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In today’s banking landscape, mobile applications are the frontline of customer engagement. In 2024 McKinsey reports that 92% of banking customers (in Europe and USA) made some sort of digital payment. Mobile apps are becoming the preferred method for everything from checking balances to applying for loans. But with rising customer expectations and growing competition from fintech companies, one question looms large: how can the banking sector move fast without breaking trust?

The answer lies in quality assurance – the invisible backbone enabling banks and fintech to deliver new apps and features rapidly while safeguarding reliability, security, and experience. Done right, QA empowers banks to release confidently, without the negative headlines telling of security breaches and crashes or compliance nightmares.

In this article, let’s analyze the role of software testing in the development of modern banking solutions and dive into strategies helping mitigate release risks, speed up delivery cycles, and build customer loyalty.

Why QA matters in digital banking

It could be argued that banks are no longer just financial institutions; they are also technology companies.

Whether it’s a digital wallet in Singapore or a peer-to-peer payment feature in Frankfurt, customers expect fast, sleek, secure apps – and they want them now. But here’s the challenge: how do you ship new and continuously evolving products while keeping them bug-free, fast, and compliant?

QA provides the safety net. It prevents bugs from slipping into the customer experience, ensures performance under pressure, and confirms regulatory alignment. High-performing engineering teams at banks release features faster, with fewer bugs and better customer outcomes.

And let’s not forget: in a world where switching banks is as simple as downloading a new app, does your current QA strategy give you the competitive edge to keep your customers from jumping ship?

Core QA practices powering modern banking apps

Here are the foundational QA practices that drive quality at scale:

Methods

  • Test automation: With monthly, weekly, or even daily app updates, automation is essential. It helps validate new features and provides solid regression coverage to keep existing functionality intact. According to Gartner, 60% of companies that automate testing do so to improve quality, and 58% (of the 60%) to accelerate releases.
  • Manual exploratory testing: While automation provides coverage, manual testers explore edge cases and user journeys that scripts might miss. Consider a customer who starts a loan application seconds before a session timeout, or while their device is temporarily offline. Will the app preserve their data and recover? Exploratory testing uncovers these unusual conditions, and the insights can later be turned into automated checks.

Types of testing

  • Performance testing: Ever had a banking app freeze on payday? Performance testing simulates high-load scenarios – thousands of concurrent logins or transactions – to ensure apps don’t buckle under real-world pressure.
  • Security testing: In an era where trust is currency, security testing ensures your app is fortified. It identifies vulnerabilities early – encryption gaps, weak authentication flows – protecting both customers and the brand.
  • Functional testing: The baseline check. Every workflow (from sign-in to wire transfers) must behave exactly as the business rules state, even under edge-case conditions.
  • Compatibility testing: Banking users span iOS and Android versions, several browsers, and a growing lineup of devices. Compatibility checks keep the experience consistent and glitch-free for everyone.
  • Usability testing: A confusing feature is effectively a defect. Real user sessions reveal friction, such as extra taps or unclear labels that erode adoption and satisfaction.

Are you confident your current QA practice already anticipates these moments, or would reinforcing them now help you avoid unwelcome surprises later?

Modern QA practices that are transforming speed and quality

As digital maturity deepens, QA is evolving alongside DevOps and modern software engineering practices. Here’s how leading banks are adapting to stay ahead.

Business value beyond bugs

  1. AI-supported testing
    With growing application complexity, QA teams are using AI-supported tools to improve efficiency and accuracy. They analyze historical data to identify risk areas, suggest test coverage improvements, and detect anomalies faster than manual methods. This is not about replacing human judgment. It is about increasing speed, precision, and confidence. AI-assisted testing helps teams manage faster release cycles without sacrificing quality.
  2. Shift-left testing
    In traditional setups, testing happens after the build is complete. But by then, issues are more costly to fix. Shift-left testing introduces quality checks during planning, design, and development. Involving QA early allows teams to clarify requirements and avoid misaligned expectations. This approach reduces delays, improves collaboration, and is especially effective when managing regulatory compliance, complex workflows, or third-party integrations. Sometimes, the biggest risk is not a bug in the code, but a misunderstanding in the requirements.
  3. Testing in production (as part of DevOps)
    Some problems only appear under real-world conditions with live users and data. This is where testing in production, or “shift-right” practices, becomes valuable. Banks are increasingly adopting canary releases, feature flags, and real-time monitoring to validate new functionalities with limited exposure. This is not recklessness. It is a mature DevOps approach backed by observability tools, alerts, and rollback options. It enables fast, safe experimentation. Modern QA practices focus on embedding quality throughout the software lifecycle. From early planning to live production, these approaches help banks release faster while reducing risk.

Quality assurance is more than just catching bugs; it directly contributes to business growth and innovation.

Key benefits include:

  • Faster releases: Shortened testing cycles accelerate time-to-market.
  • Fewer defects: Structured QA and real-user testing significantly reduce production defects.
  • Increased productivity: Streamlined testing processes create greater development capacity.
  • Enhanced customer trust: Reliable, bug-free experiences encourage customer loyalty.
  • Improved regulatory compliance: QA ensures alignment with standards, reducing compliance risks and costs.

However, many organisations still view QA as simply a final step in the development cycle, which limits its effectiveness. A more strategic approach includes:

  • Investing in realistic test data to accurately replicate production scenarios.
  • Establishing QA Centres of Excellence to unify practices and tools across teams.
  • Integrating real-time monitoring and alerts for rapid issue detection and response.
  • Using customer insights to prioritise testing efforts effectively.

Ultimately, effective QA is not only about preventing bugs. It enables innovation, accelerates delivery, and empowers teams to confidently pursue opportunities without fear of failure.

Final thought: Is your QA strategy helping or holding you back?

Successful banks deliver reliable apps quickly by embedding QA strategically throughout their processes. They leverage AI-supported testing, shift testing earlier in development, and proactively monitor production environments. A strategic QA approach ensures consistent quality, regulatory compliance, and customer trust, enabling banks to innovate with confidence.

Consider your own approach:

  • Is your QA integrated early enough to prevent costly issues rather than reacting to them?
  • Do your teams have the right tools and clear priorities to maintain both speed and quality?
  • Are you proactively identifying risks and customer needs, or waiting for issues to appear?
  • Does your QA strategy actively support innovation, or does it hold your teams back?

If any of these questions raise concerns, it’s time to rethink your QA practices. In digital banking, quality defines reputation. Speed without quality is simply too great a risk.

Get in touch to learn how we can help you move faster without compromising quality.

As the global banking sector is undergoing a significant digitalization, the digital transformation market within it is projected to reach $419.45 billion by 2034. What was once an industry built on paper documents has now turned into a complex web of digital infrastructure and real-time processing.

At the center of this change is ISO 20022 — an internationally recognized financial messaging standard that can become the universal language of payments. It unlocks new opportunities for automation, innovation, and cross-border connectivity.

Transition to this standard is a radical overhaul of how banks handle and exchange payment information. This transformation requires meticulous planning, implementation, and quality assurance support.

Lack of testing can expose institutions to operational risk, data loss, and regulatory non-compliance, undermining the objectives of ISO 20022.

Today, let’s delve into the essence of this vital standard, analyze probable challenges, and pinpoint the most essential QA activities helping banks ensure quality migration to ISO 20022.

