In the modern industry, apps are essential to a user’s life. This is because the end users can perform most of their daily tasks using multiple apps. Due to the importance of these apps, the developers must implement proper testing mechanisms. A device farm will allow the testers to understand the performance of these apps on physical devices.
This is because, with a traditional testing method, the testers will have limited access to devices and configurations. A device farm is a powerful solution that scales testing efforts to ensure robust app performance across multiple devices.
Introduction to Device Farm Testing
Device farm testing is also known as device clouds or mobile device testing farms. This approach uses a vast collection of actual physical devices or emulators. Using this configuration, the testers can run the test cases on their preferred spectrum of devices, operating systems, and configurations.
Moreover, device farm testing supports parallel test execution to initiate and execute the test instances simultaneously for improved testing efficiency. Device farm testing allows the developers to replicate the real-world usage of apps and helps accurately understand the impact of user interactions.
Challenges of Mobile Testing
Before understanding the details of device farm testing, we must have a clear idea about the challenges of mobile testing that can be solved with the integration of a device farm:
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Device Fragmentation
The mobile device industry needs to be more cohesive. The Android segment, in particular, has thousands of device models, including different versions of operating systems and multiple hardware specifications. So, it becomes a challenging task to ensure compatibility and optimal performance across this landscape.
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Platform Diversity
Apart from the Android industry, there is also the iOS platform, which has its operating system versions and devices. Moreover, testing across native iOS devices has its own challenges, including device provisioning and availability.
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User Expectations
Most modern users expect flawless and smooth performance across their devices. So, in such a scenario, even a minor issue can result in negative reviews and loss of credibility for the brand or application manufacturer. Therefore, the developers must implement comprehensive testing to maintain user expectations and elevate the positive brand reputation.
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Time and Resource Constraints
With traditional testing approaches, the application developers mostly rely on manual testing to initiate and execute the testing instances. This time- and resource-consuming process is prone to errors due to human involvement. In some cases, manual testing must provide adequate test coverage across multiple devices and configurations currently being used.
Understanding Device Farms
With device farms, the testers have a centralized platform to access a vast collection of real devices or emulators. These emulators and devices are mainly hosted through remote servers accessible over the cloud. Let us now improve our knowledge about device farms by understanding some of their most prominent features :
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Device Variety
Since modern device farms have thousands of devices comprising varied manufacturers, screen sizes, models, resolutions, and operating systems, the testers can ensure thorough coverage of the target audiences device landscape.
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Scalability
Modern device farms are designed in such a way that they can scale dynamically based on the testing demand. So, whether the testers need to run tests on a single device or hundreds of devices simultaneously, the farm infrastructure can accommodate varying workload requirements. This process helps ensure efficient resource utilization during the app testing process.
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Automation Support
Automation testing helps the testers to run the test cases rapidly and consistently across multiple devices. So, automated test cases are an integral part of modern device farms. Most device farms support automation testing through popular testing frameworks and have dedicated APIs for integrating methodologies like continuous integration and continuous deployment.
Moreover, by integrating automation testing, the app developers can save a lot of time in the development process, which they can further invest in other critical components of the cycle, such as coming up with new features for future iterations.
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Real-World Conditions
Unlike emulators or simulators, real devices allow testers to evaluate the app’s performance under real-world conditions. These conditions also include network fluctuations, battery usage, and device-specific quirks. So, it gives a better idea about the app’s performance when subjected to the real world.
Using device farms, the app developers can also understand the fluctuations in performance due to unpredictable instances like user interaction errors, broken displays, or unusual traffic.
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Remote Access and Collaboration
Since device farms provide remote access to devices, the testers can interact with them in real time to execute the debugging stages. It also helps to improve collaboration among the distributed teams by providing shared access to all the essential information, such as test results, logs, and screenshots.
With remote collaboration, app-developing companies can simultaneously perform the development and testing process to resolve critical errors in the earlier phases before they become serious concerns.
Benefits of Device Farm Testing
Now let us understand some of the significant benefits of combining modern device farm testing with mobile application test cases:
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Improved Test Coverage
With device farms, the developers can massively improve the test coverage using thousands of different testing devices and configurations. It also ensures that the app behaves consistently across all the target devices and configurations.
