Power of Bug Bash: Mobile App Testing With Real Devices
Improving Release Confidence with Real-Device Bug Bash Exploratory Testing
At NewStore, quality isn’t just a technical target, it’s a commitment to our customers. Every feature we test and every release we ship reflects our dedication to reliability, usability, and trust.
In omni-channel retail, teams depend on our app every day to serve customers and keep operations moving making quality mission critical.
One way we bring that commitment to life is through our bug bash culture, a collaborative, hands-on practice that ensures our app behaves as expected in the real world, across the same devices and environments our customers use every day.
What Makes a Bug Bash Unique
A bug bash isn’t simply a testing event, it’s a shared moment of exploration. Engineers, managers, product, designers, support, and sales teams gather with real devices and a mindset of curiosity. Everyone brings a different perspective shaped by their role, instincts, and natural user behaviour.
Together, this diversity reveals insights we could never uncover through automated testing alone and what we learn here potentially fuels the next wave of automated tests or initiatives to improve overall user experience
This collective energy reinforces a core belief: Quality is a shared responsibility, and empathy is its foundation.
Why Real World Device Testing Matters for App Quality
Real world usage is unpredictable. Devices vary widely. Sensors behave differently. Networks fluctuate. Users multitask, switch apps mid-flow, lock screens without thinking, forcefully close apps out of habit, or interact with hardware in ways that scripted tests can’t anticipate.
Bug bashes let us embrace these realities rather than abstracting them away.
→ Experience the product the way users do
Participants naturally test like actual users switching networks, moving between apps, locking screens, shaking devices, and interacting with sensors. These spontaneous actions expose issues automation often misses.
→ Uncover real device specific behaviours
A feature that works perfectly on one device may behave unexpectedly on another. Bug bashes uncover these differences quickly, helping us build a more robust and consistent experience.
How We Run a Bug Bash
Our approach blends preparation, exploration, and structured follow-up:
The outcome is a practical, human centred snapshot of how our app behaves across real devices in realistic conditions.
Bug Triage: Turning Findings Into Action
Bug bashes generate a wealth of observations, but their real impact comes during bug triage, the step where empathy and structure meet.
We review each finding, prioritize them thoughtfully, and determine the most meaningful next steps.
→ A healthy signal of improvement
If a bug bash uncovers issues, that’s not a setback, it’s success. It means we caught problems before customers ever encountered them.
If multiple bug bashes consistently surface a high number of issues, that insight helps us strengthen earlier phases of development and quality practices. It’s guidance, not failure.
Test Automation and Bug Bashes: Stronger Together
While bug bashes give us real-world insight and human perspective, automation testing is equally essential to delivering a high-quality app. Automation ensures consistency, speed, and reliability at scale. It catches regressions early, validates core flows continuously, and gives us confidence that our foundation is solid.
Bug bashes and automation are not alternatives; they’re complementary strengths.
Automation keeps our product stable through repetition, wide coverage, and fast feedback.
Bug bashes uncover unexpected behaviours through exploratory testing that only real devices and real people can reveal.
Together, they help us achieve excellence in app quality. Each approach strengthens the other, creating a balanced, resilient, and user centred testing strategy.
Conclusion
Bug bashes are a reflection of our culture hands-on, curious, and deeply connected to real user experiences. Automation testing reflects another side of our commitment: precision, consistency, and the ability to safeguard quality at scale.
Together, these two practices form the foundation of our testing strategy!
Bug Bashes deepen our understanding of real user behaviour, strengthen our processes, and reinforce our commitment to quality.
Every bug found teaches us something.
Every device tested expands our perspective.
Every bug bash reminds us that quality isn’t owned by one team, it’s a shared commitment.
At NewStore, we don’t just test for quality. We collaborate to create it.