How Banks Overcome Challenges in Adopting Automation Testing Framework

A significant 80% of organizations now release code on a daily or weekly basis, indicating a growing reliance on these frequent updates. Traditional testing methods are struggling to keep up with the fast-paced nature of modern Agile practices as they bring several disadvantages, including slowness, high costs, and a lack of adaptability. 

For development teams aiming to maintain a rapid pace, implementing test automation is worth considering. There is a wide array of test automation tools available, spanning from open-source options to premium licenses costing thousands of dollars. These tools empower development teams to streamline their testing efforts and reduce the manual labor involved, ultimately accelerating the software development lifecycle.

However, the road to implementing an effective test automation framework is not without its challenges. In this article, we will delve into the key obstacles that banks often face when adopting automation testing framework and tips to overcome them.

Challenge 1: Legacy Systems

Many banks use legacy systems that have remained unchanged for an extended period. These systems are typically built on outdated technology stacks, which means the tools and frameworks available for testing may not be compatible with the legacy system.

Automating tests for these systems can be challenging due to the lack of modern APIs, and limited documentation, making it challenging for testers to understand the system’s architecture, dependencies, and business rules. Insufficient documentation can result in misunderstandings and missed edge cases during the testing phase that require several retesting.

A robust automation framework should be capable of accommodating both legacy and modern systems. When this doesn’t happen, QA professionals are often placed in the difficult position of having to write flaky end-to-end tests.

#Solutions

• Tailor your test strategy to accommodate legacy systems. Consider a mix of testing types, including API testing, database testing, and user interface testing. Prioritize testing critical business functions and workflows.

• Choose automation testing tools that are compatible with legacy technologies. Some tools are better suited for older systems and can integrate more seamlessly. Ensure that the selected tools support technologies like mainframes or older databases.

Challenge 2: Test Data Management

Generating and managing test data for automated tests can be complex in the banking industry, where data needs to mirror real-world scenarios accurately. Moreover, as the BFSI enterprises handle sensitive customer data, ensuring data privacy and compliance with regulations is essential when choosing an automation testing framework.

Therefore, when choosing an automation testing framework, it’s essential for developers to ensure timely acquisition, data synchronization, and maintaining data integrity across different environments. Ensuring high-quality and consistent test data sources further compounds the challenge of maintaining test data integrity in automation testing.

#Solutions

To ensure the effectiveness of automation efforts, it’s vital to establish a comprehensive strategy for test data management. Therefore, banks and financial institutions should equip their framework with resources such as libraries or plugins that can help in locating relevant test data for positive testing. 

Additionally, the framework should include a simulation tool to simplify and clarify the data. By simplifying the data, the process of test data management becomes significantly more manageable. 

Challenge 3: Ineffective CI/CD Integration

Banking is a dynamic industry where customer expectations and market conditions change swiftly. To meet these evolving demands and stay competitive, banks need to develop and deploy software quickly.  CI/CD facilitates the rapid delivery of software updates and new features.

However, testers often find it difficult to integrate the automation framework into the CI/CD pipeline while ensuring reliability. When building up an execution orchestration within the automation testing framework, there are several things that need to be considered.

#Solutions

Collaborating with an experienced testing team can be a strategic approach for banks to overcome the challenges associated with CI/CD integrations in a test automation framework. The KMS Solutions’ testing team is well-versed in industry best practices that can bring you a comprehensive automation testing framework for a banking app.

The framework is designed to enable businesses to accelerate their innovation processes by offering advanced quality assurance solutions. It is capable of testing four different types of interfaces: Desktop, Web, API, and Mobile. Additionally, it includes an execution layer that can orchestrate the tests and manage test environments, reports, and metrics, which include:

• Performance and security tests
• CI/CD tool integration
• Test scheduling
• Distributed test execution. 

Challenge 4: Selecting the Right Automation Testing Tool

As an automation testing tool is the backbone of the testing framework, choosing the inappropriate one may lead to an ineffective testing process. In some organizations, many software development teams are found to lack proficiency in particular testing tools, find these tools insufficient in providing comprehensive test coverage, or, in some cases, discover that their desired tool is unavailable. 

Today, there is a wide array of testing tools available in the market, encompassing both commercial and open-source options that support various technologies and types of testing. This causes a lot of confusion and misconceptions about selecting an appropriate testing tool.

Automated testing may require substantial resources in terms of hardware, software, and skilled personnel. Ensuring the availability of these resources can be a challenge, especially for small banking institutions.

#Solutions

As automation testing tools continue to evolve, implementing the right test tool can considerably boost your software testing process’s accuracy, efficiency, and coverage. Banks can consider between open source and commercial automation tools.

The following table is the comparison between two widely used automation testing tools in most banks and financial institutions:

Sum Up

To overcome these challenges, it's important to have a well-defined automation strategy, invest in appropriate tools and technologies, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and continuously monitor and adapt your automation framework to the evolving needs of the banking application and the regulatory environment. 

Additionally, hiring or training skilled professionals with expertise in both automation and banking can be valuable. Their knowledge can facilitate the seamless integration of automation solutions while ensuring compliance with banking regulations and delivering a high-quality customer experience. 

With a proven track record in software development and testing services, KMS Solutions has helped numerous BFSI companies build their own automation testing framework and perform end-to-end testing.