Though businesses have to leverage the potential of mobile technologies to move ahead of competitors in this age, many are still hesitant to do just that. They do use a number of apps however but rely a lot on legacy systems to run their core processes.

One reason for their indifference to enterprise mobility is the thought that they will need to invest a lot in building a fully functional mobile app that can deliver the same results as the apps running on their legacy systems. This can take months or even years. Many misconceptions about mobile application development and enterprise mobility also attribute to deterring businesses from going the mobile way.

Let’s explore a few such popular myths and the truth behind them.

#1. Optimizing a desktop app to work on mobile devices will work

Many businesses have the wrong notion that the best approach to adopting mobility is to have their existing desktop apps transformed to work on mobile devices at a low investment. This is mostly seen as a first step to mobility. Such a transformation won’t be worthwhile as most legacy desktop apps would only be able to run on smaller mobile screens while being incapable of utilizing mobile hardware to make operations easier and faster. In addition, they will also lack many mobile-friendly functionalities that a business will need.

Users will have to spend more time pinching and zooming to access the app’s functions, and scroll a lot for navigating too. This would eventually force them to find a different, more convenient solution.

#2. In-house mobile app development is the best bet

Some enterprises do find success with their in-house development teams. But there are potentially hundreds of apps that have been shelved or is taking too long to enter the market. Mobile app development is a challenging process that takes a lot of time. Additionally, mobile apps require more time and cost for maintenance and upgrades compared to other technologies.

With technologies evolving dynamically and becoming harder to keep track of, it may not always be possible for the in-house team to customize the mobile solution accordingly unless the enterprise is willing to spend vast resources on achieving mobility. Ultimately, the cost and the requirements would be challenging to meet for a growing enterprise.

A professional mobile application development company can do justice in such a situation, and build the app much faster at a much lower cost.

#3. Businesses and its operations can keep going without mobility

Many businesses that haven’t adopted mobility can give many reasons for why they don’t need a mobile app to keep moving forward. The truth is that those enterprises failed to see the revolution that’s been happening around them. Mobile devices have become personal for people, providing businesses with new, innovative opportunities to reach their consumers on their own personal devices anywhere across the globe.

The BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) trend is gaining more momentum every day, with many businesses adopting it. Smart businesses have found that it’s statistically feasible to take ways that beget more productivity from users rather than keeping their focus on user preferences. High performance, mobile-ready business processes are being introduced every day. All these facts are a testament to the fact that enterprise mobility can indeed turn the tides for a business, facilitating a more accelerated growth.

Conclusion

If a business is still not convinced that mobility is the gamechanger, they would just fall behind competitors very soon. The investment has proved worthy for businesses across various domains. Mobility is changing the way businesses operate, especially when technologies like IoT and the cloud keep growing at incredible pace. Enterprise mobility is now or never.

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When it comes to that expertise, there was always one faction among developers for a long time – native app developers. Native app developers have the expertise and knowledge to build apps in a target platform. They know the specifics, and they know what their app can become in the platform they have expertise in. But, not too while ago, cross-platform app development came into the picture. And native app developers raised questions.

Let’s see what the situation is all about, and explore the merits and demerits of cross-platform mobile app development.

Cross-platform app development

It’s not to be confused with hybrid app development, as both are fundamentally different. Cross-platform development is an umbrella term for application development that targets multiple platforms. Hybrid falls into that category but only as a subtype. Hybrid app development generally uses a specific development model to create apps that are a hybrid variant of web and native apps.

Hybrid apps are coded in HTML, CSS or JavaScript and then encased with a native WebView browser giving it the feel of an app. Cross-platform development is what a business needs if its target audience is split between Android, iOS, and Windows platforms.

Pros

Hybrid app development is known for its speed. Even inexperienced developers would be able to develop a hybrid app rather quickly, reducing costs for businesses while allowing them to enter the market early. Generally, in most cases, developers would only need their front-end development knowledge for developing hybrid apps, and don’t need to go out of line to build the app from scratch.

