How End-to-End Payment Systems Testing Really Ends: Evaluating Performance, Reliability, and Recoverability

Specific requirements for the test environment

Typically, your stress test or performance test plan will include details about the test environment. Obviously, testing requires a test system representative of your production system and the availability of the proper personnel and tools. In addition, depending on your test goals, your requirements might include factors such as:

Testing occurring at a certain time of day, such as simulating peak processing while running reports and system backups
Testing including specific transaction requirements, such as:
- Specific ratios of transaction types (for example, a certain number of withdrawals, balance inquiries, transfers)
- Specific ratios from various system end-points (for example, specific percentages of ATM transactions, POS transactions—perhaps even transactions from a specific interchange)
- Specific BIN ratios (for example, a specific number of transactions per BIN or institution)
Testing using specific monitoring tools (such as database profilers, hardware monitoring utilities, network sniffers, etc.)

Transaction testing also requires other preparation, such as:

Ensuring a sufficient number of cards to generate meaningful test data
Ensuring account balances are sufficient to cover the test duration
Ensuring adequate card velocity limits (such as number of transactions, daily limits, etc.)

Task assignments based on test results

At the conclusion of your stress testing and performance testing, you must determine who will evaluate the results, what actions will be taken, and who is assigned the task, for example, to reconfigure hardware, tune software, or resolve bottlenecks.

Selecting Performance Testing and Stress Testing Tools

The "last mile" of testing doesn’t need to be the hardest. After you have a test plan with clearly defined goals, you can evaluate tools by measuring their usefulness in achieving those goals. Make certain your end-to-end test solution includes performance and stress testing tools that can mimic all the end-points in your system and deliver meaningful results on system performance, reliability, and recoverability.

About Paragon Application Systems

Paragon Application Systems is a leading global provider of ePayment simulation, configuration and testing software tools to the financial industry. More than 400 financial institutions in over 80 countries use Paragon tools to improve quality and reduce time-to-market. Paragon’s broad customer base includes major interchanges, processors, leading software providers, banks and credit unions. Visit Paragon Application Systems at www.paragonedge.com.

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