Remote Testing - May 29, 2023
The workforce has changed dramatically since the beginning of 2020. The most talented workers are now increasingly looking for flexible jobs with some level of remote work, while the top employers are investing in the technologies to make it happen.
Employees now want jobs where they can work remotely, or at least have flexible schedules where they can choose whether to work from home or the office. In fact, Upwork estimates that by 2025, 36.2 million Americans will be working remotely, an 87 percent increase from pre-pandemic levels.
Yet for some reason, the payment industry is still on the backfoot when it comes to supporting a remote workforce. For many in the industry, they simply don’t have the tools, technologies and processes to effectively enable remote developers, testers and QA resources.
In this blog, we’re going to take a look at how implementing a modern, web-enabled testing platform can enable your payments business to easily support and benefit from a fully remote or hybrid workforce strategy.
Firstly, let’s take a look at why remote work is so important right now.
Why should you go remote?
The best industry talent is now looking for remote work options. That means to be able to hire new talent and retain your existing team members, your business needs to be able to offer flexible work schedules where your employees can work from a mixture of both the office and at home.
Offering remote work options will typically lead to a happier, more productive and more loyal workforce. In addition to employee satisfaction, remote work can also deliver some tangible benefits for your business, including:
- Increased collaboration and efficiency
- Faster time to market for new products and services
- Enhanced recruiting and staff retention capabilities
- Reduced costs
- Improved corporate sustainability
Many companies will take advantage of these benefits by offering a hybrid workforce, where employees can work from home or out of an office depending on their needs.
In a press release, Ranjit Atwal, Senior Research Director at Gartner, said: “A hybrid workforce is the future of work, with both remote and on-site part of the same solution to optimize employers’ workforce needs.”
Technology enables a remote workforce
While supporting a remote workforce can deliver significant benefits, it does rely heavily on having the right technologies in place. When it comes to testing payment messages and transactions, we believe businesses need some key tools:
1 - Browser based access
In order to effectively manage a remote workforce you need to make it easy for users to access the test platform and resources. A browser-based approach means no special desktop software to manage and maintain, so no matter where your employees are based, all they’ll need is a web browser to access the testing platform 24x7x365. It also means that they always have access to the latest updates, mandates and product enhancements every time they log in, with no extra PC software to manage or maintain.
2- Centralized control and management
Managing a team of testers in different locations may sound difficult, but the right software can help significantly. Make sure the technology you use provides a centralized administrative capability to manage the testing environment. This will ensure you have complete control over users, roles and permissions, and that the right personnel can access the right test data, results and reports required to achieve maximum productivity. .
3 - Local flexibility
Working remotely means that testers will need to effectively manage their own day to day activities. No matter if they are testing with an ISO 8583 , ISO 20022, XML, web services or other message format, they will need the capability to copy, edit, and modify test scripts and details - sometimes down to the bit level. It is important for each resource to have their own sandbox environment so that they can work independently when necessary.
4 - Collaboration
While individual flexibility is important, you’ll also want to ensure your employees can collaborate effectively to meet all of your testing goals and targets. It is important that both administrators and testers can track the progress of projects and identify any specific areas that need attention or improvement. This will give your organization complete visibility into how your testers are performing, no matter where they are located.
5 - TDD and BDD
Remote access to the testing platform should not be limited to just individual users and testers. Since automation is a key driver for productivity gains and cost savings it is important that your testing platform also supports Test Driven and Business Driven Development strategies. That means access to the test platform via published APIs from other enterprise systems such as a CI/CD pipeline or corporate test runner applications. Integrating the payments testing environment within your enterprise unlocks the maximum benefit potential for your business.
Having all of these features in one easy-to-use cloud-enabled platform is an essential requirement for enabling your remote payment testing resources. That’s why Paragon Application Systems created the Web FASTest platform to support your financial message testing and transformation requirements.
Interested in learning more about how Web FASTest can help your testing teams and processes seamlessly transition to remote work? Request a consultation today. Our payment testing specialists would love to find out more about your requirements and answer any questions that you may have.
