4 Digital Trends Impacting Your 2022 Test Coverage

Our much anticipated 2022 Test Coverage Guide is here! Inside its pages, you will find all the data you need to optimize your test coverage for the rest of the year.

While perusing the devices, browsers, and operating systems mentioned in the guide, is it important to also consider the latest trends that are impacting the mobile, web, and desktop application digital landscape.

• The rise of single codebase solutions for multiple device types, notably Responsive Web Design, Progressive Web Applications, and Flutter.
• Increased emphasis on load testing.

Let us delve further into how the latest tech and trends are making an impact. To test as optimally as possible, DevOps teams must prepare for both the opportunities and challenges that the latest in testing presents.

Related Resources >> Top Test Coverage Metrics for Flawless Apps

One Codebase, Multiple Devices

We all know that a sound test coverage strategy requires testing your application on a wide range of devices, browsers, and operating systems. We also know there are benefits to applications offering a mobile-friendly option. In fact, 67% of mobile users say that when they visit a mobile-friendly site, they are more likely to buy a site's product or service.

To make this process of creating applications that work across various device types more manageable, teams are opting to use codebases that support this capability. Popular codebases that are increasing in popularity include:

• Responsive Web Design (RWD). This web development approach creates dynamic changes to the appearance of a website, depending on the screen size and orientation of the device being used to view it.
• Progressive Web Applications (PWAs). These web applications are regular web pages or websites that can appear like traditional or native mobile applications.
• The Flutter framework.Flutter is an open-source UI SDK that offers a single codebase to develop cross-platform applications for Android, iOS, Linus, Mac, Windows, Google Fuchsia, and the web.

Not only are these application types beneficial on their own, but they also offer a solution to an important problem: how to build an application for the multitude of devices available to customers. From the tiniest smartphone to the huge desktop monitors, from Android to iOS, RWD, PWA, and Flutter all help organizations offer flawless user experiences where their customers are looking for them.

RWD, PWA, and Flutter also speed up and simplify the application development process. Instead of needing separate Android and iOS developers, or web and mobile developers, these codebase options allow teams to use their existing skills on a wider breadth of projects.

RWD vs. PWA vs. Flutter

While RWD, PWA, and Flutter all help organizations achieve a similar goal, there are important differences to keep in mind when choosing which option is right for your team. The table below offers a point-by-point comparison of each application type:

Key Differences between RWD, PWA, and Flutter.

When deciding which application type is better for your team, it is also helpful to look at successful implementations of each application type. Notable examples include:

• The Grand Velas Riviera Maya resort increased its Black Friday conversion rate by 53% due to its PWA’s speed and notifications.
• BMW built the My BMW app for iOS and Android from a single codebase using Flutter.

The Role of Load Testing

In most dev and test strategies, functionality and UX are top of mind. Yet non-functional aspects of testing mobile and web apps need to make an appearance as well.

Load testing is critical to preventing service outages, whether it is after your latest build or major events that put your app under extra stress. Between that too-good-to-be-true Black Friday sale and this year’s Super Bowl, we all remember a time when an application failed to load properly.

Successfully incorporating load testing into your testing strategy can mean the difference between a flawless application experience and a negative brand reputation with upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

We recommend running smaller load tests after each build, as well as larger load tests for specific events when your site will be put under extra stress. There are several load and performance testing types to consider, including:

• Long soak tests. An endurance test that strains your system over time to ensure it can properly recycle resources such as CPU, memory, threads, and connections.
• Spike tests. This type of test monitors your application’s response to a sudden jump in concurrent users and how well the app recovers afterward.
• Failure point tests. These tests take your application to its breaking point and ensures that the system can recover.

To build a realistic load testing scenario, it is important to focus on the various journeys that your users will take while using your application so you can replicate them accurately. Teams should take these and other factors into when a building their load testing scenarios:

• Customer behavior during peak events.
• Bottlenecks and otherwise high-stress points during traffic spikes.
• Testing both internal and external infrastructure, so your delivery chains can anticipate a peak user day.
• User networks and geo-locations.
• Areas where users drop off without completing an action.

When executing your load tests, ensure that you are ramping up your load test capacity gradually so you can better monitor indicators and fix errors at each stage.

Once you have reached full capacity, it is time to test the load you anticipate based on previous user patterns, trend analysis, product requirements, and expected events. Check for memory leaks, high CPU usage, unusual server behavior, and any errors during these tests.

Bottom Line

2022 continues to provide opportunities for optimizing your test coverage. Responsive Web Design, Progression Web Applications, Flutter, and the increasing role of load testing are welcome additions to existing technologies that not only work well, but also offer a much better end user experience and higher quality product.

Explore these trends and start making decisions on how to adopt and benefit from them in 2022 and beyond.

Get Your 2022 Test Coverage Guide

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