Mobile app testing checklist

In my years as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer and Automation Engineer, with major focus on Mobile Application, I have come with a few things I consider a must do checklist that I have used in my career and I am sure can be of help to an person with the intention of taking on Quality Assurance as a career path, in particular with Mobile Application Testing.

In General, some of these checks, may be also used and adopted in Web Application Quality Assurance as well, because I have been able to use them as well.

I have been reading and following much more experienced QA Engineers in the world, with different levels and years of experience, from Junior QA Engineers to Senior QA Engineers, through mid level engineers, and this check list is what I believe and know will be able to do justice for you and help kick start you career in Mobile App testing.

App gestures

What actions can the user do on the app?

• Swipes
• Taps
• Pinches
• Type
• Hold
• Drag and drops

Visuals

Do the icons, images look okay and help the user in using the app?

• Does the apps, icons, images convey the correct info to the user?
• Images should fit the screen

Push notifications

Does the app generate and handle push notifications correctly?

• Correct text for different app states?
• Tap on PN to redirect user to correct screen

Interruptions

How does the app respond to any interruptions while use?

• If put in background and resumed
• If killed and restarted
• If Incoming call, message, PN causes the user to switch context

App permissions

Does the app require correct level of permissions and the behavior around those

• Behavior when the user grants/revokes certain permissions
• Only necessary permissions are requested

User Input

Does the app handle different types of inputs and allows user to enter invalid inputs?

Boundary values

Check for value/length as per below:

• min
• min — 1
• max
• max + 1

Inputs

• Overflow values (Enter value > max allowed value for a given data type of the field)
• Null/Empty/Blank
• Non ASCII characters (Swedish/Russian)
• Copy paste values
• Special Chars (!@#$%^&*())
• Leading or trailing whitespaces
• Line breaks
• String characters (If numeric) and numeric (If String)
• Numeric separators (1000, 1.000, 1,000)

Date and Times

• Future datetimes
• Past datetimes
• Invalid datetimes (32 days, 13 month, 25 hours, 61 minutes, 61 second)
• Holidays
• Weekends
• Leap days
• Timezones
• Different datetime formats

Onboarding flows

• UX when a first time user engages with the app (Introduction flows)
• These flows should be shown only a certain no of times
• How do we introduce user to new features in the product? Ease of comprehension
• Check different user personas

App upgrades

• Does app work when upgraded to a new version?
• Can user proceed with any in-flight flows after app upgrades?

Screen sizes

• How does the app look when opened in devices with different screen sizes (4, 5, 6 inches)
• Does it look okay on a tablet?
• Does it look okay on a Desktop/Laptop screen (If applicable)

Feature Toggles

How does the app respond to future toggles

• Feature turned ON
• Feature turned OFF
• Any data created with old/new app should be compatible and should not lead to app crashes

Error conditions

• Correct error messages are displayed in different conditions
• CTA (Call to action) should be as per the application flow (e.g. Do not ask user to retry in case of any terminal state in the app)

Navigations

• Back button
• Sortnig on columns (In case of a list/table control)
• Pagination (Move forward on last or move backward on first)

Security

• SQL Injections
• App should never show sensitive db, server informations
• App should handle different user roles and ensure correct information is displayed to the user with his role/priviledges
• Local storage should not show sensitive information

Performance

How responsive is the app when:

• When too many apps are open
• When app is used in low memory configs/devices
• Normal load
• X times normal load
• Extremely high load from concurrent users

Backend responses and conditions

• Status codes check
• 2XX (Success)
• 3XX (Redirects)
• 4XX (Client side errors — Bad requests)
• 5XX (Server side errors)
• Does the app block the user from proceeding when waiting for an API when not needed?
• Does the app engage user while waiting for an API response (with an animation/loader)
• How the app handles when the API times out?
• How the app handles cases when server is undergoing deployments?

Usability

How easy and friendly is the UI for use?

• Text/font are readable in different mobile sizes
• Font colors should enhance readibility
• Show numeric numpad when nos have to be entered
• Correct use of colors should be made on UI controls
• Spelling and grammar
• Localization
• Links should not be broken
• Scroll bars should be displayed when needed
• Scroll bars should be hidden when not needed

Accessibility

Think how the app can be friendly to people with deficiences (Blind, deaf, dumb, vision related issues)

• App should be accessible via screen readers / voice commands
• Accessibility ids should be available with valid text
• Color should not be relied upon as the single way of identifying content (meaningful texts)
• Clearly shows when an object on the screen is active
• Links/buttons with same text but different targets should be uniquely identifiable
• Sufficient instructions for all interactive elements on the page
• Sound/video should have text alternatives to explain context
• Contrast of texts, icons, images should be accessible to people with vision deficiences
• User should get prompted if a flow gets timed out

All the Above may vary, based on the kind of mobile app in test, but this is a basic in general.