Troubleshooting and best practices

The following best practices should ideally be followed for any mobile automation project:

• The mode of connectivity between the AUT, DUT, and computer on which the automation tool is installed should be clearly established with all the considerations of any organization's security policies. In most cases, there is no way to workaround to the absence of USB connectivity, other than to use cloud-based automation solutions. So, before starting a project, the physical setup should be thoroughly vetted.
• The various operating systems and versions, mobile equipment manufacturers, and different form factors that need to be supported with the application, and consequently, the automation solution should be designed to support all of them. However, if you start automating before identifying all the supported devices, then there would invariably be a lot of rework required to make the scripts work with other devices. Hence, automation scripts should be made for all supported OSes and devices right from the design stage.
• A user agent-based automation can only be implemented for mobile web applications. It is a cost-effective and quick way to implement solutions since it involves automation of just a few basic features. However, this technique should not be relied upon for validating GUI components and should always be accompanied with a round of device testing.
• If any simulation or emulation technique (user agent or emulators/simulators) is used for automation, then it should strictly be used for functional regression testing on different device configurations. Ideally, projects utilizing these solutions should also have a GUI testing round with real devices, at least for the first release.
• If a geographically-distributed team is to utilize the automation solution, for example, an offshore-onsite team that needs to use the same devices, then the most cost-effective solution in the long run is the cloud-based automation. Even though the initial setup cost of the cloud solution generally is the highest of the four techniques, since different teams can multiplex and use devices from different locations and so the overall cost is offset by using fewer devices overall.
• During the use of emulators/simulators, the automation scripts should be designed to trigger the virtualization program with the required settings for memory, RAM, and the requisite version of the operating system, so that there is no manual intervention required to start the programs before you trigger the execution. Also, this way, scripts can be triggered remotely and in an unmonitored way.
• Irrespective of the technique utilized, a proper framework should be implemented with the automation solution. In the next chapter, we will discuss the various automation frameworks and their specific differences for mobile automation solutions.