How to make Mobile UI Regression Testing stable?

In this article, I'll provide you with actionable steps to help you establish a reliable mobile UI regression testing process.?

If you're creating mobile apps, it's essential to maintain a consistent user interface (UI) across different devices and operating systems. Achieving stability in mobile UI regression testing requires careful planning, attention to detail, and appropriate tools and strategies.

Just a reminder:?

The primary aim of regression testing is to ensure that recent changes in the code, such as bug fixes or new features, have not adversely affected the existing functionality.

Here are some steps you can take to achieve stable mobile UI regression testing:

First, define your test scope clearly and realistically and prioritize your app's most essential and relevant features, functions, and user flows.?

Then, have a process for fixing regressions; this process should be clear and efficient to fix regressions quickly and easily.

Tip:

To determine which tests to conduct and which to skip, you may consider user feedback, analytics, business objectives, and risk analysis criteria.

Here are 14 tips that can help ensure stability when conducting mobile UI regression testing:

1- Use a test automation framework: A test automation framework can help you automate your tests, making them faster and more reliable. Many test automation frameworks are available, so choose one appropriate for your needs.

A vital framework helps create and maintain tests, ensuring stable and consistent execution. Automation is critical to making mobile UI regression testing stable. Automate the repetitive, stable, and predictable parts of your mobile UI testing, such as regression, smoke, and sanity testing.?

Automated regression testing can significantly enhance the stability of mobile UI regression testing.?

Test automation can help in achieving stable mobile UI regression testing in the following ways:

• Efficiency: Automated regression testing can validate the product's functionality with every new build without human intervention, making the process faster and more efficient.
• Test Coverage: Automation can increase the scope of testing by covering more features, functions, and user flows that would otherwise be time-consuming and tedious with manual testing.
• Cost-effective: Although setting up automated testing requires an initial investment, it can save time and resources in the long run, making it a cost-effective solution.
• Repeatability: Automated tests can be run multiple times to ensure that every product area has been thoroughly validated and works as expected.
• Accuracy: Automated tests are less prone to human errors than manual testing, enhancing the accuracy of the test results.

Finally, you can handle the exploratory aspects through manual testing, such as testing for edge cases.

You can use a combination of different tools, such as emulators, simulators, real devices, cloud services, and automation frameworks, to perform different types of mobile UI testing like Espresso, XCUITest, Appium, Detox or Maestro for mobile apps, and cloud-based services like BrowserStack or SauceLabs, LambdaTest or Testsigma for cross-platform testing.

Leverage visual testing tools such as Applitools that capture screenshots of your app's UI and compare them against baseline images. These tools help detect visual inconsistencies caused by UI regressions, boosting the stability of your app's appearance.

The best framework for you will depend on your specific needs and requirements.?

Consider the following factors when choosing a framework:

• The type of apps you need to test.
• The programming languages you are familiar with.
• The features and capabilities of the framework.
• The support and community for the framework.

2- Optimize your test design and code: Make them more readable, reusable, and maintainable. This can be achieved by adopting best practices such as modularization, parameterization, data-driven testing (DDT), and page object model (POM).?

Tip:

Data-driven testing allows you to run the same test with different data sets. This can increase your tests' coverage and make them more robust.

3- Use stable locators: The locators you use to identify elements in your UI tests should be stable, meaning they should not change frequently. This will help to prevent your tests from breaking when the UI changes.

4- Use explicit waits: Explicit waits allow you to wait for a specific condition to be met before continuing with your test. This can help to prevent your tests from failing due to race conditions or other timing issues.

5- Test on various devices and emulators: Testing your app on various devices and emulators is essential. This will help you ensure your app works correctly on all platforms.

6- Consider implementing parallel and distributed testing techniques: This can run your tests faster and more efficiently. Parallel testing means running multiple tests simultaneously on different devices or platforms, while distributed testing means splitting your tests into smaller chunks and running them on different machines or servers.?

Tip:

Configuring parallel testing is essential to prevent complications or failures properly. These problems can occur if there are too many tests running at the same time or if they are not adequately isolated. You must thoroughly test your parallel testing framework before deploying it in production.

The impact of parallel runs on failures is not consistent. Shared resources can result in more failures, but proper setup and management can improve testing efficiency significantly.

Several factors influence the results of parallel testing:

• Test dependencies: Parallel runs can trigger conflicts and failures if tests rely on shared resources; effective synchronization is necessary.
• Resource constraints: Insufficient system resources due to parallel testing can lead to test failures.
• Flaky tests: Unstable tests can be exacerbated in parallel due to network delays or rendering issues.
• Test isolation: Parallel tests can interfere with one another without proper isolation, leading to unexpected failures.
• Test data and environments: Inconsistent test data or environments across parallel runs can yield varying results.
• Debugging complexity: Identifying the cause of parallel test failures can be more challenging than sequential runs.

Tip:

Mitigating failures in parallel testing is crucial to ensure the reliability of your testing process and the accuracy of the results.?

Parallel UI testing can lead to unreliable results. Learn how to prevent failures with these strategies:

• Review your test suite to identify tests prone to parallel failure.
• Ensure tests are isolated and do not impact each other's execution.
• Implement controlled parallelism, starting with test subsets.
• Address flaky tests before incorporating them into parallel runs.
• Monitor resource usage to prevent failures from resource constraints.
• Maintain consistent test environments for parallel execution.
• Employ debugging tools and reporting mechanisms for parallel test failures.
• Implement retry mechanisms for specific failure types.

7- Use a version control system to track changes to your code: By creating separate branches for UI changes, you can isolate them from other development work. This approach simplifies tracking and merging of UI-related code.

8- Use mock data: Simulate real-world scenarios by using mock data during testing. This practice aids in identifying UI issues that may arise with different data inputs or network conditions, enhancing the stability of your app.

9- Implement Continuous Integration and Deployment/Delivery (CI/CD): CI/CD is a process for automating the building, testing and releasing of apps. It can help identify and fix issues quickly and early (test early and often).?

10- Conduct code review process: Integrate code reviews into your process for UI-related changes. These reviews ensure adherence to best practices and enable reviewers to identify potential regression risks and provide valuable suggestions.

11- Use a test management tool to track your tests and their results: This will help you track what tests have been run, when they were run, and whether they passed or failed. You can use tools such as TestRail.

12- Monitor and measure your results regularly and continuously: Utilize tools such as JIRA to track and analyze mobile UI test results with reports, dashboards, metrics, and feedback.

13- Improve the documentation: Maintain comprehensive documentation for UI components, layout guidelines, and design patterns. This documentation fosters consistency and aids developers in correctly implementing UI changes.

14- Communicate with your team about regression testing: Make sure that everyone knows which tests are scheduled, when they will be performed, and how to report any regressions that result.

Conclusion

Maintaining stability in mobile UI regression is crucial for a great user experience. By following the best practices and strategies discussed in this article, you can establish a robust process that reduces the risk of UI regressions.?

Continuous improvement is essential for keeping your mobile apps on track and satisfying your customers.?

Remember:

it's a journey, not a destination.

Thank you!?

Happy testing!