The next generation of financial messaging

With the ongoing evolution of the global financial ecosystem, the regulations underpinning it must also advance it. For years, banks have relied on SWIFT MT messages for cross-border payments and communications, but they no longer can handle complex information required for modern financial operations, which decreases their productivity.

That’s why a new international standard for electronic data interchange emerged. With ISO 20022, financial bodies and their clients can interact more effectively, reducing the chance for errors and accelerating transaction speed.

Reliance on this standard allows banks to transfer richer, more detailed data that can include reference numbers, compliance details, and transaction intent, contributing to better decision-making. For instance, if cross-border transactions provide recipient details and payment instructions, their tracking and confirmation become simpler.

This standard also provides possibilities for incorporating compliance requirements into financial transactions, helping banks maintain financial security, prevent fraud, and prevent legal exposure.

For example, with ISO 20022, global money transfers from Australia to Canada can be processed in compliance with both countries’ AML regulations through a streamlined, automated process.

Moreover, banks can trim down operational expenses, as the standard’s automation reduces the need for manual handling and speeds up remittances. For instance, a customer can see their money arrive almost immediately, as ISO 20022 streamlines much of the verification and settlement work.

It’s planned that by the end of this year, this standard will become an obligatory global norm for all SWIFT cross-border payments, allowing for streamlined international transaction handling and a more structured data exchange across jurisdictions.

Common roadblocks within the ISO 20022 journey to be aware of

The transition to ISO 20022 marks one of the most significant transformations in the BFSI industry in recent decades. While its benefits are substantial, during migration, organizations may grapple with several challenges:

  • Cybersecurity risks

Detailed payment data often contains confidential elements, underscoring the growing need for enhanced data privacy safeguards. Increased data management must also adhere to legal frameworks, such as GDPR or AML.

However, beyond these risks, proactive spotting of any probable vulnerabilities should remain key for banks. For instance, with the help of thorough security testing, a financial institution identified flaws in digital software that allowed brute-force retrieval of API access tokens and enabled denial-of-service exploits via manipulated HTTP requests.

  • Issues with legacy software

Many banks still depend on outdated systems that don’t seamlessly support a modern standard, often requiring middleware or costly system adjustments to keep pace.

  • Lack of seasoned experts

This intricate transformation process requires professional talent. Nurturing them can be time-consuming and costly, which is a serious problem, especially if the deadlines are tight.

  • Geographical factor

While the standard aims to create a unified approach to financial messaging, different countries and financial institutions may adapt it to suit their local regulations or technical constraints, causing fragmentation and interoperability issues.

Considering these challenges and the fact that banks upgrade or redesign their systems to comply with new requirements, QA becomes a pivotal factor in validating message formats, ensuring data accuracy, and safeguarding against various issues.

Comprehensive QA support for banking software in the new realm

Let’s analyze what software testing activities can help financial organizations across the globe ensure alignment with the new standard, mitigate business risks, and deliver robust financial services regardless of the changing circumstances.

  1. Cybersecurity testing

Modern payment messages are packed with personal, transactional, and regulatory information, increasing the role of security testing for shielding critical data from unauthorized access, preventing legal repercussions, and strengthening end-user loyalty.

QA engineers can run comprehensive penetration testing and vulnerability scanning to identify weaknesses in how messages are stored, processed, or transmitted, as well as prevent potential disruptions or data breaches that can be exploited by malicious intruders. This approach can enable early identification of problems jeopardizing confidential payment information or interfering with essential banking functions.

  1. Performance testing

Over two years, nine top UK banks experienced 33 days of IT disruptions, preventing access to funds for millions of people, the Treasury Committee states. Meanwhile, The Times reports that digital banking problems have doubled in four years. Such outages underscore the need for performance testing, especially as financial institutions shift to a newer standard involving larger, more complex messages and real-time payment processing.

To address these challenges, banks can bring in QA engineers to carry out various forms of performance testing, such as load, stress, spike, or benchmark verifications. They help evaluate how systems cope with normal traffic, react to unexpected surges, withstand extreme load conditions, and work in comparison to pre-migration indicators when transitioning to a new standard.

  1. Functional testing

As organizations move away from legacy messaging formats, functional testing serves as a key validation activity, confirming that new message types are technically sound, aligned with business rules, compatible with previous systems, and integrated smoothly throughout the entire payment process.

By creating positive and negative test scenarios as well as considering probable edge cases, QA engineers can check that ISO 20022 messages are properly received and processed, interpretation of both mandatory and optional fields is done in the right way, data is converted into appropriate internal formats, the entire transaction life cycle remains error-free and consistent, and more.

  1. Integration testing

The move to a new standard marks a substantial change for the financial industry, requiring adaptation across banks and related infrastructure. Integration testing is one more essential phase that checks whether systems inside the company and those of external partners communicate correctly using the new protocol.

With the help of experienced QA engineers, organizations from the BFSI sector can confirm that their systems operate cohesively and in alignment with the new norm, uphold regulatory compliance, and provide high precision in cross-bank messaging processes.

  1. Test automation

Regardless of the software product, thorough testing focused on verifying the entire functionality takes time, which project teams may often lack because of high market competition and tight deadlines. Additionally, a lot of tests simply can’t be run only manually, as they are too complex, time-consuming, or may require simulation of user behavior that manual testing can’t effectively replicate. That’s where test automation is of high value.

By relying on QA automation engineers, financial institutions can cover a large volume of regression tests necessary to safeguard the stability of components that were previously working as intended, facilitate CI/CD pipelines, and significantly cut testing time.

For instance, with the help of image-based and data-driven test automation, a famous US-based company from the BFSI sector managed to reduce script code smells from 190 to 1, streamline QA processes, and enhance release quality by preventing high-impact defects from entering the production environment.

No room for error

Migration to ISO 20022 isn’t optional, and the deadline is fast approaching. The shift to this comprehensive messaging standard is essential, but with new challenges come new risks. Meticulous QA support should become a vital step in this process, preventing costly post-launch repairs and raising banks’ confidence in delivered digital platforms.

Reach out to a1qa’s specialists to ensure the failsafe operation of banking software after implementation of the new standard.

These days, the financial sector never sleeps, staying online and connected around the clock while facing a myriad of digital threats. Banks, FinTechs, asset managers, crypto exchanges, and insurance providers have all harnessed technology to improve how customers access and manage their money. But what happens when critical systems fail, or hackers find a weakness? That’s where the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) comes into play. 

DORA ensures that any financial entity operating in the European Union can withstand and recover from technology-related disruptions. While it touches on governance, third-party risk management, incident reporting, and more, a crucial aspect is the way organizations must rigorously test their systems. This is where QA can play a crucial role, helping companies make sure their digital operations are as resilient as possible. 

In this article, we’ll review role of QA teams ensuring compliance with DORA’s stringent regulations. 

DORA’s pillars and where testing fits 

A brief look at the regulation 

DORA harmonizes the rules around digital operational resilience across all EU member states rather than letting each country set its own guidelines for financial entities. 

DORA has 5 main pillars: 

  • ICT risk management 
    Focuses on essential standards for addressing technology threats and maintaining a proactive risk framework. 
  • ICT-related incident reporting 
    Streamlines processes and expands obligations, ensuring all financial institutions disclose major incidents. 
  • Digital operational resilience testing 
    Requires foundational resilience checks and advanced methods (for example, red teaming) to validate digital integrity. 
  • ICT third-party risk 
    Sets principles for governing external ICT providers, outlining key contractual requirements and oversight of critical services. 
  • Information sharing 
    Promotes voluntary industry collaboration and the exchange of cyber threat intelligence. 

