Managing Financial Network Mandate Testing

An old adage says "Nothing is certain but death and taxes," but for testers in the financial industry, network mandates are just as inevitable—however, they need not be as unwelcome. Careful planning can make creating test plans for network mandates more efficient and less stressful.

What is a network mandate?

In financial testing, in its simplest terms, a network mandate is a financial network’s periodic notification of upcoming mandatory changes to the procedures currently in place for its members. Members must be in compliance with these mandates by a specified date. For the purposes of this article, a network is a term used to refer to international, national, or regional entities that have members participating in the use of a common card type or network (switching or interchange) service, such as MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Pulse, Plus, STAR, etc . Some of the information here will apply more directly to switch networks, or card associations, or network processors, and some topics may apply universally. Ideally, you’ll be able to use this information to start developing a mandate test plan that meets your organization’s specific needs.

Mandates encompass many types of changes. For example, changes may be related to:

Products - New cards or transactions being supported
Processing requirements - Changes to processing by issuers or acquirers, or notification of additional processing requirements for all network members
Message formats - New or expanded fields, or specific content requirements for those fields
Batch processing - New fields, or new data for existing fields
Reports– New reports, or additional information requirements in existing reports
Business practices or network rules (that may not affect system processing) – Network logo changes that result in changes to its members’ signage, or changes to legal documents related to network participation

How am I supposed to test all this?!?

A formidable stack of paper lands on your desk with a sticky note directing you to "Test this." It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when faced with such a daunting task. Like that proverbial journey of one thousand miles, though, testing the changes required to bring your organization into compliance with network mandates is a matter of completing one step at a time.

Page 1 of 6

Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next >