For cross-platform development, it’s a different case. They are akin to native apps, and are often referred to as near-native due to this. Mobile apps developed using tools like Xamarin or React Native are considered as native apps. However, unlike hybrid apps wrapped in WebView, these native apps can access mobile hardware directly. This means their performance isn’t limited. They are fast in both audio and video processing.

It still takes good app logic and a well-devised development strategy to save time and costs with cross-platform development. Regardless of the targeted platform, the developers would have to build the app’s core first, and then separately tune it to be functional and visually appropriate.

The development process is comparatively faster, and debugging and maintenance are much easier. Another one of its merits is flexibility, particularly when it comes to UI/UX development. Using the Xamarin tool gives developers two options for UI – a basic Xamarin.Forms interface, and a more flexible interface that can be tailored for the targeted platforms. The latter looks and feels very much like a native interface.

Cons

Because WebView is still technically a browser and is separate from the mobile device’s hardware, hybrid apps won’t always be able to guarantee great performance. However, cross-platform apps can. But it still comes with a fair share of cons.

Cross-platform apps are near-native apps, but they are still not native apps. It still has functional limitations unlike native apps, and limitations respective to the platform. Each platform comes with its own unique functionalities and flexibilities. Cross-platform apps won’t be able to leverage the unique tools and functionalities of one particular platform, as they run on all platforms.

In addition, it’s very challenging to offer a good user experience on cross-platform apps as UX varies between platforms. Facebook first started with a cross-platform but soon realized their user experience limitations, and decided to go for native apps on iOS and Android.

Conclusion

Cross-platform app development is still in demand, and contributes mainly to enterprise application services. Because technology is advancing rapidly today, clinging to native app development alone is not a wise approach. There are possibilities to explore, and the future of mobile app development will present more opportunities for businesses. And cross-platform development would more likely have a bigger role soon.

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Introducing Kotlin

Kotlin, a statically-typed object oriented programming language that runs on Java virtual machine is the brainchild of JetBrains, the people behind popular IDEs namely IntelliJ and ReSharper. It can be compiled to JavaScript source code or be used with LLVM infrastructure.

Despite incompatible syntax with Java, Kotlin still relies on Java code from the existing Java Class Library, and is interoperable with the same. Project Kotlin was first brought out in July 2011 by JetBrains as a new language for JVM with a faster compile time as quickly as Java. Unlike most other languages then, Kotlin came with many useful features.

The project was open sourced the following year, and v1.0 (the first official stable release) was released by 2016. Another feather in the cap for Kotlin was from Google itself. At Google I/O 2017, the tech giant announced first class support for the language on Android, thus making it the third language in the list following C++ and Java. Several major developers – Expedia, Pinterest, and Square etc. have now started using Kotlin for their Android production apps.

Features & Benefits

Less coding, faster development:The open source development platform makes development much faster for developers, with approximately 20% less coding compared to Java. The compile time is also faster and much more efficient.

• Short learning curve: The language is quite easy to pick up, even for beginners. Its intuitive syntax borrows traits from many languages including Scala and Apache Groovy. In addition to object-oriented programming, Kotlin also supports procedural programming using functions, which makes it quite interesting as well.
• Java interoperability: One of the biggest highlights of Kotlin is its exceptional interoperability with Java, supporting the use of Java frameworks and libraries. Kotlin v1.2, released quite recently this year, adds a new feature to the language which allows sharing code between JVM and JavaScript platforms. This also facilitates easier migration from Java to Kotlin for organizations.
• It’s open source: Kotlin is another open source alternative for the android development sector, licensed under Apache 2. For quick conversion from Java to Kotlin, there is a Java-to-Kotlin converter tool available. Its open source nature means the entire open source community will be contributing to making it better and its usage easier. The language is also free for use.
• Versatile and secure: The NullPointExceptions in Kotlin considerably reduces errors, while Kotlin’s compiler is designed to auto-cast coding errors. In addition to java code compatibility, it features extension functions which allows adding new functionalities to existing classes and more.

Conclusion

The coding and performance benefits of Kotlin alone can be expected to bring big changes in the development of mobile technologies. With Google’s backing, Kotlin seems to be on its way to becoming a staple for Android app developers. It’s also speculated that there’d be efforts to promote the language further. Kotlin is also expected to drive IntelliJ IDE sales and boost android development further in the coming years.

