Software Testing Blog

Last week we announced that, during the first few months of ‘09, we’ve observed tremendous growth in mobile application testing within the uTest marketplace.  Since then, we’ve received a surprising number of requests for more info from mobile developers and members of the media.  It seems that testing and quality is a bit of a hot topic among those who spend their days & nights working on (or writing about) mobile.

One of the most common questions is whether our QA community has coverage for a range of mobile platforms like iPhone, Android and Blackberry.  The answer to all of the above is ‘yes’ (the answer to the multi-location, multi-language question is ‘yes’ as well).

This announcement has already resulted in several great articles from top-shelf tech sites, including eWeek and TechTarget, and got reported by mainstream media outlets such as MSNBC, MarketWatch, TMC.net and StreetInsider.

Over the weekend, as I pondered why this simple announcement resonated with so many mobile app companies and journalists, two thoughts came to mind:

1.  Shut up.  Don’t overthink this — just ride this wave!

2.  Testing for mobile apps is a widespread and serious problem with few viable solutions.  In fact, getting mobile apps properly tested is even tougher than web apps because the space is more complex and less mature.

And I guess that’s where a global community of professional testers plays nicely into the mobile app equation — because the hardest thing to build (global coverage across locations, languages, handsets, carriers, operating systems, etc.) is baked right in.  And the fact that our community can test mobile apps quickly, efficiently and on-demand doesn’t hurt either.

I’d love to hear from mobile app developers about how they test today, or from testers about the challenges that are unique to mobile. It’s a topic that’s going to be top-of-mind for the next year or more (just wait ’til mobile really clashes with the enterprise), so let’s start the discussion now.