Model-based Testing of Mobile Systems -- An Empirical Study on QuizUp Android App

TL;DR

This paper empirically evaluates model-based testing (MBT) on the QuizUp Android app, demonstrating its effectiveness in detecting defects in a large-scale, well-tested mobile system within three months.

Contribution

It shows that traditional MBT approaches can be successfully applied to mobile apps, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a single behavioral model for efficiency.

Findings

Detected non-trivial defects in a large user base app

Effective testing achieved within three months

Maintaining a single behavioral model was crucial

Abstract

We present an empirical study in which model-based testing (MBT) was applied to a mobile system: the Android client of QuizUp, the largest mobile trivia game in the world. The study shows that traditional MBT approaches based on extended finite-state machines can be used to test a mobile app in an effective and efficient way. Non-trivial defects were detected on a deployed system that has millions of users and was already well tested. The duration of the overall testing effort was of three months, including the construction of the models. Maintaining a single behavioral model for the app was key in order to test it in an efficient way.