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Effectively leveraging enterprise mobility solutions grants organizations with increased operational efficiency and flexibility. Enterprise mobility would be adopted on a wide scale when the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy goes mainstream. At present, many organizations have chosen to allow their employees to bring their own devices to work in conjunction with enterprise application across the organization’s cloud network.

If the enterprise mobile app isn’t good though or if it doesn’t align with the business goals the way it should, things will take a wrong turn for the organization in the long run. For a good enterprise app, a business would need to figure out a reliable enterprise mobile app development company.

Now that the importance of enterprise mobility has been conveyed, let’s take a look at 5 factors that can help businesses successfully implement enterprise mobility solutions.

1. Permission management

Managing permissions from the client side can be quite tricky. The client may not want you to access confidential information. This is why proper permission management is necessary. Enterprise mobility solutions can address this to an extent, providing users with access to only what they want to know, and only that which they are authenticated for.

2. Security issues

Security concerns are quite common for businesses who are about to receive a technological solution that is to be integrated into their business. From a business’ perspective, the solution should be integrated efficiently minimizing security risks and resolving associated issues. Essentially, the solution should address the security concerns of employees using the app.

3. Regular app udpates

An updated app sustains the competitive edge it initially granted the business. Even if it’s the employees of an organization, the users of an app expect occasional updates which tend to give them more confidence in the app’s functioning, resolve existing bugs, and add to the stability of the app. The business should have their IT team or the app developer regularly diagnose the app and enhance it with updates.

4. Make sure the employees are aware of the benefits

Depending on the size of the business, the business goals, and many other factors, the cost of an enterprise app would increase. A business wouldn’t want the investment to go underutilized. The employees should be educated on how the app can help them perform many functions on just a single platform without a lot of effort. They should know the benefits they get from using the app, and should be groomed to effectively utilize the application.

5. User acceptance testing

It’s an important factor but nothing a business should be concerned of generally, as long as the application developer is a reliable and reputed enterprise mobile application development partner for your business. A reliable developer would make sure the enterprise mobility solution is exactly what the business and its employees need.

The app should feature everything they expected from such a solution. A wiser approach would be to have the organization’s in-house IT team perform the user acceptance test on the solution before implementing it.

Conclusion

The key is in seeing things from the users’ perspective. At the end of the day, the enterprise should have acceptable ROI with the mobility solution. Unless the users understand what makes the application important or how it benefits them and the organization they work at, the application would have a short life.

The organization’s IT team should be monitoring the solution regularly to ensure that it’s aligned with business goals, and performing the functions it’s meant to. Keeping the aforementioned factors in mind can help enterprises leverage their mobility solutions the right way.

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Here are 6 things developers should consider before commencing development.

1. Setting the goals

The first step is to identify a clear goal. What you want to achieve with the mobile application, how it can be monetized to generate revenue, the kind of experience a user gets while using the app etc. – these questions can help the development get a clear picture of the purpose of the application. This can give them an idea of where to start, and a direction to take the development work to.

2. Understanding the audience

User base is the most important factor a developer should consider as it determines whether the app would succeed or fail. For the app to satisfy its user base, the developers should be aware of the technologies that users utilize, and what they are expecting the application to do as well.

A proficient mobile application development company would have the development and testing team interact with users, understand them, and consolidate their findings about user expectations, user behavior etc. This will help the developers tailor an app that meets user expectations, and keep them engaged.

3. Getting early feedback from users

Getting feedback from users post-launch to improve the app with updates is necessary. But getting early feedback from users is just as important. This phase is when the developers build the first version of the application. When ‘version 1.0’ is ready, they can approach a few users to do a test run of the app.

Obviously, this feedback can help them plan the next step considering those aspects in the app that need improvement. What makes this different from standard testing is the fact that users tend to explore the app in unique ways, subsequently detecting bugs in the process that eluded testers, and finding areas that could be improved.

The result of getting early feedback?

A better experience for users in the final version of the app.

4. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Minimum Viable Product can be give great leverage for app developers. Fully developing the app take a lot of time and money. A better approach is to develop a base version of the app first, and test the market with it. This will give developers valuable insights on what a full build can potentially do in that same market.

