Guide to Create Mobile App in One Shot with Minimum or No Bugs
Developers often wonder if there was any way to create mobile app completely free of bugs. Releasing bug free application in one shot can be myth to most of the developers. Your app is being designed and developed with an uncut zeal though once you release, you will have your testing team or client knocking your head the very next day with a big list of bugs. Human mistakes, poor communication, lacking coding practices, buggy third-party tools are some of the most common reasons why you have to suffer a setback.
What are app bugs?
A software bug is defined as an error or fault in an application or system due to which it produces an incorrect or unexpected result or starts behaving in an unintended way. While development happens, there are plenty of things that developers have to take care of and this becomes the rationale behind a lot of missed or wrongly done things.
Common bugs in mobile app development:
a. Push notifications are sent on abnormal timings.
b. Mobile app might behave strange on unsupported gestures.
c. The interface is quite irritating.
d. Bugs related to input validations.
e. Bugs related to error handling mechanism.
f. Readability issues
g. Navigation and paging bugs
h. Insecure cookies validation bugs
i. Configuration related bugs
There are ‘n’ number of bugs which might be noticed by your client. To prevent your business team or your boss from yelling at you, here are some of the ways through a bug free application can be delivered in one shot.
1. Review your code: Code review often remains a skipped thing by most of the developers due to high reliability over the testing teams. Though, it is important to get the code reviewed to ensure minimum or no bugs. 90% of the bugs arise through coding which is why code review keeps a sheer importance in project development lifecycle. For this, a lot of companies allow pair programming according to which two developers work on same application. It becomes easy to point out mistakes when other technical person checks your work.
Code review is basically done to examine the source code. It has to be done to find out mistakes that get overlooked in the first development phase so that the over quality of the app can be improved. Apart from pair programming, reviews can also b done as informal walkthroughs or formal inspections.
2. Automated testing: Automated testing is done by means of a software which is able to playback predefined actions and then work on comparing the output to the expected behaviour. It is often incorporated by only big size mobile app development companies as the tools and resources bring a lot of cost. Automated testing saves a lot of time and efforts and moreover ensure quality and accuracy. For each release of software, it becomes time consuming to get indulged in manual testing. With the help of automated, you will be able to increase the depth and scope of testing. During every test run, automated testing tools can run thousands of test cases. Moreover, manual testing is monotonous due to which even the high-profile testers can make mistakes. Automated testing has got the capabilities to engage hundreds of virtual users at a time to interact with the application. Saving time and efforts and bring accuracy in the system are some of the reasons behind why automatic testing is used by the companies. If you want to deliver an app with minimum or no bugs, make user you make it go through the automated testing procedures.
3. Beta testing: Beta testing is one of the most commonly adopted methods through which a sample version is released for the end users so that they can run it on various device types. You will be able to point out the mistakes or bugs quickly as there are masses which run your application. This is how, the process can be made fast. Beta testing allows client and developers to evaluate the app from the user’s point of view. Beta testing would also tell you about the usability of the application that whether it is able to meet the requirements of the users or not.
4. Test on various devices: To make the application robust, you need to test it on various operating system, versions and devices. There can be a lot of users who will use it on latest versions or device types whereas a lot must be still stuck with the old versions. Your application should run well on all the device types and versions. You need to give importance to all the types of users in order to cover the whole market. The application should be responsive enough to run all the majorly used screen sizes. Make sure the content does not hide away or important CTAs are not skipped.
5. Error reports: Understand the kind of problems you customers experience before you resolve them. If your application is just running on the trial version, then it is likely for users to not get in touch with you. You need to use automated report tactics so that the process of testing can be made easier. Including logfiles and version numbers while identifying the problem is must. A good bug report helps developers in resolving the issue quickly. Specifying where the bug has actually happened allows a developer to know which version of the code they should be looking at. Moreover, specify the platform, version. Device type and other important things that can help your team quickly find the issue and resolve it.
These were some of the methods through which you ensure a bug free delivery. Being a development firm, it is important for you to maintain good client relationships. You can damage this relationship and lose their trust, if you keep on delivering the solutions full of bugs. It does not matter how much you work on resolving them later on. It is always good to give a bug free solution in one shot so that client does not have to keep coming again and again, wasting his own time and yours.
Bug tracking systems are used by many companies which keep track of reported software bugs in software development projects. There are some of the amazing benefits one can avail out of bug tracking tools.
1. A bug tracking system assures that the bugs that have been found get fixed. By controlling the team work, it helps in resolving bugs to increase the quality of the product. It is capable of tracking the problems and perform an analysis over the time and efforts required from team to resolve a particular bug.
2. A tracking system for bugs ensures informing the concerned person on time to resolve bugs. It sends out notifications and emails containing the specification of the issue so that it can be resolved quickly. The centralized data system gives access to real-time data which assists in attempting new bugs, exploring application and preparing clear reports.
3. Customer satisfaction: Through a bug tracking system, it is also possible for the end users to repot issues directly. By slight modifications in the product, common issues can be found out. These tools are generally designed in a way that anyone can use them easily.
4. Understand bug trends: These tools are able to record data related to issues, who solved it and how much time did it take to resolve the same. In this way, you will be able to understand the efficient of your team as well as complexity of a particular problem. Now, if this problem arises in future, one will have all the associated details. A bug tracking system identifies issues in the formal testing phase and the same helps to develop a bug-free data in the actual production stage.
5. Prioritize bugs: These tools are also capable of prioritizing the issues so that the developer may know which task to perform first. You will get a list arranged in priority order for you to first concentrate on the complex most problem. This helps your developers improve productivity and hence the overall cost of development can be reduced.
By using a bug tracking system, you will be able to manage resources in a much better way which would help you offer solutions quickly. It can be used at all the stages of the designing and development process and hence developers would be content and comparatively more productive. Most of your development efforts might go in vain if the testing is not done properly so make sure you use the right tools.
Providing client with a bug free solution increase the level of trust they have for your company. It is never liked by clients to keep getting reports about issues from end users and then approaching you. Delivering a fault solution make the condition even worse when there was a tight deadline on which you took the project as resolving bugs is a time taking process and your client might get irritated due to delay in launch.