4 minute read
The rising importance of software quality assurance in fintech
To say that the fintech industry is booming would be an understatement, with 64% of global consumers adopting fintech. The uptake in digital solutions across the financial sector has seen significant growth during the pandemic in an effort to keep up with changing consumer behaviours. People and businesses alike are now using fintech services more and easier than ever. One thing is clear: the pandemic has advanced attitudes towards fintech by a few years in just a few months.
Yet, among new digital innovations, there are a lot of expectations surrounding fintech software. From providing a seamless experience, quick and efficient solutions and countless requirements, these applications are under heavy scrutiny and have no room for errors when it comes to protecting sensitive financial data. Afterall, the financial sector has been a long-standing target for cybercriminals for a number of years.
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Investing in software development for these fintech processes ensures users are getting the most out of its capabilities, improving usability and experience. In this article, I’ll delve deeper into how we can apply software quality assurance to this process and the many benefits that come with it.
Understanding quality assurance
Quality assurance (QA) is a concept commonly used interchangeably with software testing, which is actually incorrect. In fact, QA is an assortment of practices and activities that are much more profound, despite the conduction of software tests. In QA, much more emphasis is placed on the far-fetched automation of tests and their large scale. The QA engineer is required to display knowledge of various technical aspects of software development to a much higher degree. The most common activity of being a QA engineer is test automation, which requires not only testing knowledge but also having programming skills. In fact, automated tests give a big advantage, because they can detect errors and shortcomings that were not detected both by the developer and the manual tester.
Quality assurance in fintech
QA is not only an effective way of preventing mistakes and defects, but also a complex process that includes non-functional testing of applications. In particular, fintech companies need to ensure that the processes used to develop their products and solutions are fully secure, functional and reliable. One way QA can be ensured here is through investing in software development. Properly trained and dedicated software engineers run countless tests to ensure that any software development products and solutions are to the highest standards.
In a competitive environment, fintech firms need to consider agility and enhanced customer experience as key reasons for
success. The ability to move quickly to cater for market niches and meet new consumer behaviours is crucial for the industry and with the help of QA, fintechs can prevent costly errors. However, testing in fintech requires a much more thorough and voluminous test suite than many other types of software. In other words, what is sufficient for many IT processes is simply not enough for a fintech company.
Benefits of quality assurance
The benefits of investing in QA are endless. Apart from time-saving, the elimination of errors and shortcomings at the early stages of a project, allows the shortening of realisation time. What’s more, QA allows fintechs to save money. Where detection of errors occurs in the early stage of production, the necessity of introducing profound changes in the architecture of the programme in the later stages is reduced, for example writing entire components from scratch.
Perhaps one of the most important benefits of QA lies with increased satisfaction of the customer and the end-users. Within fintech, the fight over obtaining clients is extremely competitive and therefore having your end-users experience in mind should be of utmost importance. In turn, overall company reputation as well as the morale of the entire team is due to improve.
Outsourcing to nearshore software development
In an ever increasingly competitive environment, fintechs must make sure to offer their customers the best service possible. QA is a great way to achieve just this, while also saving time and money. A simple concept, but a complex task, software developers are the best option in undertaking the process of QA. With extensive knowledge and experience, a nearshore software development company can become an extended arm of the company while slotting right into the various processes installed in the business.
The future of QA adoption across all industries is only set to increase. Small mistakes within current software processes are no longer sufficient. It’s now up to fintech companies to evaluate their current software quality and provide better services to their customers.
Stefania Dąbek, Quality Assurance Engineer, Future Processing
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Source:
https://www.ey.com/en_uk/financial-services/eight-ways-fintech-adoption-remains-on-therise#:~:text=FinTech%20has%20become%20globally%20mainstream&text=of%20global%20 consumers%20have%20adopted%20FinTech.&text=In%20the%20six%20markets%20 surveyed,almost%20100%25%20every%20two%20years.