It also allows them to release a full build faster and enter the market much quicker. The key is to build a version that has only the essential features necessary to gain access into the market. This strategy can in turn save money, and allows you to build agile mobile applications.

5. App Updates

Updating the features of an application frequently encourages users to re-engage the application. A lot of research back up this fact that many users who have chosen not to use the app much returns once an update adds more features. For developers, this strategy can be effective in retaining active users and keeping them engaged. Instead of releasing every new feature with a single update, it’s better to add them with smaller, more frequent updates.

6. Checking out other similar apps

It’s important to know of apps in the market that are similar to the one they are going to develop. Checking them out would give insights to the developers as to how other apps engage users, and what competitors are doing with their apps.

The difference in platforms can make things a bit complicated, as a feature that’s present in one platform may not be present in the same app in a different platform. Nevertheless, the developers will be aware of technological possibilities with this tactic.

7. Choosing the technology for the app

Mobile technologies keep evolving every year, and each new trend and technique open new doors to both the developers and the mobile market. Choosing the right technology for the application requires developers to go over the business goals.

The developers will have to figure out whether a native app would be a better choice instead of a cross-platform app, or if they need a web app, the screen sizes that the app should support, the language for the back end etc. Collaborating with the IT team and sharing pre-development phase findings with them can make it easier to shortlist the technologies that serve the business goals.

8. Determining key metrics

This step is crucial as it helps the developers measure the success of the app once it goes online. To begin, they can start by creating a list of key metrics. They can then consolidate, measure, and analyze app usage to determine if the goals are met.

If the app failed to meet the goals, there obviously has been a mistake at some point. Nevertheless, they can still rectify the issues with updates. Planning the update frequency early on can help a lot in such a situation.

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Apple started the conference with a video that showed a world without apps, and why the world needs apps. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook later emphasized the importance of mobile technologies in an app-driven world before an announcement of sensational innovations, officially kicking off the conference.

iOS 11 was the biggest announcement on the mobile front. The OS comes packed with new native features one of which includes the ability to send money to friends and family using Apple Pay. They have upgraded Siri and redesigned the App Store.

Apple announced a bunch of other updates for iOS 11 that will be released later this year. Here are a few of them worth checking out.

iOS 11 Updates

Augmented Reality with Apple’s ARKit

Augmented Reality has been gaining a lot of traction lately, evident from a rapid increase in AR integrated applications after the success of PokemonGO. AR can provide great, meaningful customer engagement in many ways. With Apple’s ARKit, developers can do just that. ARKit could be the game changer for the tech giant this year, as it will help developers figure out and create innovative ways to provide immersive experience to customers.

Very soon, iPhones and iPads will have AR capabilities essentially making Apple the largest AR platform on a global scale.

A more intelligent Siri

The upgraded Siri now learns from the user’s search patterns, and will attempt to accommodate their needs based on searches. Apple also revealed that they have used machine learning to make the Siri voice (both male and female) sound more natural. The tech giant’s finally made Siri capable of understanding context better, making it more useful than ever.

Customer Service via Business Chat

Business Chat is Apple’s new unique feature to improve customer service options for businesses. Unlike the existing AI chatbot systems, Business Chat allows customer care executives to directly communicate with users via chat.

This feature allows the customer to directly begin a chat session, via iMessages, with the representative of a business they have been looking up on the internet.

Drag & Drop

iOS 11 will come with the drag & drop functionality that can be used both within an app and across many apps. Users will now also be able to tap select multiple items at once with the multi-touch functionality.

iMessage Money Transfer

The iOS 11 upgrade also improves the Apple Pay feature, expanding it to include person-to-person payment features. Using iMessages or by commanding Siri, users will be able to make and receive payments with friends and family instantly.

Core NFC

iOS 11 features Core NFC which allows developers to read NFC tags to types 1 through 5, and read data in the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF). In addition, the new OS will also include apps that utilize NFC technology. Just like ARKit, Core NFC allows developers to try out innovative ways to use NFC.

