The {Challenge}
Big Bus Tours operates sightseeing experiences across more than 28 cities worldwide, with its mobile app becoming an increasingly important part of the customer experience. Customers use it to purchase tickets, navigate routes, track buses and access services while travelling, making reliable performance essential.
Operating globally created a unique technical challenge. Customers were using hundreds of different devices, operating systems, screen sizes and network conditions, particularly across Android, where fragmentation introduced significant variation in app behaviour.
Following the end of a previous agency relationship, development had slowed and there was limited visibility into the overall health of the platform. The app still functioned, but the technical team lacked confidence in how it would perform as Apple and Google released new operating system updates.
**That uncertainty became the real business risk.** As the app became more commercially important, every platform update had the potential to affect GPS behaviour, background processes and customer experience across different devices.
The <Solution/>
To reduce that risk, we introduced our Mobile Assurance Program (MAP), creating a structured, proactive testing process focused on real devices and real customer journeys before issues reached users.
We developed comprehensive manual test scripts covering the full application experience and assembled a representative device pool based on Big Bus Tours' customer base, including both flagship devices and lower-end Android hardware where performance characteristics varied significantly.
Testing was then structured around the scale of each release. Major operating system updates received full regression testing across critical user journeys, while smaller releases focused on high-risk functionality to maintain confidence without slowing development.
Because our team continually monitors Apple and Google developer preview releases, we were also able to identify potential compatibility issues months before public operating system launches, giving Big Bus Tours time to prepare rather than react.
**Turning uncertainty into process.** MAP formed part of a broader stabilisation programme.
When we onboarded the platform, we first resolved practical issues around access, signing keys, credentials and platform ownership following the transition from their previous supplier. With those foundations in place, we embedded MAP into a wider development workflow supported by improved documentation, reporting and release processes.
The result was complete visibility across the application lifecycle. Potential issues became measurable and predictable rather than unexpected.
The :[Results]
The immediate outcome was confidence.
Big Bus Tours gained assurance that their application could reliably support a highly fragmented global device landscape. Operating system updates became far less disruptive, testing became repeatable and measurable, and device fragmentation became a manageable engineering challenge rather than an ongoing uncertainty.
As platform stability improved, pressure on customer support teams reduced, allowing them to spend less time resolving app issues and more time supporting customers. Internally, confidence in the platform also grew. What had previously been viewed as an operational responsibility became a trusted part of the company's wider digital strategy.
That confidence enabled Big Bus Tours to introduce more commercially significant functionality, including a fully native in-app checkout experience. Rather than simply supporting the customer journey, the application evolved into one of the business's primary customer engagement and revenue channels.