Impact of Enterprise BYoD and Enterprise Mobility Policies on QA & Testing

Collaboration and communication are making significant difference in the way enterprises work today. Enterprise Mobility is becoming the gateway to collaborate and communicate effectively to improve productivity and facilitate faster decision making.

With significant growth in the adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy, organizations need to offer flexible and interactive applications between internal stakeholders, clients and business partners. This scenario has made organizations to rethink their QA strategies for mobile devices and applications. The complexity of mobile QA continues to evolve with rapid growth in technology development and increased number of connected devices. As more organizations are taking on mobile QA, they will need to further develop their teams, approach and quality standards.

BYOD and Mobile Application Testing

Employee owned devices can potentially reduce the cost; however it can also lead to security challenges with IT having no control over employees frequently changing their mobile devices, upgrading operating systems, downloading personal apps or misplacing their devices. Further challenges include defining best practices to manage multiple devices and applications that would be accessed through corporate networks via different mobile platforms.

The core QA focus will move from functionality and user acceptance to security, performance and usability. Superior role of mobile applications has made QA and testing a necessity for enterprises embracing BYOD since it impacts enterprise policies, data, applications, and devices.

BYOD and Key factors to consider in QA

1. QA Strategy: A robust mobile QA strategy should emphasize on security, functionality, integration, usability and accessibility of mobile apps. Most enterprise apps are extensions of legacy platforms that require specific expertise to test the necessary functionalities. The right strategy would be to integrate a mobile QA strategy in release management to expose vulnerabilities which are not apparent from end-user interface testing.
2. Test Automation: Selecting an appropriate test automation tool is critical with the ever increasing number of mobile apps and use of enterprise content in BYOD scenario. While manual testing is here to stay, Test Automation has become more important in delivering secure enterprise apps to ensure non-failure.
3. Integration Testing: Upgrading mobile apps takes its own time to upgrade and time to get approval by the App-Store. In BYOD, role of a QA has greater responsibility to test integration of hardware, software components and APIs of mobility, while ensuring industry standards and user expectations are being followed.

Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast update suggests that by the end of 2014, connected devices will outnumber people on the planet. The ever increasing practice of using mobile devices to access enterprise data is changing the definition of quality.

How eInfochips can help?

eInfochips Test and Automation consultants improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the Quality Assurance process. With hands-on experience in test automation frameworks and mature processes, eInfochips is helping customers to define the right test strategy. We help customers in identifying vulnerabilities and fixing the same. We have also developed in-house test automation accelerator – AquA™ Testborg – for mobile application testing.
Visit www.einfochips.com to know more about us; and to write to us at marketing@einfochips.com to discuss how we can help you with your requirements.