The role of QA teams 

A QA team typically checks that software does what it’s designed for, in accordance with requirements, with the aim to fit desired quality gates. By designing and documenting resilience mechanisms as system requirements, QA teams gain a strategic framework for testing these critical aspects. That includes proactively searching for vulnerabilities, verifying the strength of disaster recovery processes, and even simulating real-world attack scenarios. By conducting security testing and collaborating with security and DevOps colleagues, QA teams become a linchpin in demonstrating regulatory compliance to both management and external regulators. 

QA and DORA 

Testing as part of Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC)  

Building security into software from the start is far more effective than scrambling to fix issues before launch. A Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDLC) approach ensures security is considered at every stage of development. From planning to release, early detection reduces risks and strengthens resilience against cyber threats. This approach emphasizes continuous security validation instead of one-time compliance checks. 

QA’s role: 

  • Help define security priorities by working with security teams to identify key risks and ensure business-critical applications meet compliance and security expectations. 
  • Support security checks during development, making sure vulnerabilities are flagged and addressed early in the process. 
  • Ensure security is tested during integration, confirming that data exchanges, authentication systems, and external connections are secure. 
  • Oversee re-tests after fixes, ensuring that previously identified issues are resolved before moving forward. 

SSDLC reinforces the ICT risk management pillar by embedding security into every stage of development and bolsters the digital operational resilience testing pillar through continuous system validation, thereby enhancing overall resilience. 

Performance testing (ensuring service continuity) 

DORA’s scope isn’t limited to cyber threats. A major system overload can also jeopardize financial stability. Think of a trading platform meltdown at peak market hours or a payment gateway crashing on Black Friday. 

QA’s role: 

  • Simulate high-traffic scenarios by utilizing a user behaviour approach. 
  • Monitor system performance by tracking key metrics, including:  
  • Response time of major transactions 
  • Number of requests per second 
  • Number of transactions per second 
  • Early warning signs of resource exhaustion 
  • Provide data to management about how close the system might be to critical load or resource exhaustion. 

Service continuity is an important aspect of the operational resilience testing pillar. Testing ensures you’re better prepared to handle sudden spikes and can meet the service availability thresholds demanded by regulators and customers alike. 

Integration testing  

DORA places strong emphasis on ensuring financial entities can maintain seamless operations across all interconnected systems. This includes third-party vendors, internal platforms, and cross-departmental data flows. Failures in internal integrations—not just external dependencies—can disrupt critical services, affecting compliance, customer trust, and financial stability. 

QA’s role: 

  • Map out all integration points, e.g. customer onboarding to KYC (Know Your Customer) checks to payment gateways. 
  • Continuously test the data exchange and error-handling routines between your system and external APIs. 
  • Conduct fallback scenario testing. If a key third-party service is offline, does your system fail gracefully, queue transactions, or switch to a backup provider? 

With integration testing organizations can prove they can sustain operations under disruptions, whether from internal failures or third-party issues. This approach supports the Digital operational resilience testing pillar by validating system integrity and maps to the ICT third-party risk pillar by ensuring that integrations on external providers remain robust. 

Patch management and release testing 

DORA obligates that financial institutions must actively manage their technology assets to maintain security, stability, and compliance with evolving regulations. Outdated systems create unnecessary risks, leaving organizations vulnerable to cyber threats, operational failures, and regulatory scrutiny. Regular updates are crucial, as they often resolve critical security flaws and enhance performance, yet improper implementation can lead to disruptions. 

QA’s role: 

  • Test patches in controlled environments to confirm they don’t break existing functionality or degrade performance.  
  • Work with release engineering to define staging protocols, so that every update—no matter how minor—goes through a documented test cycle.  
  • Maintain patch logs as evidence for internal auditors and for supervisors who want to see proof of thorough patching efforts. 
     

Adopting a structured approach to patch management and release testing aligns with DORA’s ICT risk management pillar by ensuring that technology assets remain secure, stable, and compliant. It may also support digital operational resilience testing by verifying that changes do not introduce unintended disruptions. 

Disaster recovery (DR) drills and tabletop exercises 

One of DORA’s focal points is resilience under stressful or catastrophic events. If your data center is flooded or a massive cyberattack encrypts your files, can you bounce back quickly? 

QA’s role: 

  • Assess DR software. Verify that software used as part of disaster recovery systems is functioning according to requirements. 
  • Participate in disaster scenarios. Join live drills or tabletop exercises based on formal DR requirements to confirm the relevant software works as intended. 
  • Document outcomes. Record results of testing, including timing and performance against set benchmarks, to verify that recovery objectives are met. 

By confirming that the implemented disaster recovery mechanisms meet key recovery targets, organizations are supporting DORA’s digital operational resilience testing pillar. Moreover, the insights gained from these exercises may also boost the ICT risk management pillar by identifying vulnerabilities leading to proactive mitigation measures. 

Documentation and ongoing oversight 

Robust documentation and oversight are essential. A clear, formal testing plan aligned with DORA’s risk criteria gives management precise evidence of compliance and resilience. Recording test scopes, outcomes, and identified gaps not only boosts ICT risk management but also enables effective information sharing across teams and with industry peers, reinforcing DORA’s Information sharing pillar. 

The bigger picture 

It can be tempting to view a major regulatory framework like DORA as an extra chore. In reality, many organizations may find that adopting a strong testing approach leads to tangible benefits: 

  • Heightened customer trust. Your users—whether corporate clients or everyday consumers—value reliability. Being able to show robust testing and operational resilience increases confidence. 
  • Reduced downtime costs. Frequent testing, including vulnerability scans and DR drills, helps prevent surprises that might otherwise result in large-scale losses. 
  • More efficient development. When QA, security, and development teams collaborate closely, new features roll out more efficiently. Issues get caught early, leaving more time for creativity and customer-focused improvements. 

Ultimately, the message behind DORA is straightforward: if you’re handling critical financial services, you must be prepared for every type of disruption. A culture of proactive, rigorous testing is one of the best ways to deliver on that promise. 

Embracing DORA through QA testing 

DORA uses regulation to help financial institutions keep up with today’s fast-moving tech landscape—ensuring they’re prepared, not just compliant. By making testing a fundamental part of daily operations, financial institutions keep their promises to clients, meet regulatory demands, and mitigate the risk of catastrophic incidents. 

A QA team plays an important role in that endeavor. Testing measures such as vulnerability scanning and penetration testing, sit squarely within DORA’s framework.  

Compliance, security, and reliability don’t have to be competing priorities. DORA shows us they are all interconnected. The payoff is resilience—a financial entity that keeps running smoothly, no matter what challenges the digital landscape throws its way. 

If your company needs help meeting DORA requirements, reach out to us for specialized QA support. 

Your software performs flawlessly in ideal conditions — pages load in the blink of an eye, transactions go off without a hitch, and all servers are reliable. However, the harsh reality is that normal conditions aren’t what counts when disasters hit.  

Let’s look at a few examples. Several years ago, during the post-New Year work rush began, users of a famous messenger faced notable slowdowns and errors as the service struggled to manage the surge in post-holiday visitor volume. Or another unpleasant incident. A company providing content delivery network and security services suffered an outage caused by a new rule in their security system, which led to high CPU usage and widespread 502 errors on various websites. What can we infer from this? 

