Introduction
In the present world, customers are looking for solutions or apps that are fast and convenient. According to the data from Google, the bounce rate increases by 32% if a customer waits just one to three seconds for a page to load, and 53% of people may abandon a website if it doesn’t load in less than three seconds. Keeping this trend in mind, organizations are trying to build and distribute apps to their customers that are more likely to reduce hassles in a fast-paced environment. This is what digital native is built to handle as a form of technology. It is an experience-driven development model in which the application is developed, designed, and optimized to run on the cloud and deliver high performance in terms of digital experience.
Importance of Digital Native Apps for Global Enterprises
Digital native applications are solutions that are highly scalable and fast on the cloud. These applications use platform-as-a-service tools and microservices, which function as the fundamental of the digital native architecture. Organizations developing digital native apps have completely shifted from the traditional app development process to new advanced testing practices, such as automated testing, a customer-centric model, the agile methodology that transforms the entire DevOps process, and an accelerated production environment. In order to develop high-quality digital native apps in a short period of time, enterprises need to transform their entire teams digitally. However, organizations are currently trying to adopt a hybrid cloud technology model to get total flexibility while deploying their applications. With digital native infrastructure, enterprises can react to the market demand more quickly, help in reducing costs, and be highly scalable. Some of the companies that went ahead and adopted cloud technology to develop digital native apps are Amazon, Facebook, and Google.
Six Key Ways to Develop and Test Digital Native Apps
1. Deploy Continuous Testing Methodology
Testing and development teams in a cloud environment have to work in sync with each other. This can lead to new complex challenges in DevOps. The continuous testing of digital native apps is the solution to overcome these challenges. By adopting CI/CD approach, organizations can make sure that their digital native apps are in a constant phase of development and testing.
2. Perform Real Device Testing
In the real world, digital native apps are used in flexible, dynamic, and distributed environments. So, there is always a need to scale them up or down as per the situation. Also, as digital native applications leverage different microservices, it is crucial to perform testing of each and every service offered by them for better optimization. Since all user interactions of digital native apps cannot be tested on a simulator, enterprises need to perform digital native app testing on real devices to analyze and identify various problems faced by their users in real-time. With only real device testing, companies can identify, and fix issues caused due to network fluctuations, slow network problems, phone call interruptions, charger effects, and battery consumption on digital native apps. To ensure digital native apps are ready to overcome these challenges, organizations have to perform real device testing on these apps to optimize and enhance their performance.
3. Test the Resilience of Digital Native Apps
The need to measure the resilience of digital native apps is increasing, as resilience testing can help enterprises to understand how an app reacts when it encounters a failure. A lot of global companies are using this test in DevOps to analyze how their apps recover during different types of failure. This testing can help companies to increase the tolerance level of their digital native apps toward various possible failures.
4. Constantly Monitor Various Resources
In the traditional on-premise environment, it is easy for testers to identify various server resources involved in the operation of an application. However, in the case of a digital native application, as it has an unpredictable and dynamic nature, it is extremely difficult for testing teams to keep track of different server resources. So, while testing a digital native application, it is important for organizations to deploy a tool or platform that can track and monitor various resources involved in the operation of these apps.
5. Always Be Prepared to Rollback
The team working on the development of digital native apps has to be always prepared to go back to the previous version of an app or feature in case something unexpected happens. As digital native apps are used in very complex environments, it is safe for the development team to use deployment tools that allow easy rollback from one version to another in order to roll back an app or a feature faster in case of failure.
6. Prioritize Goals and Infrastructure
While developing a digital native app with a cloud environment, it is critical to understand the things that are important for the particular app according to its use. This will help the testers understand the important things they need to test their app for. For example, security becomes a focus testing area depending on whether your app is open-ended or non-accessible. So, it is crucial for the testing team to prioritize the goals and infrastructure of the apps being developed.
HeadSpin's Role in Digital Native App Building & Testing
Digital native technologies offer enterprises a different approach to creating and running apps virtually. Unlike traditional apps with a monolithic architecture, digital native apps leverage the potential of different microservices running in cloud ecosystems. So, it is important for organizations to perform specific testing of all functions involved in a digital native application. HeadSpin offers a solution that focuses on helping organizations in perfecting digital experiences of digital native apps and testing them to fix issues proactively.
