A methodology for generating tests for evaluating user-centric performance of mobile streaming applications

Compared to other platforms, mobile apps’ quality assurance is more challenging, since their functionality is affected by the surrounding environment. In literature, a considerable volume of research has been devoted to develop frameworks that facilitate conducting performance analysis during the development life cycle. However, less attention has been given to test generation and test selection criteria for performance evaluation. In this work, a model based test generation methodology is proposed to evaluate the impact of the interaction of the environment, the wireless network, and the app configurations on the performance of a mobile streaming app and thereby on the experience of the end user. The methodology steps, inputs, and outputs are explained using an app example. The methodology assumes that the app has a network access through a WiFi access point. We evaluate the effectiveness of the methodology by comparing the time cost to design a test suite with random testing. The obtained results are very promising.