A viral social media post, a successful product launch, or even celebrity shoutout can quickly flood your system with users without warning, giving you no time to prepare in advance. If your infrastructure isn’t prepared, it can face a complete crash, lost revenue, frustrated customers, and damaged trust. That’s why spike testing — checking that your systems can withstand sudden bursts of user demand — is crucial for any modern business. 

In this article, we’ll delve into the fundamental idea behind spike testing, its value for companies, and essential steps to effectively perform it. 

In the spotlight: what you should know about spike verifications 

Spike testing, being one of the types of tests conducted as part of performance testing, involves assessing how the system responds to sudden and sharp changes in the real-time user count, queries, and operations (referred to as “spikes”), and evaluating its capacity to recover and maintain fault tolerance. It aims to evaluate the system’s adaptability, confirming it can expand to meet the demand and contract once the spike fades. 

A well-developed load testing script emulates the rapid spikes on the system, which in the real world can lead to immediate unexpected system behavior. The described spike testing model helps teams of QA performance engineers quickly observe how — and whether — the system recovers once the load decreases. 

When do companies need spike testing? Well, the short answer is: “Companies need spike testing whenever there’s a possibility of sudden surges in traffic or system usage, whether anticipated or not.” Here are just few examples: 

  • Scenario #1. Salaries hit employees’ accounts at the same time. As they flock to their banking apps to check their balances, the system gets hit with a jump in visitor activity. 
  • Scenario #2. After rigorous testing, a company is convinced a new feature is ready for prime time, so they spread the word, inviting users to take it for a spin, thus provoking an abrupt load surge. 
  • Scenario #3. Well-executed marketing campaigns, including special promotions, limited-time discounts, and new product launches, often create a ripple effect, drawing in not just immediate traffic but also boosting long-term user engagement. 
  • Scenario #4. IT products that nudge users to hydrate, work out, or read can go through a classic boom-and-bust cycle, with users flooding in and then vanishing just as quickly. 
  • Scenario #5. It’s almost the end of the working day, and all the employees of the company using your product start saving their work simultaneously before going home. 

By effectively managing sudden traffic surges, organizations across industries can reap significant business benefits. 

Spike testing applies pressure by simulating real-world surges, exposing weak links like disabling the message queue, misconfigured load balancer, ineffective system auto-scaling rules, or response time struggles. By uncovering problems early, organizations can fortify their applications, ensuring they don’t crack under pressure — an essential requirement for banking, healthcare, and real-time trading platforms. 

Additionally, identifying and fixing slowdowns from the start helps prevent customer churn and negative brand perception, leading to smoother user interactions. 

Organizations can leverage spike testing results to fine-tune their infrastructure investments. Whether it’s boosting server capacity, optimizing caching, or streamlining database performance, these insights help allocate resources more efficiently, cut unnecessary costs, and ensure seamless scalability as demand grows. 

For businesses that depend on their online presence for revenue, unexpected load surges can lead to costly downtime and lost sales. Spike testing acts as a safety net, uncovering vulnerabilities before they turn into full-blown failures. By proactively identifying weak points, businesses can prevent costly crashes, ensuring smooth, uninterrupted service that keeps sales flowing. 

Don’t let traffic spikes take you down! Talk to a1qa’s specialists for a tailored testing strategy. 

Nail your spike testing: 6 steps to get it right 

Now, we’d like to walk you through the essential steps to conduct an effective spike test and ensure your software remains resilient during a big sale, a viral event, or any other high-traffic occasion. 

  1. Analyze the software  

Before testing, a comprehensive analysis of the software and its expected load is essential. This understanding guides the creation of a practical and effective test strategy. 

Software applications vary in nature—some emphasize content, others facilitate transactions, and some depend on real-time interactions. For instance, online retail platforms may encounter high traffic volumes during promotional events, whereas streaming services might experience surges upon new episode releases.  

By analyzing user behavior and identifying key functions and system architecture, teams can set performance benchmarks and realistic testing goals. 

  1. Equip yourself with optimal tools 

Selecting the right testing solution is crucial for conducting an effective spike test. The selection process should be thorough and consider multiple factors, among which I’d mention: 

  • Budget. While open-source solutions such as JMeter or Gatling are cost-effective, they often require additional setup and customization. In contrast, commercial solutions such as LoadRunner and BlazeMeter provide advanced capabilities and enterprise support, though at a premium price.  
  • Ease of use. While some testing tools require scripting knowledge, others prioritize usability with graphical interfaces. For instance, LoadRunner is ideal for teams with limited coding skills, whereas JMeter is better suited for those who prefer script-based flexibility. 
  • Configurability. An effective spike testing tool should simulate traffic surges by generating significant loads. Some tools allow creating a very flexible model and load profile, while others offer basic settings only. 
  • Realistic user simulation. Some tools can cover only separate APIs, while others can emulate the real user behavior on the HTTP requests level by reproducing real users’ actions in the system.  

By evaluating these criteria based on their unique requirements, organizations can choose a tool that delivers precise and actionable insights into system performance under sudden load surges.  

  1. Get prepared 

Setting up a separate test environment that replicates the production one is vital to ensure spike tests are meaningful and indicative of the system’s performance. Such similarity helps reduce the risk of failures or outages in the production. Prior to testing, QA performance engineers in collaboration with DevOps or development teams should review factors like CPU, RAM, disk space, network bandwidth, OSs, software versions, and configurations to ensure the test environment is properly configured. 

  1. Conduct tests 

Now, it’s time to apply a sudden and extreme load to the system. During testing, it’s wise to evaluate a range of patterns to ensure your software can handle various traffic surges. Some spikes emerge suddenly, while others grow steadily over time. By testing both rapid bursts and gradual increases, project teams can better understand how well the system adapts to different escalation scenarios. Additionally, it’s important for teams of QA performance engineers to pay attention to how the system behaves after the traffic surge ends, as a delayed recovery can still affect user experience, even after traffic returns to usual levels. 

  1. Examine outcomes 

During test execution, it’s important to investigate the system behavior using a real-time monitoring. After running the spike test, ensure you analyze the data and match it against your performance benchmarks to see how the system responds to extreme loads. Look for any unexpected behaviors and failures and make note of key results like the peak load before failure, performance slowdowns, recovery time, and any other important observations. This lays the foundation for a further important step. 

  1. Pursue excellence 

Based on the findings from the test results, it’s important to focus on optimizing system performance to effectively handle spikes. For example, enhancements may include boosting server scalability with auto-scaling, refining backend logic to manage sudden traffic surges, or using caching to reduce the need for repeated data retrieval from diverse sources. 

In a nutshell 

Spike testing gauges how an IT product behaves when subjected to sudden and extreme increases or decreases in load, thus helping organizations across industries ensure software’s boosted robustness, improving end-user reviews, decreasing operational expenditure, and ensuring business continuity regardless of the circumstances. 

To maximize spike testing efficiency, companies can carefully analyze the expected load, choose project-specific tools, dedicate effort to setting up a test environment, run verifications, analyze results, and do not bail on further optimization. 

Are you facing system slowdowns? Contact a1qa’s experts to get professional consultation and support. 

