Mobility as a service (MaaS) applications are the future of the transportation sector due to their ability to improve the way people move from one place to another.
MaaS apps give commuters the possibility of accessing a wide range of transportation solutions through simple mobile applications. Already present in a number of cities, MaaS applications are significantly improving the experience of travelers by removing traditional constraints of transportation applications.
What is MaaS?
MaaS is a platform or application designed to help users manage their commutes from start to finish. The advantage of MaaS applications is their ability to incorporate multiple modes of transportation to allow users to choose the most convenient route and transportation options for their particular journey.
MaaS apps provide users with real-time, on-demand public transportation services as well as private services. As an all-in-one solution, MaaS applications even allow users to purchase tickets or pay for transportation services through the app itself.
More precisely, using a MaaS application enables commuters to:
- Choose from all the different travel options available, suggesting the best route (quickest, cheapest, most accessible) to get to their destination.
- Save their transport tickets in their smartphone as a mobile ticket.
- Pay for a single centralized account, on a monthly basis or as they use it, for all the journeys they make.
Overall, MaaS applications offer users a number of transportation options including: car pooling, car and bike sharing, public transportation, taxi, and car rental services in real time and on demand.
The Link between Quality and Testing
Like any mobile application, the success of every MaaS application is dependent on how well they serve and meet the needs of their users. A key component to building high-quality MaaS applications is mobile testing.
Mobile testing allows organizations to test their web and mobile applications using real smartphones to uncover functional and non-functional digital bugs.
For Transdev, offering a first-class MaaS application that can meet the needs of their customers and passengers is a top priority. As a result, Transdev partnered with StarDust to execute a multi-phased mobile testing campaign on their new MaaS application, Moovizy 2.
Destined for the Saint-Etienne metro area, Moovizy 2 is the only application in France that enables users to manage all available means of transport (bus, tramway, trolleybus, self-service bicycle, taxis, train and car-sharing) in a single solution.
Camille Vedel, MaaS project manager at Transdev, sat down with us to share her experience working with StarDust.
Client Testimonial: Transdev
Can you present Transdev in a few words?
Transdev is a global mobility operator and integrator serving passengers, communities, and companies all over the world.
As a leader in everyday mobility, Transdev strives to meet the transportation needs of its customers and passengers by offering safe, reliable, and efficient public transportation solutions. Transdev is also an innovator that is dedicated to providing greener and cleaner mobility solutions.
Regarding your recent MaaS project, what were your testing needs?
Although we had an internal QA team that was able to carry out the functional testing during the production of the app, we did not have the capacity to really test the compatibility of the app across a large number of smartphones. This is why we reached out to StarDust to execute a multi-phased mobile test campaign to determine if the app was perfectly compatible with a fragmented smartphone market comprising various brands, models, screen sizes, and operating systems versions.
Testing the compatibility of the app primarily focused on verifying that the user interface was truly responsive across different screen sizes as well as testing the functionalities across different configurations (brands, models, operating systems).
In addition to the large test coverage, we did not have the possibility to deploy a team testing in the field to validate key geolocation functions as well as assess the entire app from the perspective of the end-users.
This type of test is a real plus as it allows us to determine whether any MaaS application is ready to be launched. For this reason, our partnership with StarDust made perfect sense.
How did StarDust meet your needs?
StarDust met our needs by testing our MaaS application across a large number of devices and configurations that matched those actually used in our target or end-users’ market.
Second, StarDust was able to test the application in three phases. The first phase included exploratory testing to find a maximum number of bugs, which allowed our developers to make a ton of bug fixes and improve the overall quality of the app.
The second phase of the test was carried out using a scenario testing methodology to validate the bug fixes developers made following the first phase.
The third phase of the test was executed in the target market, Saint-Etienne, to test how the app as a whole worked in real-time, which included testing key geolocation functionalities like those that track the arrival of the next bus or tram, for example.
Overall, the three testing phases provided us with valuable feedback that ultimately enabled us to make a number of adjustments and improve the application.
What did you appreciate about StarDust?
There are numerous things I appreciated about StarDust including the availability of their QA team and project manager as well as the transparency they showed throughout the entire test campaign.
I also appreciated the speed at which they were able to complete each test phase and send us the results. Last but not least, StarDust’s ability to understand and meet our testing needs was highly appreciated and valued by our entire team.
Why would you recommend StarDust?
I recommend StarDust because they succeeded in overcoming our most significant need by testing our app across a large collection of devices and configurations. Partnering with StarDust also made it possible to not only get an external or independent view of our app, but also an assessment of the app from a QA testing expert.
In my opinion, this is key to improving the quality of our app as it made it led to the discovery of dozens of bugs that are easy to miss solely relying on the same internal QA team for every test.
What are your next challenges?
The next challenge for Transdev is to continue developing our MaaS app by implementing new functionalities as well as new partners. With any app or site, you also strive to continue to improve the user pathways to continue to improve the user experience.
As a leader in Quality Assurance testing, StarDust Testing has accompanied a multitude of companies in the transportation sector during their testing phases.
Specifically, our hybrid testing solution is well suited for testing MaaS applications. With our hybrid testing solution, tests can be executed across loads of real configurations via our in-lab testers, global community of freelance, professional testers, and/or our on-site QA consultants.
For all of your MaaS testing needs, do not hesitate to reach out to StarDust.
