How can you ensure continuous delivery doesn't impact mobile app quality?

1 Test early and often

One of the key principles of CD is to test every change before deploying it to production. This means that you need to have a robust testing strategy that covers different aspects of your mobile app, such as functionality, usability, accessibility, compatibility, performance, and security. You also need to automate as much testing as possible, using tools and frameworks that suit your mobile app platform and architecture. Automated testing can help you detect and fix bugs faster, reduce human errors, and save time and resources. However, automated testing is not enough. You also need to perform manual testing, especially for user interface and user experience aspects, using real devices and simulators. Manual testing can help you catch issues that automated testing might miss, such as visual glitches, layout problems, or user feedback.

2 Use feature toggles and experimentation

Another way to ensure CD doesn't impact mobile app quality is to use feature toggles and experimentation. Feature toggles are switches that allow you to turn on or off certain features or parts of your mobile app, without changing the code or redeploying the app. Feature toggles can help you manage the release of new features, test them in production, and roll them back if needed. Experimentation is a technique that allows you to test different versions of your mobile app features or user interface, and measure their impact on user behavior and outcomes. Experimentation can help you optimize your mobile app for user satisfaction, engagement, retention, and conversion. You can use tools and platforms that support feature toggling and experimentation, such as Firebase Remote Config, Optimizely, or LaunchDarkly.

3 Monitor and measure quality metrics

A third way to ensure CD doesn't impact mobile app quality is to monitor and measure quality metrics. Quality metrics are indicators that reflect the performance, reliability, usability, and security of your mobile app. They can help you identify and troubleshoot issues, evaluate user feedback, and improve your mobile app quality over time. Some examples of quality metrics are crash rate, error rate, response time, availability, battery consumption, memory usage, user ratings, reviews, and retention rate. You can use tools and platforms that collect and analyze quality metrics, such as Firebase Crashlytics, AppDynamics, or New Relic.

4 Communicate and collaborate with stakeholders

A fourth way to ensure CD doesn't impact mobile app quality is to communicate and collaborate with stakeholders. Stakeholders are the people who are involved in or affected by your mobile app development and delivery, such as developers, testers, product owners, designers, marketers, users, and clients. Communication and collaboration can help you align your goals, expectations, and feedback, and ensure that everyone is on the same page about the quality standards and requirements of your mobile app. You can use tools and platforms that facilitate communication and collaboration, such as Slack, Jira, or GitHub.

5 Review and improve your CD process

A fifth way to ensure CD doesn't impact mobile app quality is to review and improve your CD process. Your CD process is the set of steps, tools, and practices that you follow to deliver new features and updates to your users. Reviewing and improving your CD process can help you identify and eliminate bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and risks, and optimize your delivery speed, frequency, and quality. You can use tools and platforms that support continuous integration, continuous delivery, and continuous deployment, such as Jenkins, CircleCI, or Fastlane.