How many companies have you heard of that have successfully navigated their digital transformation journey? It’s a challenging process, filled with tough questions along the way. These organizations reimagine IT strategies, introduce innovations, and apply novel approaches to manage both business and operational processes. 

According to Gartner, 91% of companies are actively pursuing digital initiatives, highlighting substantial investments in digital transformation efforts to achieve success. 

In the banking and financial sector, digital transformation involves adopting technologies like AI, cloud computing, blockchain, and APIs to optimize operations, ensure real-time services, and break down data silos. Banks are shifting to cloud-based platforms for greater flexibility and scalability, while AI and data analytics enable fraud detection and tailored product recommendations. Open banking frameworks, enhanced security measures, and Internet of Things (IoT)-driven innovations are further driving this shift. 

Banks are making these changes to eliminate inefficiencies, reduce operational costs, and boost productivity while delivering faster, more personalized solutions. For instance, Bank of America now processes more deposits via mobile channels than through physical branches. The adoption of new technologies allows banks to attract customers, enhance security, and compete with fintech players by offering digital-first products and services. 

Despite that, only 16% of executives submit the successful digital transformation journey. What slows down the digitalization of other 84% of companies? 

One of the barriers is a growing amount of cyberattacks. Ensuring data privacy and proper cybersecurity is a top priority of any company aiming to succeed in executing a transformation program. 

However, cybersecurity is just one of many challenges that banks and financial institutions face. 

The key challenges include: 

  1. Data security: Protecting sensitive customer data from breaches and cyberattacks remains a major concern. 
  1. Legacy systems: Many institutions still rely on outdated systems, which are difficult to integrate with modern technologies and hinder agility. 
  1. Cloud adoption: Transitioning from on-premises systems to the cloud can be complex and risky, requiring careful planning to avoid disruptions. 
  1. Data migration: Moving massive amounts of customer and operational data to the cloud or new systems presents both technical and operational risks. 
  1. Software functionality and maintenance: Ensuring software runs smoothly without bugs is critical, as failures can result in significant financial losses. 
  1. Scalability under load: Banking systems must perform efficiently under heavy transaction volumes, especially during peak usage periods. 
  1. Introducing new products: Adding new banking and financial products requires not only new software solutions but also careful integration to avoid conflicts with existing systems. 

In this article, we highlight 4 security challenges of digital transformation and QA activities that may help troubleshoot them. 

Four security issues that hamper digital transformation 

Within the current informational era, cybersecurity has been taken for granted. However, due to the swift migration to an online space and digitalization happening globally, companies are encountering an increased volume of cyberthreats.   

According to Veeam, IT decision-makers include cyberthreats (24%) in the list of issues that hinder digital transformation progress.  

Source: Veeam 

While undergoing digital transformation, securing web and mobile applications is critical, as they are prime cyberattack targets. Regular vulnerability assessments, penetration testing, and real-time monitoring help identify and mitigate risks before they impact users. 

The rise of Open Banking heightens the need to secure APIs and data transfers. Strong encryption, robust authentication, and compliance with regulations like PSD2 safeguard sensitive financial data while ensuring seamless operations. 

Data migration during digital transformation also requires secure protection. Encryption in transit, secure storage, and compliance checks reduce the risk of breaches during this process. 

Protecting personal data is vital in finance, where breaches can lead to identity theft, fraud, and financial losses. Data masking, access control, and compliance with GDPR or CCPA are essential to protect customer information and maintain trust. 

Finally, robust security frameworks prevent financial losses and ensure compliance. Proactively managing risks and maintaining transparency helps avoid fines, protect reputations, and enable faster, secure digital solutions. 

Let’s figure out the top 4 security issues that need tackling to ensure smooth digital transformation. 

Security issue #1. Tech evolution with the same safety level 

IT infrastructures are steadily expanding by introducing novel technologies. For instance, cloud computing is the front-runner when it comes to delivering enterprise infrastructure.  

Cloud security remains a critical concern as threats continue to rise. According to SentinelOne, 80% of companies have reported an increase in the frequency of cloud attacks.  

In their Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024, IBM further highlights the risks, revealing that 40% of cloud data breaches involve data stored across multiple environments, with breaches in public clouds incurring the highest average cost of $5.17 million. These findings underscore the urgent need for enhanced security measures in increasingly complex cloud ecosystems. 

With that, improved IT solutions in turn have a higher susceptibility to attacks, as these enlarged ecosystems broaden the scope of vulnerabilities while generating more possibilities for hackers. 

Security issue #2. Sophisticated cyber incidents 

Digital transformation also has a dark side of force. Alongside bringing value, innovations foster malicious actions by providing advanced tools, environments, and approaches to unauthorized apps usage. 

For years, cyber attackers have been perpetually nurturing a malware arsenal, so that their behavior has become more unpredictable and thought-out. For now, detecting malusers and forestalling expensive system’s recovery after cyberthreats is rather complicated, as it requires a rock-solid strategy and ceaseless control. 

Security issue #3. Overcomplicated cybersecurity standards 

Being the most precious entity for any modern business, personal information needs high protection that triggers regulation actions. Within today’s growing intensity of cyberattacks, standards have become stricter and more regulated. 

Compliance with cybersecurity standards is a complex and costly task. However, at a time when most banks’ board members are betting on large investments in emerging technologies, 81% of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in banks worldwide believe that cybercrime and cybersecurity will significantly hinder organizational growth over the next three years, according to the latest Banking CEO report by KPMG. Despite these concerns, implementing stringent security norms can provide long-term benefits by helping companies achieve certifications and deliver secure, high-quality software to the market. 

Regulations that cover all life-threatening industries: HIPAA security checklist is for eHealth products, OWASP safety recommendations are for any-domain web and mobile apps, GDPR is for enabling secure data storage and transfer worldwide. 

Security issue #4. Lack of the right-skilled people 

While malicious users are constantly refining their skills, businesses don’t always have an appropriate volume of finances, experience, and right-skilled employees to address emerging cyberthreats. 

With that, companies should gradually reimage budget allocation while keeping up with the relevant cybersecurity insights and providing advanced training for broadening expertise.  

QA for safe digitalization 

We strongly believe that prevention is better than the cure. Being prepared to respond to any security breach is not about being anxious but more about minimizing risks especially meanwhile the crisis. So, what actions may be of help to deal with security issues? 

Welcome to the handbook to assist you in releasing highly secure IT products. 

1. Strengthen security practices 

The more business operations that are being brought to online, the more vulnerabilities and data breaches have gone up.  

This is why cyber threats remain a critical concern for CIOs in 2024, as highlighted by Logicalis’ latest CIO Report. Despite advancements in cybersecurity, 83% of businesses experienced damaging hacks in 2023, leading to downtime, revenue losses, and regulatory fines. With rapidly evolving risks, including those driven by quantum computing, only 43% of tech leaders feel fully equipped to handle future breaches, emphasizing the urgent need for robust security measures alongside digital transformation efforts. 

Starting from security assessments to controlling data protection at the go-live stage, businesses may get substantial value and minimize the risks of cyberattacks. After identifying drawbacks, engineers execute penetration testing while imitating hackers’ behavior to create real-life conditions and not to miss any critical defects. 

2. Shift from DevOps to DevSecOps 

DevSecOps is all about thinking ahead and projecting “How can I deliver the software in the market successfully?” even when you are on the requirements stage of SDLC. Which of course, is about the determination to automate as many processes as possible including security checks, audits, and others. 

