations must rush to the penetration testing companies, for their professional ethical testing abilities to dig out the errors and glitches in the software products. Although organizations are constantly chock-full with the latest and considered the best tools and technologies, penetration testing is still one of the most popular and critical tools to strengthen security defenses.

Without wasting any second, let us delve you into some of the key rationales for why you should focus on conducting pen testing;

Exposition of crucial and complex vulnerabilities in the testing environment - Just like vulnerability assessment, penetration testing aids in exposing whether an organization is likely to suffer from a cyber-attack and provide suggestions on how to enhance its security posture. Via scanning the operating system, network devices, and application software, penetration testing helps in identifying known and unknown vulnerabilities in the test environment and generate reports, listing the loopholes found according to the criticality.

However, penetration testing goes beyond vulnerability assessment and take action on the vulnerabilities found. It aims to determine the methods of exploiting discovered vulnerabilities "to prove (or prove) the true attack vector against the organization's IT assets, data, personnel, and/or physical security."

In short, penetration testing aids in providing an insight into the extent to which an organization’s vulnerabilities can be exploited by hackers.

Prioritizing risks according to their intensity of exploitation - Nicely performed penetration tests provide an in-depth view of overall organization’s vulnerabilities that are easy to exploit and also provide useful suggestions to fix the problems while optimizing your levels of protection. Loopholes or vulnerabilities that are discovered will be then listed according to the priority from most exploitable to the least exploitable ones. 

By following the so-called "risk-oriented priority" approach, quality assurance professionals will be able to prioritize these risks based on their severity, plan about their corrective actions, and allocate their security resources accordingly. For instance, testers may want to prioritize solving the most critical problems or glitches that have the most adverse impact on the company and delay processing vulnerabilities that have little impact and are difficult to exploit.

Meeting compliance and Industry standards - If you want your organization to meet the industry standards, then it is important to conduct penetration tests regularly. Some of the common compliance standards include ISO 27001, HIPAA, NIST, FIMAA, etc. If penetration tests are conducted frequently on your environment, your organization will demonstrate due diligence on information security and avoid huge fines for non-compliance with regulations.

Upper management must know about the level of risk involved - Managers or leaders of today are much more concerned about the digital security health of an organization as compared to the past. Why this enables them to be conscious of security? The answer is simple i.e the rapid advancements in technology and the birth of cyber attackers.  

No doubt top management may not have extended hours to read every page of the penetration test report but with the help of an executive summary of the report, they can analyze the severity of vulnerabilities and risks involved. It is here recommended that when you select a penetration testing company for its services, be sure to get the preview of their reporting practices to ensure that the final report includes relevant information both for technical personnel as well as executives.

Final Thoughts 

There are many more reasons to answer a simple question like why you should focus on conducting pen testing? But the aforementioned ones are the highlighted ones. Pen testing is crucial for a business to strengthen its cybersecurity posture, to allow testers to dig out the errors and glitches before a hacker exploits them to get into your system. 

Challenges that Occur While Testing Web Applications

Testing web applications is a complex task handle. As the number of devices and browsers is increasing every day, in addition to testing functionality and performance, proper testing is also required to ensure that it does not affect the overall user experience of the website.

Which functional testing should you opt for?

The need and demand for the functional testing companies are rising with every passing day. While every software house or mobile application development house likes to have a functional testing company test their system every now and then, they are not much aware of the processes. Since developers are a part of the testing team all the time, experts have started suggesting that software companies must be aware of the functional testing, its types, and the benefits of every type. 

As a developer, what do you think about this new stance? Whether you decide to support it or not, deep down you know that it is only through the knowledge you can be assured every process brings you closer to your goal. Here is what you need to know about functional testing types and their benefits.

Top 7 Questions You Should Ask your Cyber Security Testing Company

Every week, cyber-attacks are making the headlines, ruining company reputations and costing millions of dollars. Yet business leaders fail to ask important questions when hiring, onboarding, and interviewing a new outsourced QA partner. They focus on speed and cost while assuming that security is covered. However, when searching for a cyber security testing company, you need to define which requirements can’t be compromised on. Strong cyber security standards and protocols should be your main priority.