Redesigned App Store

The App Store has been redesigned to provide users with a better experience to find the newest apps. The ‘Today’ tab addition showcases apps users would be interested in on a daily basis. The new upgrade to the Search option added a new UI. It now features more filters in search results including developers, in-app purchases, categories etc.

The store layout will now have tabs at the bottom serving as filters to categorize Games, Apps, and ‘Today’ feed.

Impact on Mobile App Development

Apple intends to make app downloading exciting again with the redesign of App Store. App Store ratings are lifetime ratings now, and developers will also be able to perform a phased roll-out of applications releasing them slowly to customers or for a specific demographic.

In addition to iOS 11, new APIs and innovative features, Apple also unveiled TVOS, macOS, and WatchOS. This means developers will now be able to build more personalized and relevant apps to users, essentially taking the company higher in the app-driven ecosystem we live in.

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Android is also dominating the mobile application development sector. Google releasing updates to the OS further accelerates the growth of Android development. It hasn’t been long since the current version of Android, Nougat, was released. It brought many changes to the OS’s functionality, and added interesting features. But apparently Google doesn’t seem to be slowing down.

Android O is on its way, and from what we could gather from the developer preview, it would be bringing some noticeable changes in the Android realm.

Developer Preview 1

Google is reportedly still working on a title with the initial O for the new version of their flagship OS. The first developer preview was made available for Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Pixel XL, Pixel C, and a few other variants of Pixel smartphones.

Notifications shade

You will notice visual changes when you swipe down the notifications shade. The toggles at the top have been reordered, and now takes a little more space on-screen. The font for data and time is now more concise, adding more visibility to status bar icons.

Handling notifications

Long-pressing on a notification gives you the option to disable all notifications from that app. Swiping the notification to the side a little gives you an icon for accessing Notifications toggle, and an icon to snooze the notification.

Quick settings

Google made some changes in the quick settings, now with a line underneath. The Quick Settings now have a double function. Tap the word underneath the toggle to open the mini settings menu. You can turn the setting on or off by tapping the icon.

Settings menu

Most of the visual changes in the new OS version is in the settings menu. The Settings menu is shorter compared to that in Nougat. Umbrella categories like “device”, “personal”, “wireless and networks”, and “system” have been replaced by descriptive sections like “connected devices”, “apps and notifications”, “networks and internet”, and “security and screen lock”.

System UI Tuner

The System UI Tuner lets you tune various things according to your preferences. You can enable the UI tuner by swiping down the notifications shade, and long-pressing the gear icon. The device vibrates when the option is added to the Settings menu.

The UI Tuner has four areas now.

• Status bar – You can still find the toggles to enable or disable icons that appear in the status bar.
• Do not disturb – You will find the option to enable ‘Do not disturb’ mode under the volume slider. Another option lets you add a volume button shortcut to toggle ‘Do not disturb’ when you press the volume down button.
• Navigation bar – Android O now comes with a layout option that lets you choose between normal, compact, left-leaning, and right-leaning. It’s also possible to add more buttons on the left and right side of the on-screen navigation buttons.
• Lock screen – The lock screen appears the same as in Nougat, but you can use the System UI Tuner to change the shortcuts in the bottom left and bottom right corners to anything you like.

Picture-in-picture support

The update will come with full support for picture-in-picture mode. With this feature, app developers will now be able to keep playing videos with video apps in a small window while navigating other areas or even other apps.

Audio

Sony’s LDAC Codec has now been included in Android O, which means LDAC-equipped Bluetooth headphones will have a much better quality in the OS. Android O also supports:

• aptX
• aptX HD
• SBC
• AAC

Notification channels

With notification channels, you can split app notifications into various themes you choose to block individually or allow. You can manage this by long-pressing an app notification in the notification shade or by accessing app notification settings.

Background process limits

Google has, as always, optimized Android O as well apparently, as the OS will limit background processes significantly.

Autofill API

Android O introduces Autofill APIs making it easier for apps to manage passwords better than in the previous versions of the OS. The autofill app stores form data such as usernames, passwords, and addresses.