DevSecOps assumes a “security-by-design” approach based on the following aspects: 

  • Caring about data safety from the very start of an IT project 
  • Applying mechanisms that supervise the impact of newly added features on the overall software security 
  • Setting up internal safety defaults 
  • Separating responsibilities for various users 
  • Introducing several security control points 
  • Thinking over the actions in case of an app crash 
  • Performing audits of sensitive system’s parts 
  • And many others. 

By considering these points, it is much easier to enable high data protection and become confident in users’ privacy. 

3. Optimize security testing with automation and continuous security monitoring 

Test automation is an escape solution to the escalating intensity and amount of cyberattacks. By automating security testing, specialists can swiftly perform checks and identify the attack. Besides, it helps increase overall efficiency on the project, accelerate time to market, reduce QA costs. 

Moreover, companies are gearing towards implementing AI and ML in the QA processes. Their ability to define the roots of the attack and the system’s vulnerabilities allow for dodging expensive bug fixing after going live and data loss which includes the stealing of intellectual property. The results of express analysis delivered by AI and ML help prevent possible similar attacks and vulnerabilities in the future. 

Summarizing 

Ensuring data protection and a high level of cybersecurity is among the cornerstones of passing digital transformation. 

Within emerging tech advancements, hackers are also nurturing their skills and becoming more adept by strengthening their strategies. 

To be one step ahead, companies should consider reinforcing digitalization processes with thorough security testing, including right-skilled personnel, penetration checks, DevSecOps practices, and next-gen QA to guarantee the delivery of reliable and secure software in the market. 

Contact a1qa’s experts to get professional QA support in enhancing cybersecurity level. 

The rapid adoption of digital banking has transformed the way consumers interact with financial services. Adjust’s 2023 report highlights a 45% year-over-year increase in finance app installs, with banking apps experiencing a notable 55% growth compared to 2022. According to Adjust’s 2024 report, finance apps, including banking platforms, experienced a remarkable 119% increase in revenue year-over-year during the first quarter of 2024, showcasing strong sector growth. This surge reflects the growing reliance on mobile platforms for secure and efficient financial transactions. Ensuring these apps meet users’ expectations requires a strong focus on performance, usability, and security, making robust Quality Assurance (QA) practices essential for eBanking and financial solutions. 

Source: Statista

To meet clients’ expectations and enhance their digital experience, financial service providers must ensure high levels of security, stability, and integrity in their mobile and web software.  QA plays a critical role in achieving this. 

In March 2023, Latitude Financial Services experienced a cyberattack that compromised the personal data of millions, including 7.9 million driver’s license numbers and 53,000 passport numbers. This breach exposed critical security vulnerabilities, highlighting the urgent need for stronger safeguards and robust QA practices. 

The attack led to significant financial losses and reputational damage, reinforcing the importance of quality assurance in safeguarding sensitive customer information and maintaining trust in financial services. 

To help protect your business, we invite you to explore 5 key reasons why quality assurance is mission-critical for your services and solutions. 

Reason #1. Safeguarding confidential data

The financial sector remains one of the top targets for cyberattacks, with a sharp rise in incidents since the pandemic. In 2023, cyberattacks have more than doubled since pre 2020 levels, leading to potential losses of $2.5 billion. Banks and financial organizations must prioritize integrating security into their Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) and conduct regular penetration testing to address system vulnerabilities. A comprehensive assessment of issues like broken authentication and excessive data exposure helps mitigate risks. These measures are essential to prevent unauthorized access and data breaches. 

Let’s see how a1qa’s specialists helped a well-known bank to ensure high reliability and safety of numerous solutions. The QA team started with an assessment based on OWASP API Security Top 10 Project and OWASP Web Security Testing Guide, involving the list of the most recent severe vulnerabilities. They thoroughly tested injections, broken authentication and authorization, security misconfiguration, excessive data exposure, and session management issues.  

The next stage included penetration tests to reveal system loopholes and prevent their exploitation by hackers. Thus, they identified a number of flaws that could allow cyber criminals to gain access to a list of users, their passwords, and accounts as well as steal access tokens.  

Reason #2. Guaranteeing high quality within cloud-based software

Banks and financial organizations are increasingly migrating their applications to the cloud, but they face challenges such as complex data migrations, server interruptions, and security concerns. 

The data migration process involves transferring large volumes of sensitive information, and automated testing plays a crucial role in simplifying and accelerating this task. These tests ensure that the software functions seamlessly with cloud-based data after migration. They validate the accurate transfer of customer accounts, transactions, and records while checking data integrity and confirming proper placement within the cloud. Furthermore, automated testing verifies that apps continue to operate as intended post-migration, ensuring smooth functionality. By addressing these critical aspects, automated testing guarantees high data accuracy and minimizes the risk of data corruption or loss. 

Reason #3. Ensuring system reliability and high performance 

The last thing users want is to encounter issues with their banking or financial app—be it connection problems with the server, transaction errors, or delays in processing payments. These issues often arise because the server infrastructure cannot handle the load, whether due to a high volume of server requests, a large number of concurrent users, or inadequate system scalability. This unavailability to make or receive payments can lead to significant problems, such as missed credit payments, late fees, and even damage to users’ credit ratings. 

During a project with a similar issue, a1qa’s professionals introduced load validation to guarantee smooth system functioning with the target load for an extended period as well as stress testing to determine the upper limit of the solution capacity. They also analyzed software dependence on the number of concurrent users, requests, and transactions. It helped the client expand operational volume and provide first-rate services to its customers. 

Reason #4. Adjusting software for various platforms

In the second quarter of 2024, Android continued to dominate the mobile operating system market with a share of about 71.65%, while iOS held approximately 27.62%, and other platforms accounted for the remainder. Given the wide range of devices, operating systems, and browsers, it can be challenging to predict which ones consumers will use. To provide a seamless experience and ensure that financial solutions are compatible across diverse devices, we recommend our clients leverage compatibility testing.

In such cases, our experts gather regional statistics for desktops, tablets, and mobile devices. Using this data, they create a compatibility matrix that reflects the most commonly used browsers and platforms. This matrix is then used to test financial apps across these environments, ensuring optimal performance for users on various devices and operating systems. 

Reason #5: Ensuring regulatory compliance 

The financial industry operates under strict regulations to protect sensitive data, maintain customer trust, and prevent penalties. QA plays a critical role in ensuring compliance by validating that regulatory and technical requirements are met at every stage of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). Collaborating with Business Analysts (BAs) and product architects, QA translates requirements into test cases to ensure that software functions align with the necessary standards. 

In financial applications, regulatory demands often dictate the implementation of specific functionalities. These include: 

  • Secure data handling and verification: Features such as Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) processes ensure data security and regulatory compliance. 
  • Transaction tracking and monitoring: Systems that create detailed audit trails help organizations monitor financial activities and fulfill regulatory reporting requirements. 
  • Access control and encryption: Role-based access control and robust encryption methods protect sensitive information and ensure secure data storage and communication. 

These functionalities are core requirements and QA ensures their proper implementation by rigorously testing each aspect of functionality against defined requirements. 

