Effective testing principles for the mobile data services applications

Abstract

Wireless communication technologies like GPRS, UMTS and WLAN, combined with the availability of high-end, affordable mobile devices enable the development of advanced and innovative mobile services. Devices such as mobile phones and Personal Digital Assistants let the users access a wide range of new offerings whenever and wherever they happen to be. A strategic approach for the quality assurance of these mobile data services should take into account a number of characteristics unique to the mobile paradigm such as the increased complexity of emerging handheld devices, the greater sensitivity to security and load related problems in wireless infrastructure and increased complexities of scale. This paper identifies the major factors influencing the development and testing strategies for these applications and works out effective quality assurance principles to ensure productive and scalable mobile data services. © 2006 IEEE.