The IT industry is always in flux—reshaping and reinventing itself as technology becomes faster, more powerful, and more intuitive. Because progress doesn’t slow for anyone, product companies and their engineering teams need to be quick to respond; to match the tempo of the IT world. As money movement and global commerce becomes increasingly digital, finance product companies have become adept at keeping pace with the IT landscape. Whether it’s e-commerce, online consumer banking, corporate banking, or some other specialized financial service, the need for secure, smooth support of transactions, ease of access, and the reliable performance of the application are crucial components of any finance product.
Because of the growing risk of fraud and the high-stakes nature of money movement, QA engineering teams need to be on their toes at all times. Let’s take a look at the five biggest pain points of software testing for financial services so your team is better prepared to overcome them!
Security, regulations, and compliance
Financial portals are major targets for hackers and other fraudsters, which makes penetration testing itself a significant challenge. To ensure that end users are protected against ever-evolving hackers, banks regularly roll out strong security and compliance measures and data safety regulations. This means that your team needs to keep its collective ear to the streets, and be aware of what’s going on in the industry—such as new protocols around international payments, user authentication methods, and more.
Omni-channel payments and banking systems
Today, consumers are expecting the banking experience to be “anywhere, anytime,” with no need to physically visit a branch location. This means that developers and test engineers are trying to deliver the same end-to-end functionality, the same suite of services, that a real bank branch might provide. As you can imagine, delivering this experience through a clean, minimal front end of a mobile app is a major challenge.
Performance failures
Any performance failure in a finance product can have serious negative consequences for your customers. Meeting the required performance levels involves considering the infrastructure, connectivity, and back-end integration during testing. Daily transactions should be monitored at regular intervals, and stress and load tests should be performed consistently to ensure that the transaction load can be supported. Learn more about the importance of performance testing here.
Key services failures
Most of the applications in the finance domain are not standalone entities—they’re interconnected with functionality from other service providers to provide the best possible experience (seeing stock market trends on your dashboard, credit score simulations, etc.). So, the product should be tested with the caveat that these integrations are part of what the user considers the suite of “key services.” If any one of these is not functioning correctly, it can negatively impact the user’s experience of the product.
Lack of domain specialization and expertise
A skilled, dedicated, and proficient resource pool is required for financial application testing. Just like the healthcare or legal domain, there may be nomenclature associated with the key functions of the product, and it’s helpful to have someone who has a practical understanding of it on your team. Engineers familiar with software testing for financial services products will also be able to design test cases based on real-world user scenarios, resulting in more robust and inclusive testing.
Best practices for handling pain points
-
A clearly defined, end-to-end testing methodology.
-
Testing that encompasses all the requirements and workflows.
-
Testing an application for performance, security, and its overall functionality.
-
Additional testing of the application for UI, integrity of data, support for multiple and concurrent users, and compatibility across operating systems and devices.
-
Staffing domain experts and resources with specific finance domain knowledge.
-
Automating key workflows to restrict and avoid duplicate or incomplete transactions.
-
Group testing using real-time market simulations and third-party integrations.