Moreover, with device farms, app developing companies can verify the functionality of their app on older devices or outdated browser configurations. This is an essential parameter, as recent surveys show that almost 80% of online traffic still needs to update its software or hardware.
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Faster Time to Market
With device farms, the application developers can integrate automation testing with the app development process. This means that the app companies can quickly wrap up the testing instances so that the app can be forwarded to the deployment process.
It also enables faster feedback cycles so that the app companies can quickly deliver high-quality applications to end users.
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Enhanced Reliability
By executing the test cases on real devices, the app testers can uncover device-specific issues that might go unnoticed when using emulators or simulators. Therefore, integrating a device testing lab has a crucial role in elevating the accuracy and reliability of the test instances.
Moreover, integrating automation testing with device farms also eliminates the possibility of errors arising from human involvement.
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Cost Efficiency
While using the traditional testing approaches, the app-developing companies must set up and maintain an on-site device lab. This is not only a resource and time-consuming process but also hectic as the developers have to constantly update this lab based on all the new devices released in the market.
However, with device farms, app developing companies can eliminate the need to maintain such an inventory as it provides test results similar to those of cloud servers.
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Scalability and Flexibility
Whether the app testers are testing a minor feature update or working on a significant release, device farms offer the flexibility and scalability to accommodate varying testing requirements. Moreover, the app developers can integrate all these changes without going through substantial configurations or learning curves.
Since the application testers can access the devices from anywhere in the world, they are not bound by any geological barriers during the test execution process.
Best Practices of Device Farm Testing
Now, let us go through some of the best practices that can help modern testers improve the efficiency of their device farm test cases.
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Prioritize the Devices
Since thousands of devices are available on the market, it will become almost impossible for application testers to expand their app compatibility. So, it is essential to prioritize the test cases according to the target audience’s preferences and craft the testing strategy accordingly.
For new companies, it is advisable to target popular devices and platforms and proceed accordingly.
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Parallel Test Execution
Most of the modern testing cycles consist of thousands of different test instances. So, meeting the delivery deadlines while executing these test cases individually becomes almost impossible. With parallel test execution, the testers can initiate and perform thousands of different test instances on different configurations at the same time.
App testers can also integrate advanced cloud platforms like LambdaTest to improve test instances’ productivity and scalability further. LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that lets you run manual and automated tests at scale with over 3000+ real devices, browsers, and OS combinations. With LambdaTest, application testers can incorporate artificial intelligence and machine learning to manage and execute test cases better.
This platform can also run the test instances on more than 3000 different combinations of operating systems, real devices, and browser versions. It can keep track of test instances and help debug tests with real-time test logging and comprehensive test reports.
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Optimizing Test Automation
The application testers must invest in developing robust test automation scripts that are maintainable, scalable, and capable of running across different devices and platforms. For this purpose, the testers can also consider separating the test data from the test scripts. This process will help them adopt the test scripts for changes and reuse vast segments of the existing test data.
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Monitoring the Test Performance
While executing the mobile test cases on device farms, the testers must closely monitor the critical performance metrics. Some of the most notable inclusions in this list include CPU usage, battery drain, and memory consumption. These metrics will allow the developers to identify performance bottlenecks and optimize app performance.
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Regular Updates
Since mobile apps go through regular updates that add or remove features, it is essential for the application developers to regularly update the test scripts to ensure that they comply with the app requirements and also the changing industry standards. It is also essential to update the device farm to include all the latest devices and operating system versions for optimal coverage.
The Bottom Line
Based on all the parameters in this article, device farm testing has become one of the most important game changers in mobile app testing. This inclusion offers efficient, scalable, and cost-effective solutions for addressing the challenges of device fragmentation and platform diversity.
By using real devices present on the cloud, developing teams can ensure comprehensive test coverage and accelerate the time to market while delivering high-quality apps that meet the requirements of modern users.
Conclusively, embracing a device farm’s strategies will help companies scale their application positively while maintaining a brand reputation in this competitive industry segment.
