Quality Assurance (QA) has come of age, but when it comes to mobile app testing. The discipline still lacks qualified and experienced professionals to evaluate mobile apps. On the other hand, the app market and mobile device ecosystem are evolving so rapidly that Quality Assurance benchmarks for the industry are always in flux.
Quality Assurance engineers became a vital part of the top mobile application development team structure because they have the right to ensure the final version of the mobile app features is executed as decided. This is also one of the reasons why mobile Quality Assurance engineers are always in high demand. Do you aspire to make a career in mobile QA testing? Well, more than just certifications, you need to have a strong command of the key skills, tools, and some time-tested principles. Throughout this article, we will figure them out one by one in detail.
Must have the Qualities of a Mobile QA Specialist
Since there is a wide gap between the demand and availability of mobile quality assurance experts, many mobile app development companies ultimately resort to hiring computer science graduates with basic software testing skills. Even top mobile app developers often complain about the compulsion to play the secondary role of quality assurance experts in several app projects.
Entry-level software testing skills are too inadequate for making mobile app projects stand out in the competition. This is why being well-equip with all necessary qualities for quality assurance specialists is a must for aspiring Quality Assurance engineers. Let’s have a quick look at some of them.
- User Experience Analysis: Ultimately, the quality of any mobile app boils down to how users experience using it. So the ability to analyze the app’s value from the user’s perspective is the first criterion for an aspiring Quality Assurance specialist.
- Out-of-the-Box Thinking: A Quality Assurance specialist should be able to consider several alternatives. Including some out-of-the-box and unique ways to deliver a satisfactory user experience.
- Granular Level Attention: A Quality Assurance expert finds something that no one observes and detects issues that users only find over several months of use. So, this gradual attention to every detail is a must-have quality for QA experts.
- Problem-Solving Acumen: A QA tester is also a problem solver who knows various measures to get around certain undetectability in the process. So the quality for the end-users is not compromised.
- Result-Driven Focus: The QA testing expert ultimately should measure how the user experience brings positive or negative differences to user acquisition, user engagement, and business conversion.
- Communication and Reporting Skills: Finally, the QA tester should be able to communicate in a no-holds-barred manner about the issues, the responsible reasons, and their impact on the user experience. Creating a meticulous report with the test results and observations is another crucial skill for the QA expert.
Certifications QA Experts Need
Experience and actual learning from QA testing projects matter most for highly practical skills such as QA testing. Certification is also not negligible for a specialization requiring a more profound product engineering and development command. QA testing experts can opt for the following certifications.
- ISTQB certification from International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB) imparts basic software testing knowledge and skills.
- Certified Software Tester or CSTE is an advanced certification for QA career aspirants. The International Software Certification Board (ISCB) has given this certificate.
- International Mobile Testing Qualifications Network or IMTQN refers to the certification, particularly for the mobile app testers.
- Certified Mobile App Professional Tester or CMAP is also a quality assurance certification. Particularly for the aspiring mobile QA expert that imparts skills on basic testing techniques and skills.
Apart from the ones mentioned above, there are many quality assurance testing courses for different testing specialties such as cloud, security, UI/UX, and others.
Must-Know QA Testing Tools
The QA experts should master all the most advanced QA testing tools that developers use in mobile app projects. These tools will help them get things done quickly and more efficiently while ensuring quality requirements. Some of the must-know quality assurance testing tools include the following.
- GIT: Since every app project needs to keep track of app versions or releases to stay clear of previous fault lines, they need to have a strong command over GIT, the most popular version control system.
- Github: This is the repository for the developers to store all the codes of different app versions or releases.
- Proxyman: QA engineers use this tool to evaluate the user traffic in the network using the app. Because of the slower processing of server requests, network traffic is obstructed. This tool will help you detect this issue.
- Postman: Mobile QA engineers use this rich backend testing tool and require an entry-level knowledge of backend operation.
- Jira: Developers, designers, and the testing teams use Jira as a project management tool for all kinds of projects. It tracks the improvement metrics, bug reports, task assignments, descriptions, and many more.
- Android Debug Bridge (adb): It is the debugging tool used by android app developers.
- Android Studio & Xcode: The first one is the Integrated Development Environment for Android, and the second one is the Integrated development environment for iOS apps. Mobile QA engineers should be versed in both environments.
Time-Tested Tips for Mobile QA Engineers
Now that you have become versed with the leading QA testers and engineers’ tools let us provide some quality tips that QA engineers should follow here.
- Get acquainted with most of the flagship devices in the market from leading platforms and device ecosystems. Turn on developer mode on all these devices and start looking at things from developer perspectives.
- If you have a basic working knowledge of QA testing. It is also time to upgrade your mobile QA testing skills. Start by knowing the differences between web testing and mobile app testing.
- Start applying your Quality Assurance understanding and skills to the least popular apps across every category and find out the user interface, user experience, and performance shortcomings of these apps.
- When carrying out Quality Assurance testing actions on an app project. Document the entire Quality Assurance testing process and try to detect fault lines detected by your analysis. Try to make the documentation perfect for each mobile app project before jumping on to the other.
- Since bugs are also taken care of by the developers. It is important to include very detailed and meticulous data while preparing bug reports.
- As a standard and well-acclaimed practice, make it mandatory to carry out functional & non-functional tests and regression tests. Even if these tests involve sound resources, they are worth putting money into.
- Last but not least, the mobile Quality Assurance engineers must be familiar with all operating systems. And mobile devices across the spectrum as well.
Ending Note
These skills, qualities, and tools apart, an aspiring mobile QA engineer should possess an analytical bent of mind and problem-solving skills for different mobile user contexts. Even if you do not have a computer science background, persistent and motivated efforts to excel in QA can turn you to become a professional mobile tester.
Mastering the above testing tools requires a few months. But project experience with the Quality Assurance team is invaluable for any professional. Try to sharpen your Quality Assurance testing skills through many real-life and demo app projects.
