Since I travel quite a bit and regularly use the airlines’ mobile apps, the announcement today of the testing behind Delta Air Lines’ mobile ticketing caught my eye.
Not that long ago, a company having an app was considered to have gone mobile. The bar has been considerably raised since then, with higher and higher consumer expectations from mobile experiences.
While United was the early pioneer in allowing consumers to book and pay for flight by phone, all the airlines will be expected to provide the service. And that’s where all the testing comes in.
A Boston-area company named Perfecto Mobile was chosen by Delta for its testing and monitoring as it enables ticket purchasing from phones.
I spoke with Eran Yaniv, CEO of Perfecto Mobile, to see how all of this behind-the scenes testing is going on and it turns out there is a lot.
“Quality is a huge issue of these companies,” says Yaniv, whose company’s testing platform is used by several airlines as well as retailers and financial services companies, among others.
With the complexities of platforms increasing, such as multiple versions of Android along with tablets and newer iPhones, it becomes easier to have something not work at least in one place, which is where the testing comes in.
“There’s a crazy race around mobile,” says Yaniv. “It now takes a few more cycles to get it right and these guys are not taking any chances,” referring to the brands.
Yaniv points out that one of the most critical areas is in regression testing, making sure the older functionality of an app remains intact on all platforms when launching a new version. “Regression can kill your QA,” he says.
This gives new meaning to the often used mobile mantra of test and learn.
Think there’s enough testing going on in mobile?
Chuck Martin is editor of mCommerce Daily at MediaPost and writes the daily MobileShopTalk. He is author of “The Third Screen,” “The Smartphone Handbook,” and the soon-to-be-published “Mobile Influence.” He is CEO of Mobile Future Institute and a frequent mobile keynote speaker around the globe.
