Automated Mobile Apps Testing

Today I attended this conference on automation of mobile application testing by one of the major players in the industry, Jamo solutions.

Testing of mobile applications can be envisioned in two perspectives. One through the bitmap or image based and the other object based, that is by recognizing and performing actions on objects.

The primary aim during the development of Jamo solutions was:

• Testers to be abstracted from knowing the complexity of multiple devices with same operating system. Example: iPhone, iPad and iTouch based on common operating system iOS. Similarly Droid and Nexus devices based on android operating system.
• The ability to create tests to test applications on multiple versions of mobile operating systems independent of devices. Example iOS3, 4 and android 2.2, 3 or 3.1 versions.
• Ease of learning for those testers with some level of skills already acquired on testing tools such as QTP, Visual Studio or Eclipse and of course the knowledge of the application.

As mentioned above, Jamo solution aids tester to develop test scripts from QTP, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 or 2009 and Eclipse.

Android devices can be tested using an emulator provided by Jamo and with set of suggested setup and configurations on the device, application and the PC [which I will talk about shortly below]. For testing iPhone applications on iOS, Eclipse solution is suggested on a mac machine to develop scripts.

Applications on Blackberry operating systems too can be tested with this solution be it Bold, Curve or the latest Storm operating system.


Here is how the Jamo solution works:

• Firstly an add-in has to be obtained for the testing tool. For QTP or VB or Eclipse, Jamo has add-ins that are licensed.
• Secondly a device manager should be installed on the computer to which the device is connected and from which the apps will be tested. The device can be tested by connecting physically via USB or via WAN. In case of WAN a licensed machine can be in one state while the device can be physically present anywhere as long as they both are on the same WAN. This enables testing of different scenarios such as low network connectivity (low signal areas) and also supports distributed testing team concept.
• Thirdly an agent must be deployed on the device under test. The procedure will be provided in detail by Jamo once license is purchased. The primary difference in testing different device operating systems is the security rules. Jamo has made it clear that it is possible to test iPhone, android or Blackberry applications without breaking these security rules.

Also the speaker did mention that Jamo solutions is having a tie up with HP in development of mobile application testing solutions. It is among the 4 companies that have the tie up with HP. Three others being Zap, Device anywhere and one other which I don't remember right now. But the other 3 are mainly bitmap based and are not as popular as the object based Jamo solutions.

The license cost of Jamo solutions depends on a matrix depending on various parameters including:

1> Seat or concurrent license 

2> No. of types of Operating support needed: One OS, Two or All OS.

Roughly if someone purchases license for everything it is slated at about $18000 and 18% maintenance support from Jamo.

I might sound like a promoter of Jamo solutions, although that is not entirely true. I am penning details about these as I myself am going to test a major retailer's website on iPhone and Android phones using Jamo solutions.

To know more:

1> Jamo Solutions Website: http://www.jamosolutions.com

2> BizExc Website: http://www.bizexc.com - the distributors of Jamo solutions.

3> DFWQA Association (DFWQAA) - http://www.dfwqaa.org

Testing Tools supported:



Operating Systems supported: