Banking Domain Application Testing

Banking application testing

Hello friends! In this article, we are going to learn about banking application testing. Before starting with the testing part, let’s first learn about the banking process.

Today, every product and service that the organizations provide needs to have online access to it and it is also applicable to any banking organization. Banks have multiple products and services for millions of customers. To provide them, banks have arranged various physical branches where customers can go and avail of the services.

As digitization increases in every domain, many of bank customers prefer doing every possible transaction or accessing any service at home on their laptops and mobile phones rather than going to the branch.

This trend forces the banks to have an application, both desktops and mobile, for their customers. With banking/BFSI applications, customers can transfer money online, view their account balances, etc. at home, without going anywhere.

Banking applications deal with money and that is why testing banking applications thoroughly is a critical process. Moreover, every such application has several users who are doing concurrent transactions.

So, testing the functions of the application is not enough. Testing the database as well as nonfunctional characteristics such as security, compatibility, and performance is also crucial. In this tutorial, we will understand the testing process of a banking application along with various testing phases.

Services Provided by Banking Application

For customers, the following are various services provided by banking applications-

Features of a Typical Banking Application

Before we discuss the testing process, let’s first look at some of the vital features of any banking application-

Apart from these features, there are many other important features that any banking application would provide. Testing each feature is critical as it has a huge number of sub-features in it. For example, In the money transfer feature, the user will have options of adding an account as a beneficiary, setting a transfer limit, etc.

Moreover, the application may provide an easy and short process for transferring money to the same bank’s account, another option can be of quick transfer where with minimal details money can be transferred.

Banking Application Testing Process

A typical process of testing a banking application can have the following steps-

Requirements Gathering

The testing process starts from the first phase of SDLC i.e. requirements gathering. Usually, in agile projects, along with business analysts, the testing team is also involved in the requirements-gathering process. In traditional models like a waterfall, the testing team comes into the picture later once the requirements have been collected.

For finance-related, banking projects, the testers should have adequate domain knowledge. Testers should be able to think from both the stakeholder and end-users points of view. In this phase, analysts gather requirements and understand and review the requirements. In addition, they gain as much domain knowledge as possible by the research, and/or taking help from the SMEs.

Test Planning

In this next phase, the testing team proceeds with the detailed planning of the testing process. Here, a test plan is created. This includes the scope of the testing, roles, and responsibilities, test deliverables, testing levels, testing tools, test environments, etc.

Test Scenario and Test Case Creation

Here, based on the requirements document, test scenarios, and test cases are created. The testing team should be careful in covering each scenario. Not only functional but also security, performance, and other nonfunctional characteristics should be covered.

Functional Testing

After test case creation, the testing team conducts functional testing to make sure the features are implemented as per the requirements.

Functional Testing Checklist/Test cases

Database Testing

Database testing includes testing the front-end layer, business logic layer, and database. In this type of testing, queries are executed and data flow in different tables is observed. The testing team responsible for database testing should have in-depth knowledge of the database.

Database Testing Checklist/Test cases

Security Testing

For a banking application, this is one of the most important steps. In security testing, the goal is to check the system’s ability to fight against attacks. Also, it is checked that only authorized and authenticated users are allowed to access the application, and their data is secured.

Security Testing Checklist/Test cases

Usability testing

Any banking application will have a broad spectrum of users, from tech-savvy people to non-tech-friendly people. The goal of usability testing is to check the application’s working from all the users’ perspectives and see if the application is user-friendly for all types of users.

Usability testing Checklist/Test cases

Performance Testing

The goal of performance testing is to check application performance under severe load and stress.

Performance Testing Checklist/Test cases

User Acceptance Testing

In this step, the client or end-users of the system (usually, representatives of the client) test the system to get an assurance that the application will run smoothly as per desired behavior in real-world scenarios.

Apart from the above-mentioned phases, there are many other important phases. We include these in the testing process of a bank application such as regression testing, compatibility testing, etc.

User Acceptance Testing Challenges

Conclusion

Banking applications are in demand even in developing countries as nowadays people prefer online services and avoid physically going to the branch. Moreover, in this fast-paced life, people will always choose fast online transactions for any service or product they are purchasing. There are many other reasons why banking applications are gaining popularity.

Given the sensitive and complex nature of these applications, it is critical to test them thoroughly. As mentioned in the above sections, there are various phases in banking application testing. Of course, many challenges are faced during the testing process. But it becomes the responsibility of the testing team to find as many bugs as possible to achieve the highest quality.