Abstract:
Mobile app markets have created a fundamental shift in the way software is delivered to the consumers. The benefits of this software supply model are plenty, including the ability to rapidly and effectively deploy, maintain, and enhance software used by the consumers. This paradigm, however, has given rise to a new set of concerns. Small organizations do not have the resources to sufficiently test their products, thereby defective apps are made available to the consumers of these markets. The situation is likely to exacerbate given that mobile apps are poised to become more complex and ubiquitous. Automated testing of Android apps is impeded by the fact that they are built using an application development framework (ADF). ADF allows the programmers to extend the base functionality of the platform using a well-defined API. ADF also provides a container to manage the lifecycle of components comprising an app and facilitates the communication among them. As a result, unlike a traditional monolithic software system, an Android app consists of code snippets that engage one another using the ADF’s sophisticated event delivery facilities. This hinders automated testing, as the app’s control flow frequently interleaves with the ADF. At the same time, reliance on a common ADF provides a level of consistency in the implementation logic of apps that can be exploited for automating the test activities, as illustrated in this research.