Beyond functionality testing, QA teams strengthen security and compliance through focused security assessments. These assessments typically follow one of two approaches: 

  1. Minimum security plan: Full vulnerability assessments are performed before major releases, and regular penetration tests are conducted to simulate potential attacks. 
  1. Maximum security plan: The SSDLC approach integrates security testing into every development phase, proactively addressing risks. 

Through these methods, QA not only validates compliance with regulations but also ensures the software is resilient against potential threats. 

All in all 

In today’s rapidly evolving financial landscape, quality assurance is essential for delivering reliable banking IT products. It safeguards sensitive customer data from breaches, ensuring trust and security. 

Comprehensive testing supports smooth cloud migrations, validating accurate data transfer and minimizing risks like corruption or loss. By addressing performance bottlenecks and preventing server downtime, it ensures uninterrupted functionality and a seamless user experience. Testing also optimizes applications for compatibility across various devices, operating systems, and platforms. Finally, QA ensures compliance with stringent industry regulations, validating critical features like data protection, transaction monitoring, and access control to help financial organizations meet legal standards and avoid penalties. 

For professional QA support to ensure first-rate quality within your banking software, feel free to contact a1qa’s team. 

Nowadays, QA has become more critical than ever for businesses to deliver high-quality IT products at speed while staying competitive in the market.  

By relying on manual testing only, it may be complicated for companies to attain the desired velocity. That’s why more and more are switching to test automation.  

In this article, we’ll discover the most critical aspects of shifting from manual to automated testing.  

Why should companies move from manual testing to test automation? 

Consider a scenario where an organization is tasked with releasing an update for a mobile banking application within tight deadlines. If we engage manual engineers alone, it will take them a lot of time to test the modification on different devices, operating systems, and network conditions. As a result, there’s a chance a company may delay the rollout. 

In this situation, test automation emerges as a game-changer, allowing the team to automate repetitive test cases, such as user registration, data validation, search functionality, and report generation. What once took days or even weeks to complete manually can now be accomplished within hours without compromising on software quality. By launching new features faster and more frequently, organizations strengthen their competitive edge. 

Accelerated time to market isn’t the only benefit businesses receive. According to the World Quality Report 2023-24, 54% of surveyed IT executives noted reduced risks, 52% — improved test efficiency, and 50% — enhanced customer experience. 

Source: World Quality Report 2023-24 

By automating repetitive and mundane tests, businesses free up valuable human resources to focus on more strategic tasks, such as conducting exploratory testing or identifying critical issues that test automation may overlook. 

Finally, test automation integrated into SDLC enables comprehensive test coverage, allowing businesses to test their applications more thoroughly after code changes, thus helping find issues earlier. 

What tests are better to automate and why? 

Not all tests are equally suited for test automation. It’s recommended to automate those checks that are repetitive in nature and frequently executed. They include: 

  • Performance tests 

It’s impossible to simulate the influx of users, stress conditions, or complex scenarios manually. Therefore, by automating performance checks, companies evaluate the responsiveness, scalability, and reliability of their applications under various loads from regular to extreme.  

With such an approach, they’re delivering high-performing software that meets their end-user expectations. 

  • Integration tests 

Automated integration testing helps validate the interactions between different system components or modules to ensure their seamless integration and interoperability. It’s faster, more accurate, and provides broader coverage compared to manual testing. 

By automating such checks, businesses verify that individual components work together as intended and detect integration issues early in the SDLC phases. Learn more about integration testing services here.

  • Cross-browser testing 

Just imagine that you need to test a web application across multiple browsers, like Chrome, Firefox, and Safari. Verifying each browser version on different operating systems manually may be time- and labor-intensive. With automated testing, you can swiftly execute them across all target platforms, ensuring consistent behavior and compatibility. 

Thus, cross-platform, cross-browser, and cross-device tests are among the top candidates for automation to streamline QA processes, improve software quality, and deliver smooth user experiences across different environments. 

  • Regression tests 

Automated regression testing allows businesses to quickly verify that new code changes haven’t introduced unexpected defects in the existing functionality.  

  • Smoke tests 

Smoke tests assist in assessing the basic functionality of the IT solution’s critical features. Automating smoke tests enables teams to evaluate the overall health of their applications and identify any issues that may arise during the development process. 

When is manual testing still essential in the SDLC stages? 

As it’s impossible to achieve 100% test automation is neither feasible nor practical, some scenarios require manual intervention. Manual testing is particularly valuable in the following cases: 

  • Exploratory testing. Relies on human intuition and creativity to uncover hidden defects. Manual engineers can simulate real-world user interactions and scenarios, making it an invaluable method for validating the user experience and overall quality of an application. 
  • Usability testing. It allows companies to evaluate software’s ease of use and intuitiveness from the end-user perspective. QA experts provide valuable feedback on the user interface, navigation flow, and overall end user experiences, helping businesses identify usability issues and make informed design decisions. 
  • UAT. It involves interactions with the system under realistic conditions to evaluate software functionality, performance, and user experience. By simulating real-world usage scenarios, UAT helps identify any deviations from pre-defined acceptance criteria, uncover usability issues that may impact customer satisfaction, and assess the application’s readiness for deployment. 

How to get started with test automation? 

Embarking on a test automation journey can seem daunting, but with the right approach and strategy, businesses can successfully move from manual to automated testing environments. Follow the link to find an interview with our Head of testing department on how to build a smart test automation strategy from scratch.

Here are 5 steps to get started with test automation: 

Step 1. Assess your testing needs 

Companies should begin with identifying the most suitable test cases for test automation based on such criteria as frequency of execution, complexity, and stability of the application.

Step 2. Select test automation tools and frameworks 

It’s imperative to choose appropriate tools and frameworks that align with the organization’s technology stack, QA objectives, and budget constraints. Moreover, teams should consider additional factors, including ease of use, scalability, support for multiple platforms, and integration capabilities with other development tools and pipelines. 

Step 3. Build a solid foundation 

Companies should invest in training their QA teams to ensure they have the necessary skills and expertise to design, implement, and maintain automated test suites effectively.  

Step 4. Establish clear processes and guidelines 

To ensure seamless integration of test automation activities into the existing development workflows, organizations should: 

  • Create robust version control practices to track changes in test scripts and enable traceability over time 
  • Implement effective test case management systems to organize, prioritize, and maintain test suites efficiently, facilitating collaboration among team members and stakeholders 
  • Leverage comprehensive reporting mechanisms to track test execution results, identify trends, and pinpoint areas for improvement 
  • Incorporate integration with other development tools and pipelines, such as CI/CD systems, to automate testing as part of the software delivery process.  

Step 5. Measure and optimize 

To measure the performance and effectiveness of automated tests, experts can monitor metrics such as test coverage, execution time, defect detection rate, and ROI. It’s also crucial to identify areas for improvement, like optimizing test execution times, reducing flakiness, and increasing test reliability. 

A final thought 

While test automation excels in repetitive and predictable scenarios and provides numerous benefits in terms of speed, accuracy, and coverage, it’s essential to recognize the enduring value of manual testing. Manual testing remains indispensable for scenarios that require human intuition and creativity, such as user acceptance, exploratory, and usability testing. 

By striking the right balance between manual and automated testing, businesses can optimize their QA processes, accelerate software releases, and deliver high-quality IT products that meet user expectations. 

Need support in fine-tuning your test automation workflows? Reach out to a1qa’s team and get professional assistance.

Over the past decade, the financial sector has undergone a remarkable evolution, driven by tech advancements and changing consumer behaviors. 

