Considering the rapid growth in business and consumer applications being developed for mobile platforms, soaring penetration rates for the cell phone market, availability of a wide range of mobile and handheld devices and platforms and faster release cycles, ensuring quality of these applications through timely testing has become increasingly crucial.
AFour’s Mobile Solution Testing and Quality Engineering Experience
We treat Mobility as a vertical because of the intersection it has with other verticals of interest like Healthcare, Education, BFSI, Retail etc. We have experience in mHealth, having tested applications such as Ultrasound on handheld devices, and M2M Technology with considerable experience testing end-to-end service delivery platforms comprising Application Services, Wireless Network Services, and scenarios spanning connected devices and services.
Test prioritization for mobile applications is done differently as compared to that for desktop or web-based applications. Compatibility and Usability testing of mobile applications is higher in the priority stack as compared to other attributes. Also, since mobile devices are starved of hardware resources, performance and reliability testing of mobile applications is very important.
Our test engineers also have experience with test automation on mobile platforms. We have experience working with diverse mobile technologies (GSM, CDMA, GPRS), platforms (iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, Blackberry) and types of applications belonging to categories like Communication (Email, IM clients, Social Networking clients), Gaming, Productivity (PIM apps like Calendar, Diary, Banking and Financial Apps, Location Based Service Apps etc.) and so on.
Apple iOS test platforms include devices with iOS 3 and iOS 4. We have tested document collaboration systems, defect management systems, application performance monitoring systems on iPhone. We have used custom test automation frameworks for automating test cases.
We have tested CRM applications, defect management systems on Android 2.x platforms. Test automation is done using reflection techniques.
Windows Mobile testing includes testing and test automation of mobile healthcare applications. Tools like .NET compact library and M-eux Test are used for test automation.
M2M (Machine-to Machine Communications)
Machine to Machine or M2M communications is a new business concept, born from the original telemetry technology, used for automatic transmission and measurement of data from remote sources by wire, radio or other means. M2M applications include connectivity-enabled devices that use a cellular data link to communicate with the computer server. A database to store collected data and a software application that allows the data to be analyzed, reported, and acted upon are the key components of a successful end-to-end solution.
A typical M2M architecture builds on a service oriented platform. The web services allow high level of configurability to the M2M solution providers which is important considering the M2M solution scope includes implementations in various business domains like Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Distribution, MDM, Inventory management, Telecommunications, Consumer Electronics, etc. These implementations augment the complexity of the M2M solution management. Thus, quality assurance of the solution platform becomes a key factor which needs dedicated expertise and effort.
AFour Technologies has identified this M2M QA requirement and built focused expertise in this space through various projects with leading M2M solution providers and platform development organizations. AFour has participated is various pre-release and post-release M2M testing activities ranging from User Acceptance Testing and end to end functional testing to Regression testing, M2M management portal testing, Web services testing (SOAP and REST) and UI Automation etc. AFour has leveraged its QA experience and expertise to develop deep domain understanding and technical knowhow in this emerging business.
| M2M Area | Technology / Service / Platforms | Afourtech’s M2M Expertise | |
| Wireless network | Wireless Network Services | Test Design, UAT, Functional Testing, Regression testing | API Testing, API Automation |
| Platform | Service Oriented Platform | M2M solution services Testing, Configuration and implementation testing | |
| Portal | BSS & OSS | UI Testing, UI Automation | |
| Device | Device Performance Services | Functional Testing | MO & MT messages Test |
Mobile Device Management (MDM)
MDM solution adoption has become a must for enterprises with the increase in mobile and distributed workforce and their various access devices. The many challenges faced by MDM solution providers are supporting the array of devices running multiple flavors of operating systems and the ever increasing number mobile devices to be managed. The MDM solution needs to be all-encompassing, scalable and yet retain the same levels of reliability. The tight integration with the existing IT infrastructure and asset management solutions comes with its own set of challenges. This means that the MDM solutions have frequent upgrades and releases putting pressure on the QA and testing teams. This is where AFour can help you with our accelerators and frameworks which are tried and tested on various MDM applications.
We have developed deep expertise in testing and quality engineering of MDM solutions during our various engagements. With AFour’s test automation accelerator the test automation frameworks are built in lesser time. These framework components are tried and tested on various applications and hence very stable. Performance testing and functional test automation are the key areas where we can add value
These are the key areas associated the MDM solution testing and quality Engineering where AFour can add value:
| Application Feature | Value Addition |
| Customer registration / Account creation | Simulation of large number of customers and verifying impact on the application
Verification of resource utilization on servers and identification of bottlenecks |
| User / Device enrollment | Simulation of large number of device enrollments (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry)
Simulation of large number of users |
| Device group creation | Simulation of large number of devices in one group
Verification of impact on the system if same device is part of multiple groups and each group is accessed simultaneously |
| Reports Verification/Validation | Verification of efficient report delivery with large number of devices under one customer
Verification of required pagination and sorting behaviour |
| Application distribution | Simulation of application distribution to device groups / all devices / specific devices
Distribute high number of iTunes applications to devices Distribute high number of enterprise applications to devices Distribute high number of Playstore applications to devices |
| Document distribution | Simulation of application distribution to device groups / all devices / specific devices |
DM Functional Test Automation
Leverage performance testing scenarios and test scripts to verify system sanity in matter of minutes or few hours. This is helpful when there is quick support fix or when there is system upgrade for new release or when there is new environment to be hosted. With AFour test automation accelerators the test automation frameworks are built in lesser time. These framework components are tried and tested on various applications and hence very stable.