Author: Maryia Kharitcheva

A client specializing in security information integration addressed us with a request to develop a brand new automation process that would meet the needs of a newly launched platform.

The client’s product is a single architecture that allows for monitoring network flows, packets, user info, and resource data. The system’s functionality also includes events and log management, unusual activity detection, incident analysis and response, settings management, and the elimination of vulnerabilities. Once deployed, the analytics system enables a user to conduct correlation analysis in order to detect the most substantial threats, attacks, and vulnerabilities in real time.

The solution allows IT departments to process large volumes of data and prioritize incidents by severity. It automatically reacts to an incident and enforces compliance with requirements due to its ability to gather data, correlate it, and produce reports. A user may also run a predictive analysis for risks that already exist and have been caused by improper device setup or known vulnerabilities.

Challenges

The company’s QA testing process had already been streamlined and well-adjusted for quite a while. All tests had been covered by QA automation, and yet, after seven years, the customer felt the need to switch to a new platform; a platform that would meet all modernization requirements, improve the service provided by the company, and process data in a more secure and time-efficient manner.

The automation process that had been in place turned out to be incompatible with the new platform; it could not be integrated into the current process, either. It was these reasons underpinning the decision to construct a brand new automation process that would support present-day requirements and have the capacity to do so for years to come, based on projected growth.

Key Objectives

1. Determination of suitable testing types and approaches in line with the customer’s requirements
2. Setup of a manual testing process with a complete transition to  automation in the future
3. Selection of a tech stack for the creation of an automated testing user framework. This framework had to account for a complex system interacting with various third-party, highly secure services which combined API, database, and application tests
4. Development of the test automation framework and test scenarios that would fully cover the system’s functionality
5. Getting it all up and running
6. Generation of reports.

Solutions

Our team started by carefully learning the old process, domain, automation infrastructure, and software testing environment. After that, we studied the new platform in order to fully comprehend the course of action we needed to take. We also analyzed multiple approaches to pick the one best informed by our own experience. Besides, we had to account for the customer’s requirements and tool limitations.

Be it dev testing or prod testing, in general, automated QA experts need to be fluent in manual testing, meaning they would know which approach to use and which test cases to put higher on a priorities list. Testing varies from project to project; sometimes, customers/manual testers/business analysts provide particular test cases for automation, but in our case, the client did not have a manual testing process per se.

Since the work went hand-in-hand with the migration to a new platform and not all services were automation-ready, we set up the manual testing process as an interim stage. That allowed us to analyze checks and determine which scenarios needed auto-test coverage. As the project moved forward, we started building a new framework for automation that would support all technologies and achieve maximum coverage.

Benefits for the Customer

We have already covered all the recent functionality and put manual testing into action. We have also formulated requirements for a new user framework and picked technologies for their implementation, meaning we’ll be able to ensure an all-out auto-test coverage and quit manual testing altogether. Thanks to the preparatory work we did, the customer will soon enjoy shorter time-to-market and lower costs.

General Recommendations

This project has demonstrated that our team is capable of locating spot-on solutions for projects with sophisticated business logic, integrating systems with a multitude of services, and executing various types of testing within a single framework to better write, launch, and analyze QA testing scenarios and retrieve their results. All these allow the customer to examine product quality at any given point.

To learn more, please read about the test automation services we provide and the JUNASE solution we came up with.

Author: Maryia Kharitcheva

In its most recent brief on migration and development, the World Bank estimates that the volume of remittances will reach USD 630 billion by the end of this year, marking a 4.2-percent increase year-over-year.

As a rule, global financial institutions consider remittances as relatively non-significant amounts of money sent from one individual to a household or another individual residing in low- and middle-income countries. These transfers, however, empower people around the world to support their friends and families in times of war, pandemic, or any other tragic circumstances. Remittances are often a lifeline for those in need.

Unlike sending money as a birthday gift or chipping in to purchase a new piece of furniture together with your loved ones, for many, remittances are not a question of merely exchanging monetary value; they are a matter of survival. That is why it is imperative that money transfer businesses (MTBs) operate 24/7 and ensure that the cross-border transaction always ends up in the account of the specified recipient on time.

Just as in the broader financial services market, there are a wealth of factors that determine a company’s ability to be stable and deliver in the money transmission business. Quality assurance and test automation are one of the lesser visible yet utmostly vital mechanisms that fuel the engine.

Why Automated Testing is Essential for Banking

In this article, we will look at quality assurance and, more precisely, automated testing in the banking sector through the lens of a regular MTB.

When someone wants to send money, they first need to sign up for the service they plan on using. The registration process normally requires first and last names, an e-mail address, a password, and a phone number. Automated testing helps MTBs use test cases for mobile banking applications to check different scenarios and find out whether the application behaves as intended — and, if not, what response that unexpected behavior triggers. For example, if the user enters a name that consists of one character only, the system must return an error. The same goes for a password that is not strong enough or has been compromised in the past (remember that we are talking about financial transactions here), an e-mail address that contains a non-existent domain zone (hence the user’s inability to receive critical notifications), or a phone number that is one digit short.

Once the user has successfully signed up and confirmed their e-mail, they need to be able to log in. Once again, financial data is super-sensitive and fragile, so an MTB may decide to offer — or even enforce — a two-factor authentication (2FA) for all their customers. That would require querying an API of a certain provider (for example, Google Authenticator) and executing functional regression testing — the automated one.

Before allowing one to make payments, some MTBs also mandate that the user undergo KYC (Know-Your-Customer) and AML (Anti-Money Laundering) identity verification procedures. These are multi-layered, meaning the customer needs to submit their passport information and pictures or pass a video interview with a compliance officer. Now, a number of MTBs do not have an in-house compliance team, so they often employ services of third-party providers, meaning test automation becomes even more vital.

Once the user is all set and good-to-go, they need to add their card. For that, they have to enter the cardholder name in English, the card number itself, as well as the expiration date and the CVV number. Automated testing helps ensure that all expected validations on the data entered by the user are performed. For example, the card number must contain the correct number of digits, the expiration date must be adequate (no bank issues cards before 2099, right?), and the CVC code must be three digits long. If the user enters data in an inappropriate format, the application does not allow the user to finalize the action. The next step is contacting the card issuer — or a bank — and verifying all the data, a process that needs to be rigorously tested as well.

After completing the transfer, a receipt should be generated and delivered to the sender’s inbox either automatically or on-demand. These steps should also be tested because the recipient may very much need this document to prove the source of income should a corresponding request arrive from their domestic tax authority.

Last but not least, think of a situation when an MTB decides to introduce a new feature — for example, a recurring payment for when the sender knows exactly the amount the recipient will need on a monthly basis over the next half-year. Regression testing is mandatory here to make sure that by injecting a new functionality you do not break the ones that have already existed. And automated testing does an excellent job here.

Banking QA: Bottom Line

To sum it up, QA in finance rewards both money transmission service providers and their clientele substantially.

The former can speed up time-to-market for new functionalities, reduce costs and latency, and boost revenues due to test automation. The latter make timely transfers that will land at the destination account without interruption, helping the recipient carry on and live another day.

There are numerous challenges that quality assurance in general and test automation specifically can help banking services like this overcome. When you think of it, MTBs offer multiple interfaces at once, meaning you can send money either from a web or a mobile application. Those two need to be interconnected and sync data in real time. Now, there are different tools for you to test on different environments individually, but we at IBA Group decided that there needs to be a one-stop solution — and that is how we came up with JuNaSe.

If you are a money transfer business representative, please check out the suite of test automation services we provide for our partners in the banking area.

Author: Maryia Kharitcheva

The UN World Tourism Organization stated that the tourism industry recorded a whopping USD 2 trillion in lost revenue over the years 2020–2021. This figure is not expected to recover to pre-COVID-19 levels until next year, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Indeed, the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease inflicted disruptions to a wide range of markets, as many businesses were forced to stall or even cease their operations altogether. The travel industry was among those hit the hardest, with tourism-dependent economies shrinking and their populations suffering a significant reduction in quality of life.

Lockdowns and traveling restrictions sent unemployment rates — including that of hospitality workers — skyrocketing around the globe. The announcements of the commencement of clinical trials for vaccine candidates, however, offered a glimpse of hope. Fast-forward to when jabs became widely available, and U.S. citizens’ willingness to book rose 100% across the majority of travel categories, according to an analysis Deloitte conducted from February to September 2021.

The pandemic — which is still ongoing — has distinctly demonstrated that in order to withstand global shifts, organizations need to be flexible and resilient. Automated testing is one of the tools that may greatly assist businesses in building up that resilience as early as at the research & development stage.

Why Test Automation is Essential for Booking Software

In one of its articles, McKinsey provides an example of a company operating in the global hospitality space, which assigned its developer team the task of designing automated tests after consolidating the catering and sales systems. The implementation of test automation for the travel software resulted in time-to-market reduction by approximately 25 percent. Let us look at it through the lens of a regular booking system.

First off, booking systems are usually tightly packed in terms of functionality. The offerings typically resemble one another, and one of the ways to gain a competitive advantage is to deliver a user-centric experience, meaning the interface should be intuitive and stripped of unnecessary items that bring complications.

Any visitor willing to buy a ticket should first enter their destination. Usually, the user starts typing the name of a city and sees an autocomplete prediction on a drop-down list, which definitely needs to be tested. Those who do not have an airport located in their hometown may need to grant geolocation access to the booking system so that it can suggest an outbound flight nearby. This is about automated testing when we can run the same test scenario for various locations as many times as we need to make sure that even in the most remote corners of the world, users can find the necessary city and appropriate flight.

Next, the user needs to pick the arrival and departure dates from a built-in pop-up calendar based on schedule and seat availability, meaning this screen will again require running the same test scenario multiple times to check for different dates even in the distant future.

After that, the prospective customer gets to review the existing ticket options. During this step, they come across various factors to weigh in — for example, reserving a spot next to the window or with extra legroom, choosing a course from the food and drink menu in advance, or utilizing promo codes or time-limited offerings. Needless to say, all these need to be tested properly beforehand for the customer to get what they expect (and, obviously, pay for).

Challenges Solved by Automated Testing

There are quite a few challenges that automated testing can help booking systems combat.

In light of the coronavirus pandemic, booking cancellations and rescheduling have become some of the most frequent operations carried out by airlines. Some people opted for vouchers that let them pick new dates or locations, while others preferred to get their money back in the form of a refund to an initial payment method. Either way, the submission and processing of such a request had to be smooth for users who had already had their business or leisure trip ruined. Testing helped flight operators ensure that the level of customer dissatisfaction would not grow and they would be more likely to come back once the restrictions were lifted.

Test automation also enables ticket booking systems to seamlessly interact with third-party services thanks to integration testing. In times of COVID, insurance became of vital importance; its absence might have even led to travelers being denied entry into the destination country. The generated insurance agreement must be filled with the insuree’s personal data, trip details, cases in which they are eligible to obtain assistance, terms under which that assistance is granted, and signatures of both parties. All those input fields should at the very least be checked in both systems (flight operator and insurance company). This is an easy task for JuNaSe as it transfers test data between test applications. Out of health security concerns, many ticket purchasers also opted for car rentals and private transfers to and from the airport in order to follow the social distancing rules and not to contract the disease (hence prolonged quarantine) on the way to their destination.

Ticket Booking QA: Bottom Line

Summing up, booking QA and automated testing specifically unlock great value for the travel industry.

Booking systems enjoy the flawless operation of each feature, both standalone and in connection with others, including those of third-party services. At the same time, their clients get treated with the utmost care, free of the frustration they often face in the outer world.

If you are a ticket booking firm representative, please check out the scope of test automation services we provide for our partners in the travel space.

Author: Maryia Kharitcheva

An international company whose offerings include taxi buying, loans, and insurance approached us with a request to develop a scalable test automation solution suitable for various environments.

The main focus of the company’s activity is consumer financing and lending services. The system includes several web applications that let you set up and control a full cycle of business processes, making sure that your key targets are met.

The company decided to partner with IBA Group based on feedback from a large bank, for which we had successfully implemented an automated functional testing project before.

Challenges

The company’s system itself is a large-scale application with numerous business functions. Its automated scripts were aimed to solve the following problems:

• Long time dedicated to running regression testing
• The need to test applications on several environments and browsers
• High load on the QA team, who spent lots of time, effort, and consequently, money on manual tests
• Ever-growing testing expenditures that arose from the previous point
• Lack of timely and comprehensive reporting of test results

Key Objectives

1. Investigation of tasks and the tech used to develop the system as a set of applications interconnected via a single business logic. For example, the first application sees the order being placed, the second one sees the manager process it, while the third automatically generates the corresponding agreement
2. Selection of a proper tech stack and QA testing tools in order to build the testing automation process
3. Development of a BDD methodology-based test framework allowing the design testing of E2E scenarios and ensuring test data transferability across applications is integrated within the system
4. Coverage of the system’s complex, wide-ranging functionality by autotests
5. Integration of automated testing with CI/CD
6. User-friendly and prompt reporting functionality

Solutions

We undertook the following major testing automation stages:

1. Discovery of the client’s needs
2. Analysis of the client’s current system
3. Adoption of suitable automated testing types
4. Fine tune
5. Test data preparation and development of automated test cases
6. Launch of automated testing and report generation
7. Ongoing maintenance

Benefits for the Customer

As part of our cooperation, we helped the customer achieve the following outcomes:

● Architect a smooth, scalable testing automation process for its system’s functional capabilities

● Configure the launch of tests in the CI/CD environment and identify shortcomings faster and earlier. What we mean by ‘shortcomings’ here is application defects of any kind, such as bugs. We set up scheduled auto-test launches, so when an employee gets to a workplace in the morning, they see a report that contains the results of running (or not running) tests — and the tests can be run at any time, 24/7. If something malfunctions or simply does not work as intended, the employee is notified straight away and passes the issue to developers who can then swiftly fix it. It is of vital importance because the sooner the defect is discovered, the cheaper it is to remove, meaning it will not ultimately reach the production stage and by proxy, the user. As a result, we see more affordable resolution expenses and faster release times

● Cover part of the client’s system functionality with autotests

● Generate insightful and readily available results of automatic tests

● Obtain information on test stats thanks to our data-driven testing framework and user-friendly visualization of that data, made accessible from an intuitive interface

● Share these reports not only with the tech team, but also with business people since they are written in plain English and include screenshots and logs. They also show general automated testing indicators, such as time used to run, the total number of tests carried out, the passed versus failed scenarios diagram, and much more.

Read to learn more about our automated testing services and JuNaSe, our license-free full-cycle automated testing and quality assurance solution.