As user experience is of prime importance for companies developing digital native apps, HeadSpin provides an experience-driven development approach. HeadSpin helps companies improve their apps’ performance by enhancing the development and testing processes at different stages of the digital value chain with its unique features. At multiple touchpoints across the digital value chain, HeadSpin supports various teams, such as product managers, SREs, developers, and QA engineers, to build and deliver high-quality digital native apps.
Here is how HeadSpin is involved in the digital value chain of digital native apps.
1. Performance-centric App Development
With the HeadSpin Platform, development teams can get deep insights into their digital native apps’ performance. They can also set specific KPIs and monitor the overall performance of their apps. With HeadSpin’s continuous testing model, organizations can accelerate the overall performance of their apps by incorporating feedback from the testing teams on a timely basis.
2. Automation of Functional and Performance Testing
Automating crucial testing methods like functional and performance testing can help enterprises to accelerate the entire testing cycle and focus more on other complicated issues. The HeadSpin Platform enables testing teams to automate functional and performance testing and identify issues smoothly. With automation, enterprises can perform thousands of test cases simultaneously and improve the performance of the app.
3. Digital Experience Insights
The HeadSpin Platform helps organizations to continuously monitor and collect deep insights into functional and non-functional features of digital native apps. While testing digital native apps using the HeadSpin Platform, testing teams can collect various insights related to apps and compare these insights with peers to improve their apps’ performance. With HeadSpin’s media testing, video testing, video streaming testing, and user experience testing, enterprises can gather actionable insights about the digital experiences of their apps. Using this data, they can also fix and enhance the overall user experience.
4. Global and Regional Testing
HeadSpin’s global device infrastructure helps enterprises remotely perform end-to-end testing of digital native apps on real devices in 90+ locations. This feature allows companies to scale their business globally without physically moving their teams. Organizations can also leverage this feature to understand various complex behavior of digital native apps in different environments.
5. Synthetic Monitoring and Testing
Synthetic monitoring and testing is a unique capability of the HeadSpin Platform that helps companies proactively detect issues and bugs before they are pervasive. HeadSpin continuously monitors apps and automates different user journeys to identify various possible issues and bugs.
How HeadSpin Helped Global Digital Native Companies?
Given are some examples of how HeadSpin supported major global companies to enhance their digital native apps’ performance and user experience.
Example 1
A US multinational mass media factual television conglomerate was looking for a digital experience testing solution to ensure flawless functionality of its app through automated testing on real devices across Europe and the US with minimal manual intervention. HeadSpin deployed a pool of 15 shared devices and 4-6 dedicated devices from HeadSpin’s global device infrastructure to test and understand its video player’s functionality across global locations. With the Platform, the company was able to benchmark against its competitors and test the user experience of its video player. With HeadSpin, the company achieved economies of scope and scale and aligned environments to key workforce and market considerations. HeadSpin supported the company in delivering flawless functionality of its app globally.
Example 2
A US multinational technology enterprise that focuses on search engine technology, cloud computing, etc., was trying to get access to devices for its testers and teams worldwide and ensure the testing of communications between the devices and the smooth operation of its voice assistant. HeadSpin deployed smart assistant-enabled speakers in the AV Box to test real voice commands and general features of the voice assistant on Android and iOS devices in real-world conditions. With the AV Platform, the company performed testing of various audio use cases and speaker/microphone functionalities across a range of operating systems, devices, and carrier networks. With the help of HeadSpin, the company increased its team collaboration and efficiency by providing remote access to the devices and streamlined testing of its voice assistant app across various devices.
Conclusion
Digital native apps have become the need of the hour for growing enterprises and global organizations, as they are quick to implement and don’t need hardware and software configuration, thus, reducing the overall implementation cost. Testing these newly advanced apps is complicated since multiple microservices are involved in the operation of digital native apps. With HeadSpin, the best tool to test digital native apps, organizations can:
Enable scalable automation
Record low infrastructure cost
Increase cross-team collaboration
Execute high-velocity automated testing to accelerate release cycles
Test digital experiences across various channels
Use new technologies to deliver flawless customer experiences
Detect issues early in the development cycle
Measure and monitor business-specific KPIs
Original source: https://www.headspin.io/blog/easy-digital-native-app-testing