The power or strength of a tool can be well explained by the claim that Archimedes made long ago; “ Give me a lever and a place to stand and I will move the earth.” Why is the tool of so much importance? Because, When the right lever comes along, no planet is big enough that it can’t be lifted like a ball of cotton.
Well, some may remark this claim as if it were a dialogue of a drama or play, without even realizing the true essence of this claim of Archimedes. Tools are a great source of enabling efficiency and effectiveness at once. The business operations and procedures that may incur quite long durations, can now be done within a minimum of time. In a continuously revolutionizing industry like software development, where tech firms have to come up with unique features and elements in their products, to meet the user expectations, usually, they require a tool that handles their concerns without consuming much of time and attention. The indispensable part of the software development life-cycle is the testing phase or process.
Testing of software, detection of bugs and errors, ensuring the product quality as per the customer and market demands, are the major concerns of the quality assurance professionals. Usually, Q/A spend most of their valuable time on either testing manually all the product life-cycle stages, fail to select an appropriate test management tool for all their concerns or else not utilizing the test management tool to its fullest potential.
In this article, our mere focus is on the criteria for choosing an appropriate beta test management tool that would help organizations to do successful mobile app testing. Let’s have a look at these;
Multiple Platform Support
Before you choose a beta test management tool, you must check the platforms it supports. The quality of the beta test management tool is not important, if it is unable to support your target operating system, then it is of no use to you.
Beta test management tools not just require to support the operating system on which your application is running but also need to support their different versions and their hardware configuration. if your target is multiple platforms, it is better to use another Beta test management tool.
If you want to develop a hybrid solution, you need to make sure that the Beta test management tool also supports any hybrid development framework, such as Ionic, React Native, PhoneGap, etc.
API and Customizability
Look out for the Beta test management tool that can be as customizable as possible so that you can manually control the functions according to your business or testing requirements and the tester base and UI elements that match your brand identity.
Most Beta test management tools also allow you to retain data for a specific period according to your plan, so you must ensure to monitor the tool’s data retention policy and whether you can control the data through encryption, export, or delete it as per required.
Amalgamation
Similar to APIs and customizability, it is significant to look out the integration provided by the Beta test management tool. You need to use Beta test management tools to integrate with other workspaces (such as Slack), issue tracking systems Jira or GitHub, and support platforms Zendesk or Front.
Managing/handling Projects
There’s a high probability of getting yourself lost in the pool of spreadsheets about beta testers with their bio, email IDs, feedback, etc that relies on the size of your beta test. A great beta test management tool will provide you with project and team management capabilities, enabling you to manage your testers, keep track of their roles, responsibilities, and outputs, as well as all of their information, including their device types, operating systems, and build versions.
Accuracy and Consistency
As testing is a continuous process, you must look for a Beta test management tool that is always reliable and stable. Your app is likely to be tested by quite a large number of different users with different devices, operating systems, and environments, so the tool you are using must be able to run smoothly under any circumstances without any crashes or causing any harm to the user’s device while not making them frustrated.
A simple yet great way to identify whether the Beta test management tool is reliable and stable is to view the reviews of users on different trusted websites.
Client Service
Every business in the software development industry’s major purpose is to be able to serve its customers or users exceptionally while meeting their expectations of a smooth, easy, and simple to use software product or application. Supporting customers instead of making them frustrated is a primary concern for all tech professionals. So, the tool you are planning to use or utilize must be able to provide quick, reliable, and valid customer support if users face any difficulty or challenge while using your software product or application.
Tool Setup Time
You must choose a test management tool that simplifies your software or app development process instead of making them more complicated. This means it must take a small amount of time in setting up and configuring the application on the beta test management tool.
Some of the questions for which you must have answers include: How easy is it to integrate the SDK or any configuration settings in the mobile application, scripts, or files? What is the process of uploading a new version? If it is an open-source framework, how complicated is it to install it on your server?
Final Thoughts
Since testing is crucial for the development of any software or application, it is also pivotal to choose a tool that best matches your requirements for testing. Because at some point in the development phase, you may require the assistance of a tool that makes the process more efficient specifically in case of mobile app development, an appropriate beta test management tool would help you do wonders.
