Conducting a mobile app audit is essential to enhance the usability of an application and make sure that it is safe for people to use. And, in a time in which smartphones are the most used piece of technology, these audits are more needed than anything else.

For a long time, smartphones have been indispensable in the daily life of citizens. That is why the apps they use regularly must function well and be highly secure.

When developing an app, developers must test it to ensure that it meets high standards of performance and security. However, conducting a mobile app audit may not be the easiest task, especially if the team does not use automated tests.

In this article, we will review what is a mobile app audit, what are its benefits and provide a mobile app audit guide.

What is a mobile app audit:

In a nutshell, a mobile app audit is the process through which teams test the performance and security of an application and point out where it needs to be perfected.

With a mobile app audit, teams are provided with a deep understanding of issues in distinct parts of the software, like migration, technical and security. An audit may also include solutions to mitigate vulnerabilities and avoid inserting bugs in the system.

To conduct this kind of audit, teams have the choice to do it manually or use other software that automates the tasks of the inspection. Whatever the method used, it should involve analysing packets, static analysis, malware and vulnerabilities identification, storage of sensitive information evaluation, and others.

Besides those two methods of conducting a mobile app audit, there are also two main audit types: static application security testing (SAST), which analyses the source code to point out vulnerabilities; and dynamic application security testing (DAST), which tests the app in a real environment to uncover vulnerabilities that weren’t identified in the SAST audit.

Benefits of a mobile app audit:

When conducting a mobile app audit, people should expect several benefits, such as:

1. Ensuring consistency – Given that these audits can be customizable, it is possible to make sure that the needs of the company are being met within the app and across tasks of different departments.
2. Minimizing costs – Because audits may detect issues in an early stage and even prevent them from happening, companies might reduce costs associated with downtime and breaches of data.
3. Increasing security – While the audit identifies vulnerabilities, it may also present solutions for the issues found within the cybersecurity strategy.
4. Optimising performance – Since performance bottlenecks may be slowing down or crashing the app, audits will make it easier to identify and optimize them.
5. Improving usability – If the app is somehow challenging to use, a mobile app audit will be the strategy to find the issues and suggest improvements.

Mobile app audit guide – How to conduct it

Independently of the type of mobile app audit – either it is static application security testing or dynamic application security testing – teams might want to follow specific steps to examine the source code and find vulnerabilities within the software.

1st – Define the scope of the audit to know which app will be examined and the tests that will run to find out how to optimise its performance.

2nd – Gather relevant information about the app, including the source code, the documentation, design mockups, and other data that might be needed when tests are running.

3rd – Evaluate the overall performance of the application like responsiveness, stability, and speed by running a performance test or using a performance testing tool.

4th – Audit the app security by running a static or dynamic security test which can identify vulnerabilities and analyse both the source code and the network.

5th – Inspect UX / UI design to check out if the application still meets the company’s values, the user’s expectations, and the usability best practices.

6th – Create a detailed report and document the findings, including what issues were identified and how can the team mitigate the vulnerabilities.

Mobile app audit best practices

An effective mobile app audit does not only depend on the steps taken to create a detailed report on performance and security, but it also depends on some best practices.

So, to conduct a successful mobile app audit, teams should:

• Have experts taking care of the audit, so that every part of the inspection gets effectively covered, from performance and usability to security.
• Test the apps in different ways, instead of relying on a single testing methodology.
• Address vulnerabilities as soon as they find them, in order to prevent cyberattacks and data exposure.
• Audit apps regularly to identify usability, performance and security issues and mitigate them as soon as possible.

In conclusion

Conducting a mobile app audit is an effective way to make sure the developed app is still functioning as expected after it was launched to the market.

With these audits, it is possible to test any app for its usability, performance and security to highlight where the application needs to be perfected and what vulnerabilities need to be mitigated.

To do this, testers and other audit experts should test in more than a single way – such as SAST, DAST and usability -, as well as conduct an inspection regularly.