Wide color gamut for apps support

App developers will now be able to use a larger palette of colors in Android O. According to Google, ‘Android developers of imaging apps can now take advantage of new devices that have a wide-gamut color capable display. To display wide gamut images, apps will need to enable a flag in their manifest (per activity) and load bitmaps with an embedded wide color profile (AdobeRGB, Pro Photo RGB, DCI-P3, etc.)’.

Developer Preview 2

Fluid Experiences

Like the name suggests, Fluid Experiences (announced at Google I/O 2017) makes managing multi-tasking tools fluid and enjoyable. Google’s machine learning tool, TensorFlow, got scaled down for Android O, and is named TensorFlow Lite. The new framework of Android O will provide the required hardware acceleration to neural network features.

Notification dots

Till now, we had to use custom Launchers to have a notification icon on top of the app icon on the homescreen. Android O has this feature now. You can notice a small dot over the app icons now with active notifications. Long-pressing the icon with the notification dot gives you access to a list of actions that include viewing notifications in a small pop-up window. However, the long-press action will supposedly come only in a future beta release.

Smart text selection

Android O will provide more options in addition to cut, copy, and paste once a text is highlighted. Google’s AI will determine exactly what you highlighted – a phone number, an address etc. and give you options accordingly.

Auto-Fill

The new OS version will remember your usernames and passwords letting you access apps quickly.

Vitals

Android O will feature several features collectively termed Vitals. Vitals will include security enhancements, OS optimizations, and developer tools. Google Play Protect that was announced by the tech giant’s Android team at Google I/O 2017 will also be included, visible as an entry in Google Play app update window. Google Play Protect will perform scans on apps, and inform you if it detects any issues.

Conclusion

Not all new features and enhancements revealed in the previews have been included in this article. The bottom-line is that Android O comes packed with so many cool features, continuing what Nougat started and giving more control to users. The OS will finally deliver many things we’ve been waiting for, like adaptive icons and app badges, not to mention support for next-gen Android peripherals.

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Businesses have already started running through mobile applications – those simple pieces of code that influence judgments by providing impressive, immersive experience to the consumers. The applications are meant to meet customer expectations while still sticking to the business objectives, and providing them with an experience that would leave them wanting to use the apps regularly.

And mobile application testing ensures that an application possesses all that, which means there’s no room for errors. The industry standard now is such that every mobile application must pass testing before they are deployed. For that, the testers will have to overcome a lot of challenges.

Mobile App Testing Challenges

Assessing the quality and performance of the application is a daunting task, and quite tricky as well.

• Availability of testing tools – Many companies doing in-house testing might lack the necessary testing tools and testing methodologies, especially when it comes to apps that are multi-device compliant. Such companies generally rely on augmentation partners to provide them with the guidelines, tools, and methodologies required for testing.
• Device fragmentation – Mobile apps are used across multiple devices and platforms like iOS, Android, Windows etc. These operating systems will have different versions as well. There would also be differences in screen resolution, connectivity options, and memory sizes. The testers need to make sure that the app is compatible with everything above. They will need to prepare for one huge headache as well.
• External vs in-house testing – Testers often experience budget constraints and tight deadlines. This would mean the company will have to either outsource the work to a reliable service provider or have it handled by the in-house team itself. This puts more pressure on the in-house testing team.
• Mobile application lifecycle – No piece of code can normally be free from bugs. There will be at least one that didn’t catch the eyes of testers. When the end-user identifies one such bug, he will want it fixed immediately. The application must also be compatible with more recent OS upgrades. This means that testers are required to be vigilant at all times, and always keep an eye on consumer feedback.

These are but a few challenges that testers can face. The point is that mobile app testing is very tricky to nail, demanding solid testing tactics to actually succeed in the testing. An improperly tested application can do a lot of harm for the business. A solid testing strategy should take a lot of critical factors into account.

Here are 6 tactics to concoct a winning strategy that ensures the right proportion of quality assurance and end-user satisfaction with respect to business goals.

Physical Devices or Device Emulators

If the testers are working in an Agile ecosystem, they can use device emulators in the early stages of development, or in early ‘sprints’. Emulators allow rapid testing, and are quite cost-effective as well. Many popular emulators provide pseudo-live environment and network bypass options.

