The platform — three surfaces, one QA problem
This field service management platform has been built by Infomaze and serves enterprise clients managing large technician workforces. The platform has three distinct surfaces that all need to work together seamlessly: a web management platform for operations managers and dispatchers, a React Native mobile app for field technicians, and a REST API layer that connects them both — as well as integrating with client ERP and billing systems.
Field service management is operationally complex. Work orders flow from creation on the web platform to the mobile app when a technician is dispatched, back to the web platform when the job is completed, and through to the billing system when the invoice is generated. A bug at any point in that chain has real operational consequences — a technician dispatched to the wrong location, a job closed in the system but not billed, a signature capture that failed silently.
The three-platform testing challenge
Why this is a distinct QA challenge
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Mobile testing requires a different toolchain
Playwright doesn't test React Native apps — it tests web browsers. Mobile automation for React Native requires Detox (for iOS and Android). The challenge is building both suites so they integrate into the same pipeline and report against the same user story coverage.
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Integration points are where bugs live
The dangerous bugs in field service management are at integration boundaries — a job dispatched on the web doesn't appear on the mobile app, a job completed on mobile doesn't update the web dashboard, a photo captured offline fails to sync. These require end-to-end tests that cross platforms.
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Offline mode must be tested deliberately
Field technicians work in areas with no connectivity. The mobile app must function fully offline and sync correctly when connectivity returns. Testing offline behaviour requires deliberate network state manipulation — not something manual testing covers systematically.
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Signature and photo capture are high-value flows
Job completion with customer signature and completion photos is a legally and commercially significant flow. These need to be tested on real devices, not just simulators, and need to verify the data reaches the correct destination in the web platform and billing system.
Our testing architecture for this deployment
Playwright covers the full web management platform — dispatch board, work order management, customer portal, reporting — plus the complete API layer using Playwright's native API testing capability. The same test can initiate an action through the web UI and verify the API response, or initiate via API and verify the UI reflects the change.
Detox runs end-to-end tests against the React Native app on both iOS simulators and Android emulators. Tests cover the full technician workflow — job notification, acceptance, navigation, checklist, signature, photo, and completion. Offline mode tests use Detox's network interception to simulate connectivity loss and verify sync behaviour on reconnection.
A subset of tests intentionally cross platforms: a Playwright test creates a work order on the web platform, a Detox test verifies it appears on the mobile app, the Detox test simulates job completion, and a Playwright test verifies the web platform reflects the completion and the billing trigger fired. These are the tests that catch the bugs that matter most.
The offline sync test scenario: Detox initiates job completion on the mobile app in offline mode (network intercepted). Detox verifies the completion is stored locally. Detox restores network connectivity. Playwright verifies the web platform receives the job completion update within 30 seconds. A single test that covers the behaviour most critical to this client's billing and SLA commitments — and the behaviour that is completely untested in the current manual process.
When this deploys
This is our next major QA automation deployment, planned for Q3. The toolchain is established from our PrintPlanr and service management deployments. The methodology — Playwright for web and API, Detox for mobile, cross-platform integration tests for the critical handoff flows — is proven in structure, even if this will be our first deployment of it on a React Native field service application at this scale.
We're onboarding the client's development team into the framework before deployment begins, so when the suite is live, they can maintain and extend it independently rather than depending on Infomaze for every new test scenario.
Building a field service app that needs this kind of coverage?
If you're running a field service management platform with a mobile app and complex API, we'd like to talk. We're deploying this methodology for the first time at field service scale — and we're offering preferred engagement terms for the next project we take on in this space.
Enquire About Early Access →