Developing apps for mobile devices is becoming increasingly crucial in today’s connected society, as millions of people rely on them for their day-to-day lives. Yet, building and testing a mobile app may be a costly and time-consuming process due to its reliance on third-party services like payment processors, social networks, location services, and cloud storage.
51% of app developers said they don't have enough time to test their apps well enough for quality assurance before they release them.
Here, the power of service virtualization comes into play at this point. Service virtualization is an effective testing technique that speeds up the development and testing of mobile apps. In this blog, we’ll discuss the many ways in which service virtualization may help mobile app developers and businesses save time and money. Now let’s get started and unleash the power of imaginary pals in the development of mobile apps!
What is service virtualization?
This technique plays a great role in mobile app testing. Service virtualization is similar to having a fake friend. It actually imitates the way real services work, which might not be available or difficult to access during testing. So, it acts and reacts like services that aren’t available and on which your application depends. It’s like having a friend who helps you test software without having to use the real thing, this virtual friend can be used in place of the real thing. As a result, your app can experiment and save time and money without affecting live services.
For example
Payment Gateway
In order to test the payment processing features of a mobile app without actually using a genuine payment gateway, service virtualization can be used to simulate the behavior of the payment gateway.
Integration of Social Media
If a mobile app has to interact with social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, the app’s developers can avoid using the real sites by simulating their behavior with service virtualization.
What are service virtualization tools?
Following are certain famous tools for service visualization.
- Mountebank
- Hoverfly Cloud
- Microfocus Data simulation software
- CA service virtualization
- Mocklab
- Rational test virtualization server
By enabling developers to replicate the behavior of dependent services and components, these tools assist in reducing the time and expense involved with mobile app development. They let developers put their apps through their paces in a range of settings to ensure they operate well and are trustworthy. All things considered, software development teams that want to improve their productivity and quality must-have service virtualization solutions.
Related: Benefits of using API in mobile app development
Benefits of service virtualization
Some of the ways in which service virtualization might shorten the time and budget needed to develop a mobile app are as follows
1-Cutting back on third-party service
To function properly, mobile apps usually rely on other services such as payment processors, social networks, and GPS systems. In fact, there is no guarantee that these services will be available during development, which might add unnecessary time and money to the process. That’s why, virtualizing services lets developers create dummy versions of real ones, eliminating the need for the actual ones and freeing up more time for coding.
So, say goodbye to dependency issues. With the help of service virtualization, you don’t have to take a break from designing and testing your app; you can make fictional pals that behave just like the actual thing.
2-Facilitating parallel development
You need to test your software thoroughly to make sure it runs without a hitch, but doing so is a pain. But the good news is that now you can test your app like a pro.
Because of service virtualization, developers don’t have to hold up the development and testing of mobile apps while waiting for third-party services or components to become available. This allows for concurrent development, in which numerous developers can work on separate but related parts of the mobile app at once, speeding up the process and cutting costs.
3-Performing scalability tests
The number of people using mobile apps is expected to increase over time, thus they need to be expandable. Service virtualization makes it easy for programmers to simulate a lot of user traffic so they can test how scalable their mobile app is without having to pay the high costs of launching and maintaining a real manufacturing setup.
4-Early detection of defects
By using service virtualization, developers may test their mobile apps in a simulated, personalized way, where they can more easily locate and repair bugs before they even go live. As a result, you’ll save money on correcting bugs in the later, more expensive stages of development.
5-Reduced time to market
Developers can save time and effort when testing their mobile apps with the help of service virtualization. This is especially crucial in the current digital landscape, where a mobile app’s success or failure often depends on how quickly it can be brought to market.
Conclusion
Service virtualization has been around for a long time, but it has only recently become popular as the need for faster and more efficient software development has grown. Service virtualization has become normal practice in the software development business, with many companies committing to it in order to cut down on expenses without sacrificing quality.
Overall, service virtualization is a good way to reduce the cost and time it takes to make a mobile app. By imitating the actions of dependent components and services, developers can save time and money and build and test mobile apps more quickly and efficiently.
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