However, to deeply understand how the application can come of use in real-life scenarios, they will have to use physical devices. So basically, mobile testing involves figuring out the perfect combination of physical devices and emulators that gives optimal result efficiently. Physical devices are also ideal for beta testing.

Selecting Mobile Devices

Choosing the right path of testing mobile applications is normally not an easy decision for the testing team as there will be several variables they’d have to consider including the target market and the reach of the application. Device selection is one of those variables.

To select a device, testers will have to take into account many factors such as connectivity options, memory sizes, screen resolution, OS versions, and even form factor.

Testing on Cloud

This particular tactic is gaining popularity owing to how it makes managing countless scenarios easier. The Cloud technology can be leveraged to generate a web-based mobile testing environment where the testers manage, test and deploy applications. In addition, the testing environment on cloud curbs project costs, reduces time-to-market, consequently increasing ROI.

Some of the major benefits of this tactic include synchronized architectures, complex applications support, real-time results, and no additional costs or need for advanced testing tools and licensing.

Performance Testing

Performance testing is mandatory for mobile applications. Smartphones and mobile devices come with large memory capacities at present. So we have to assume that the end-user will have a lot of data on their smartphones. If those data are relevant to the functioning or performance of the application being tested, performance testing is certainly necessary.

The testers should make sure that the performance of the app doesn’t degrade with the increase in data it’s supposed to be working with. Applications with server-side components need to be tested with many number of users.

Network Connectivity

This is a critical factor that significantly influences mobile applications that depend on it. The best course of action here is to test the application in actual network environments it’s designed to work on. It can be done using configurable simulation tools. This will help the testers assess the app’s behavior, and ensure that it performs consistently well across various network environments.

Security Testing

Apps that require users to submit their credentials are looked at with doubt. Generally, users think about providing an app with confidential data and credentials. This is reason enough to consider security testing as very important and mandatory.

Security testing should be done if:

• The app stores credit card details and other payment information
• The app uses network protocols
• The app uses Device ID
• The app requires authentication to grant access to data
• The app locks out the user after a preset number of login attempts
• The app requires many permissions to provide all functionalities

Apps handling confidential data should have security mechanisms that encrypt those data.

Conclusion

Though in-house testing is full of challenges for testers, they can still make the experience better by practicing these tactics. A basic testing strategy might not ensure that the application is fit for use, and delivers the quality it promised. The plan should take several factors into account for devising the right testing strategy.

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So what could it all mean for a software tester?

Promise, primarily.

Let me explain. One of the main goals of any software company now is delivering products and services in a short amount of time without compromising quality in any way. Technological advancements promise to make that come true.

Keeping an Eye Out for New Trends…

Now that most businesses have adopted agile development and continuous delivery with DevOps, testing practices have also changed. In order to benefit from the concept of DevOps and what it brings to the table, continuous integration, delivery, and testing are vital. And it needs a good amount of planning. That’s why it’s important for a tester to keep an eye out for changing trends in testing.

When new technologies start disrupting existing ones, it is the right time to change plans may it be software testing or development and deployment.

Here are 6 trends that might bring about that disruption this year.

Agile and DevOps will Reign Over the Rest

Agile and DevOps have been proving their mettle for about 2 years now, dominating the software development industry. According to Forrester, they might completely dominate the industry this year. As testing is evolving to be more iterative and progressive, they will be integrated with development for certain. This attests to why Agile and DevOps has been consistently dominating.

Mobile Testing

With businesses starting to embrace mobile devices and mobile technologies, the role of mobile testing as a test automation trend will influence the software testing industry more this year. As of now, functional and security testing are big challenges when it comes to multi-channel devices, as the right set of tools and expertise to perform them are limited. However, the demand keeps rising. Mobile testing has also started to move to the cloud. All these facts points to a potential change in mobile testing automation.

Big Data

The concept of Big Data was quite unique, and presented a lot of opportunities for businesses. It has been growing in popularity and practice since its introduction. And now there’s just a massive volume of Big Data which demands better strategies for Big Data testing in addition to effective analytical tools and frameworks. Because it’s sticking out like a sore thumb, 2017 will offer something that might alleviate the present testing challenges with Big Data.

