When technology in every sector is taking big leaps, why should banks hold on to excess of paperwork and innumerable visits of customers? Mobile banking has become a subject in each business school, such is the reach that banks now consider Mobile Banking apps as their USP. The finance sector is bombarded with mobile banking transactions. Mobile Banking is seen as a digital replacement of ‘being at the bank’ next only to online applications. Mobile banking is a system that allows customers of a financial institution to conduct a number of financial transactions through a mobile device such as a mobile phone or tablet.
Mobile banking is a bliss for customers, as it helps them to avoid travel/waiting in long queues and they can keep a track of their account with the freedom of making transactions anywhere, all this by not walking into the bank. In the context of Mobile banking, the features include fund transfer, recharge, bill payments etc.
Mobile banking has become a buzz and with the increase in number of transactions with handheld devices and also an increase in number of features in the applications; it doesn’t come as a surprise that a single defect could initiate a wavy effect in the application ecosystem. Banking applications are considered to be one of the most complex applications in today’s software development and testing industry. This makes Software Testing an important component of the Go to Market strategy. From a business perspective, testing a Mobile Banking initiative is a gigantic challenge as well as a critical commitment for an organization.
What makes Banking application so complex?
There are many risks involved:
Security Testing – One of the major stages in the entire application testing cycle as this stage ensures that application complies with Federal and Industry standards. Inherent vulnerabilities have to be discovered and authentication has to be tested for flaws. Security testing cycle makes sure the application does not have any web vulnerability which may expose sensitive data to an intruder or an attacker and complies with standards like OWASP.
Compatibility Testing – To capture the market and ensure wider coverage, to ensure mobile app’s compatibility and functions across multiple devices of different screen sizes, resolutions and hardware.
Interruption Testing – The application’s cache, response after an interruption by a call or an sms has to be verified
Analytics – The app’s ability to capture and consolidate analytics has to be assessed for flaws
Network Carrier Testing – How does the application respond in varying bandwidths, mobile data plan or WiFi.
Performance Testing – Since mobile broadens the probability of concurrent traffic, the performance has to be strengthened with greater testing
Compliance – Does the application comply with the financial regulations, privacy policies and information security protocols?
Testing banking applications require an end to end testing methodology involving multiple software testing techniques to ensure:
- Total coverage of all banking workflows and Business Requirements
- Functional aspect of the application
- Security aspect of the application
- Data Integrity
- Concurrency
- User Experience
For a better and unified experience, mobile banking applications are refined every now and then. Hence chances of complexity also increases, therefore banks and financial organizations will be compelled to ensure high standards of Quality Assurance. For business purpose and to avoid any losses, it becomes essential to make the application error/bug free for customer satisfaction because that one application is used by infinite people each moment. Since mobile banking is a trending application, it generates exponentially growing revenue; therefore the application should be on audit every second to check for flaws.
When one single application i.e. mobile application, has to be constantly monitored, to be checked for new upgrades, it becomes essential to set up an extraordinary testing plan. Mobile testing has gotten more efficient and versatile over the years as new mobile development platforms and testing organizations aim to reduce application complexity and assimilate functionality of the application.