As traditional banks pivot towards digitalization, they face the challenge of maintaining high standards of reliability, security, and performance in their online offerings. This is where QA comes into play. By implementing robust QA processes, they ensure flawless user experiences across their platforms and mitigate associated business risks. 

In this article, we’ll explore top fintech technologies and QA practices to enhance their quality. 

Key innovations shaping fintech in 2024 

As we continue into 2024, several transformative technologies are shaping the future of fintech: 

  • Generative AI (genAI) 

Not all financial enterprises have managed to integrate their systems with genAI. That’s due to several complexities, including technical hurdles and the lack of accurate quality data.  

However, those who successfully implemented genAI, reap several advantages. GenAI helps enhance efficiency and reduce costs through automating repetitive tasks, like data entry. This allows companies to save time and effort while minimizing the risk of human error, leading to more accurate results. 

With GenAI, business can improve customer service through chatbots and virtual assistants, offering round-the-clock support and personalized recommendations. 

And lastly, GenAI enhances risk management by analyzing a wide range of financial data, detecting suspicious activities, and preventing fraud and money laundering, thereby ensuring better security for financial institutions and their clients. 

GenAI is predicted to explode in 2024 and allow companies to enhance operational efficiency, improve decision-making processes, and offer personalized services to customers. 

  • Robotic process automation (RPA) 

Deloitte states that 53% of global organizations have already adopted RPA while 36% are planning to do it. That’s not surprising as RPA brings companies strong benefits: reduced costs, streamlined business workflows, increased productivity, and fraud prevention. 

In the fight against financial crime, RPA enhances the speed and accuracy of fraud detection by automating due-diligence checks, sanctions screening, and transaction monitoring. By confirming data adherence to federal anti-money laundering guidelines and analyzing variances to flag potential instances of fraud, RPA bots bolster the cybersecurity infrastructure of financial institutions. 

RPA helps fintech companies manage regulatory compliance by strengthening governance of financial processes. By automating manual tasks involved in reporting and consolidating data from various systems or documents, RPA streamlines the compliance process, reducing the risks of regulatory fines and reputational damage.  

RPA also plays a key role in optimizing back-office functions in fintech, including transaction handling and data manipulation. 

  • Open ecosystems 

To boost customer experiences and drive innovation, financial institutions are increasingly leveraging open ecosystems, including: 

Open banking 

Between 2023 and 2027, open banking transactions across the globe are projected to increase by 500%. 

QA for fintech

Source: Statista

Open banking revolutionizes the traditional banking model by fostering collaboration and interoperability within the financial ecosystem. Instead of being closed organizations, banks now offer limited access to customer data, enabling secure and electronic sharing with authorized third-party providers. 

This paradigm shift empowers fintech businesses to leverage client information to enhance payment instruments, integrate user data into transactions, and provide a seamless payment experience. With open banking, customers can share their financial information securely, facilitating a unified flow for payments across different platforms and services without the need to switch between multiple applications. 

Banking as a Service (BaaS) 

BaaS operates on the principle of utilizing APIs to establish connectivity with clients. By leveraging the regulatory permissions of providing banks, BaaS end users can seamlessly integrate financial services without the need to navigate complex regulatory requirements. 

This streamlined approach helps non-financial companies to create new solutions by incorporating a wide range of services, including deposits, money transfer, payments, currency exchange, and lending, into their offerings.  

Embedded finance 

It integrates financial services directly into non-financial ones to streamline the access to banking services for clients. Thus, users make payments, apply for loans, and access insurance services without reaching out to separate banking channels, gaining more convenience and accessibility. 

  • KYC, KYB, and AML solutions 

KYC, KYB, and AML solutions play a vital role in addressing the escalating complexity of financial fraud in the fintech sector fueled by AI-driven techniques and deepfake technology. They are capable of real-time decision-making and continuous customer monitoring to verify users’ identities, assess business risks, and detect suspicious activities. 

  • Fintech regulators 

Regulators worldwide are working diligently to address the modern risks of digital finance, particularly in areas, like cryptocurrency. As regulatory frameworks continue to evolve, fintechs and other financial service providers should adapt quickly and confidently to keep up with new standards. 

For instance, the top regulations in Europe are MiCA and PSD3. MiCA aims to provide a comprehensive regulatory framework for crypto assets, ensuring consumer protection and market integrity. Similarly, PSD3 seeks to enhance end-user rights and promote innovation in payment services.  

QA to release high-end fintech software solutions 

With banking applications handling sensitive financial data and facilitating billions of transactions, even the slightest system glitch or security vulnerability can have far-reaching consequences. Therefore, rigorous software testing should come to the forefront to ensure that fintech products meet the highest standards of reliability, security, and performance.  

Below are presented testing types that are indispensable for banking applications. 

  1. Cybersecurity testing 

Cybersecurity testing for fintech software is imperative to safeguard sensitive financial information and protect against cyber threats and data breaches, especially in the context of open ecosystems. With the introduction of open APIs that transfer end-user details across various platforms, ensuring their safety comes to the forefront. It involves assessing the robustness of the software’s security measures and identifying vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malicious actors. 

Among the best practices, companies introduce penetration testing to simulate real-world cyber attacks and exploit vulnerabilities, such as SQL injection, cross-site scripting, and authentication flaws. These checks help identify whether it’s possible to gain unauthorized access to the system. 

With vulnerability scanning, they scan the software for known fragilities, including outdated software components, misconfigured safety settings, and weak encryption protocols. 

  1. Performance testing 

Imagine that a fintech platform is experiencing latency issues during peak trading hours. Ultimately, it’ll lead to delayed transactions and payments, missed trading opportunities, and dissatisfied customers. 

To avoid these and similar outcomes, financial businesses should implement performance testing. It helps assess the responsiveness, throughput, and resource utilization of banking applications under varying load conditions, ensure optimal performance, and enable fast transactions and data exchange. 

  1. Functional testing 

It assists in validating the software against requirements as well as evaluating the accuracy and reliability of financial calculations, transactions, and reporting functions while ensuring data integrity. 

It plays a crucial role in testing the integrations of embedded banking into different products, such as eCommerce platforms or telecom services, by assessing how APIs function and interact within the BaaS framework.  

It also includes testing account management, payment processing, and other critical features to verify that they perform as expected under different scenarios and conditions. 

  1. Compliance testing 

By focusing on compliance QA, fintech providers can ensure that their IT products adhere to regulatory frameworks and standards, such as MiCA, PSD3, GDPR, and PCI DSS. This is crucial to mitigate legal risks, safeguard data privacy, and boost customer experience. 

Bonus: Blockchain testing 

Blockchain testing helps companies check blockchain-based fintech solutions to ensure the integrity of transactions and identify and address potential vulnerabilities. It involves testing smart contracts for logic errors, assessing consensus mechanisms for robustness, and evaluating network performance under various conditions. 

By conducting thorough blockchain checks, fintech companies can instill trust in their decentralized applications and foster adoption among users. 

In a nutshell  

The landscape of fintech is undergoing a profound transformation driven by modern innovations, including generative AI, RPA, and open ecosystems. 

To ensure they meet high-quality standards, financial institutions can implement required QA practices: cybersecurity, performance, functional, compliance, and blockchain testing. 

Planning to release banking software? Reach out to a1qa’s team to ensure its high-end quality. 

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