Impact of Containers and Microservices

Both containers and microservices come with good news for testers. With containers, a clutter of configurations wouldn’t exist and the demand for compatibility testing will be reduced. Microservices, on the other hand, can break down testing into smaller units. But because there could be deployments of multiple versions of microservices that’s hard to deal with, configuration could become challenging. However, as test automation has shifted testing to the service level, there are a few benefits.

There could be some much needed advancements this year that can make things easier for testers working with containers and microservices.

Security Testing for IoT

IoT is growing faster than expected, which in turn increased the demand for IoT testing. The product’s functionality and security need to be tested before release, as many studies claim that most devices in IoT are vulnerable to threats and require better security.

Testers will have to adopt some grey box measures to test the interactions between various layers in IoT product. If this year promotes virtualization of IoT APIs and services, testing the products will be less challenging.

Growth of Software Testing Budget

The growth of software testing budget turned many heads last year. It’s expected to increase even more this year as testing has become an absolute necessity to ensure product/service quality. Businesses have started to increase their IT budget considerably for QA and testing.

Conclusion

Last year, we witnessed many innovative technological advancements that accentuated digital revolution. This year isn’t going to be any different. In fact, this year might actually become the gateway to a different level of digital transformation than the one we’ve been seeing so far.

If the software development industry undergoes transformations this year, it would surely impact software testing as well. The trends mentioned above are most likely to bring about that transformation. Rest assured, testers will have their hands full this year.

The post 6 Trends in 2017 that Deserve a Software Tester’s Attention appeared first on Software Development Company Dubai UAE - Verbat Technologies.

Their plans were later elaborated in detail through a series of blogs. There will be fundamental changes that looks favorable to C# and F#. Though there wasn’t any negative statements regarding VB’s future, the vibe their statements left made it seem that a bumpy road awaits VB.

Where they stand now…

According to Torgersen, C# is the most popular of the three, and will keep evolving as a state-of-the-art programming language. He added that F# is steadily climbing the ladder, and could become the best-tooled functional language on the market. VB is apparently the odd one here, as it is now mostly used for Windows Forms applications and in ASP.NET development by new developers. But many surveys indicate that developers are moving from VB to C# owing to the latter’s richer ecosystem.

Microsoft’s reason for changing its development strategy could be the fact that both C# and VB have different audiences. They found that new developers in Visual Studio favor VB, as it’s more comfortable them to learn the tricks of the trade. VB is still a tool for client-server programming while C# evolved to being useful for n-tier web-based applications.

F#, on the other hand, takes a different, more independent path. Microsoft will reportedly take measures to make F# more useful in the .NET landscape, hopefully with better error messages and support.

Where they are going

C# and VB will be going different ways from now on. VB’s popularity is dwindling and it will eventually end up disappearing from the radar for good. Evidently, C# is diverging from VB. As VB will be supporting the standard base class libraries set along .NET framework in the not too distant future, we can expect some amount of cross-platform work in the dying language. However, not all VB codes would be portable. Some can be shifted to a smaller set of libraries while the rest remains on on-premises applications. F# will find its place among financial services and machine learning-based applications.

What’s in it for enterprise developers

For starters, they will have two important choices.

• Move VB codes to newer platforms
• Start using C#

The second choice gives them access to a plethora of target frameworks, and across many devices. C# can also directly address the .NET Core platform via APIs, not to mention other platforms. This means, Unity and other derivatives of C# will be capable of supporting their own APIs.

Choosing one of the two will require the developers to think about where they want to be in a few years. Only a subset of .NET APIs will be made available to them if they choose to go with VB development. They need to consider the evolution of .NET platform as a whole, and whether they plan to work on cloud or mobile technologies. C# seems to be a safe bet from the looks of things though VB will still be around for a little while longer.

One other alternative is to stick with both VB and C#, as the .NET framework makes it easy to mix them up. The transition is as easy as that between VB.NET and VBA. But this could be just a temporary advantage. From what we could surmise from Microsoft’s new programming language strategy, C# would prove to be the better path in the long run. This would likely bring about more changes in the software development industry this year.

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