Sixty-three percent of adults who use smartphones have one or more banking apps, according to a 2018 Bankrate study. Financial technology, called Fintech, presents great opportunities to the finance sector, enabling firms to deliver convenient and quick solutions to users, improving their banking experiences.
Customer experience has emerged as one of the most important aspects of Fintech, according to Capgemini’s 2019 World Fintech Report, which chronicles the fast-growing industry and notes the trends within it. According to the report, many firms weighing the mode of delivery of services as equally important with the products and services they provide. Quality assurance (QA) testing helps ensure reliability — as well as security and other important features. No matter what the mode — QA outsourcing or in-house testing — the process is central to giving users the experience they want and need.
Challenges in Fintech
Fintech firms deliver a wide range of services, including investment, mobile payments, banking, budgeting, equity funding, and many more. All of these processes require safety, security, reliability, and accessibility, among other features. In particular, Fintech companies must be able to handle:
- Multi-tier functionalities
- Large-scale integrations
- Large-scale transactions
- Data confidentiality
- Security threats and breaches
- Simultaneous transactions
- Large-scale storage systems
- Disaster and risk threats and management
- Record keeping
- Protection of personal data
- Real-time processing
- Troubleshooting
- Efficient transactions
- and more
These concerns are crucial to the development of software applications and services that are the backbone of the Fintech industry. Because they are vital to creating and delivering exceptional products, Fintech firms must employ skilled software QA services and testers to address them before the products reach the market.
Why QA testing is necessary
When people’s money and personal data are at risk, QA testing isn’t just “nice-to-have” — it’s mandatory. Applications must be agile, functional, secure, and usable.
A software QA tester must understand the demands of the industry and the challenges associated with the services, products, and overall user experience firms want to deliver. During the testing process, they must attempt to “break” Fintech software and systems to uncover errors, potential security breaches and threats, and other bugs. This ensures that users will have a safe and reliable experience when using Fintech products and services.
QA testing services not only uncover bugs, but they can also mean a more efficient and quicker software development cycle, stronger attention to compliance with regulations, and an improved quality of the product overall.
What does QA testing assess and measure?
At the end of the day, software QA companies and services help ensure that Fintech applications and products are error-free (to the extent that is possible), reliable, and secure. Whether Fintech firms employ software QA testers in-house or outsource their testing, the process should be performed at every stage of the product development cycle. This will enable developers to address errors early on.
Software QA testing should assess:
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Security
Fintech applications use and store sensitive data, including personal, financial, and banking information. Because hackers could attempt to access this information, QA testers must put applications through rigorous assessments to check for any areas of vulnerability or risk.
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Data protection
Data frequently changes hands in the world of Fintech, so protecting and managing important information is key for the testing phase.
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Compliance
Financial organizations must adhere to a strict set of rules and regulations governed by the countries in which they operate. These laws continue to evolve, so QA testing must change with them and continually assess whether given products are compliant.
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Usability
Whether or not a platform is usable is at the heart of the product’s quality. Fintech firms prioritize the consumer experience, and a software QA tester must ensure that the product is operable by laypeople. In order to do so, they should try it out themselves, as well as put it in the hands of actual users if possible.
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Functionality
Functional testing is a crucial stage of any QA testing scenario. This process ensures that the product meets the requirements to operate effectively. Because Fintech software involves the exchange of sensitive data and information, testers must examine all possible risks, developments, stressors, and interactions with other applications and system components.
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Accessibility
While QA testing should take into account the “typical” usability requirements, it should also consider users with disabilities and differing needs, such as visual, cognitive, auditory, or physical impairments. Testers must ensure that the product is accessible to all users and account for this requirement.
QA testing for Fintech: The bottom line
Fintech opens a world of opportunities for financial firms. At the same time, it comes with significant responsibility. Firms that deliver financial technological services have considerable power, given that they handle the sensitive data of people across the world. In order to ensure security and usability and gain a competitive advantage in the financial marketplace, they must employ superior QA testing processes, whether they facilitate testing within their companies or outsource it to offshore software testing companies. The safety of its users and the success of an organization itself depend on it.
