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Dispatching the Demanding Dozen:
Preparing Your Testers to Face The Financial Industry’s Top 12 Challenges
Table 1 The Top 12 Challenges Increasing the Test Burden of Your QA, Regression, and Load Testing Staff (cont.)
| Current or Anticipated Changes |
Ramifications |
Testing Considerations |
| Ongoing mandates
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Payment networks and card associations (such as Visa, STAR, MasterCard, and Pulse) are continually updating their requirements for FIs to accommodate new payment types and to counter fraud. Mandate testing is a major activity for FIs connected to these payment networks. Typically these mandates take effect twice a year (in the Spring and Fall). FIs must often re-certify to validate their ability to support the mandates.
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Must be able to create baseline tests as well as test each new change. Testing must verify that changes made to support the mandated features have not created problems in your existing system. Because certification testing can be costly, the testing you do must be reliable enough to guarantee your successful implementation of the mandates (and thus reduce your out-of-pocket certification fees).
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| Mergers and acquisitions
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FIs that acquire or merge with others must complete bank system conversions that enable all transactions to flow through a universal gateway.
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Must conduct regression testing (testing all card types, all transaction types, etc.) to verify there is no loss of service to existing customers. Must conduct load testing to determine that systems can handle the increased transaction volume.
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From Analysis to Action
The goal of every development and QA group is to deliver error-free code on time and within budget. Given the challenges that lie ahead, how do you begin to ensure that your staff can meet this goal? Use the following task list to begin moving from analysis to action.
- Identify the threats and weaknesses to your processing environment that you want your testing to address. Prioritize your test needs based on various risk factors, identify events that would have the most impact on your organization, and evaluate the probability of those events occurring. The resources and man-hours you assign to address these risks must be proportionate to the perceived risk. Identify a high-risk or high-loss situation in which improved testing can substantially reduce risks or losses. A few weeks of effort in planning and implementing a comprehensive test strategy can pay big dividends in increased system confidence, reduced time to market for new payment types, and lowered blood pressure at your next meeting with your system auditor.
- Review your test procedures and determine where automation will have a positive impact. Your goal is to capitalize on any investment in test tools by automating as much of your testing as possible. Automation is the most efficient choice for repetitive tasks, such as regression testing or stress testing, while manual testing may be more appropriate for user acceptance testing. Thorough regression testing is unlikely if your testers are required to manually enter each transaction standing at an ATM. Instead, suggest testers use a script-based tool to automate this effort—saving hours (and aching feet) each time they test. Additionally, note that regression testing is critical but is not sufficient to guarantee your implementation. Applications may stand up well to regression testing, but fail in production when transaction volumes cause bottlenecks in your application or operating environment. Suggest that automated tools are needed to test volume and performance as well. However, avoid tools that force you to spend more time “automating” than you do testing.
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