Managing Financial Network Mandate Testing

Getting the mandates in hand

For some testers, the first obstacle is finding the mandates. Mandates may be distributed to others in your organization. Communicate to the mandate recipients that you need to analyze the mandates as soon as possible to begin planning tests. Although often mandates are updated and revised by the association before being finalized, you can still begin a testing requirements analysis, and then revise your plan as further details become available.

Analyzing the mandates

When you receive the financial network mandates, your first task is familiarizing yourself with them. Begin preplanning by asking yourself basic questions such as:

Which items actually apply to my organization? For example, some items apply only to certain transactions, products, or account types. Some apply only to issuers, or acquirers, or processors. By determining which items apply to your organization, you can reduce the number of items (and pages!) that you must focus on when creating your test plan.

Which items actually require testing? Is testing required for your online systems and batch systems? As mentioned previously, some items (for example, updates to legal documents, changes to logos, etc.) require action by others in your organization, but do not require testing. Scan the mandates for items that directly affect processing or processing output (fees, reports, batch files, and so forth). Note any items you are uncertain of; for example, will chargeback processing require in-house testing or not?

Pay special attention to any online changes that may affect back-end processing (also called clearing and settlement, or reconciliation processing) and discuss these changes with coworkers who specialize in this processing. Their input is crucial to guarantee successful end-to-end processing in your system. Changes to back-end processing are easily missed, and normally you are not required to certify this processing with the network. The result can be a scramble to institute last-minute fixes to handle changes to back-end processing after the mandates are put into place.

By asking for reconciliation files—as well as network reports—for the online transactions performed, you can avoid any unexpected complications. Try to include some regression testing during the online certification process to provide a more robust end-to-end testing scenario.

What is the deadline for compliance? Mandates provide not only the changes required, but the dates by which those changes must be completed and verified. Your organization must evaluate the impact of the mandates, determine the resources required to make the changes, and plan accordingly. Your test plan must take these deadlines into account as well.

Is live testing with a switch required, or is in-house testing sufficient? Are you required to provide test results that prove your organization’s compliance? Some networks will require live testing (sometimes called certification testing) through a connection with the switch. It is critical to note which items require live testing, then work with your developers to determine when the required code changes can be completed so you can reserve your test time. Most switches have many members—all needing to certify their mandated changes. Test time is limited, and sometimes expensive. While you don’t want to risk paying for test time that you cannot use effectively, your organization must weigh those expenses against the penalties or fees charged for noncompliance by the specified date.

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