Critical Issue for Testing Mobile Banking Apps - rayparker56/softwaretesting GitHub Wiki

According to Statista, the number of smartphone users has reached to 2.87 billion users this year. So it is clear that the smartphone user market is growing exponentially which raises the standard bars high for mobile app quality. At the same time, the banking and financial services industry (BSFI) has also moved from traditional banking services to mobile apps. Banks have realized the need for creating high-performance and reliable apps so that they can hold their share in the market and meet client expectations. High performance and usability of these apps can only be achieved by performing effective and efficient app tests. This is why the banking app testing company has a lot of scope in the coming years.

When talking about mobile banking apps, the first and most important that is to be concerned is its security. For all testing scenarios, QA teams focus on securing the app’s security because cybercrime has made security one of the major concerns for retail banking apps. However, there are other important areas that QA teams should focus on other than security. They need to focus on standard testing apps such as functionality, security, and performance.

Domain-Specific Test Data

Since mobile banking apps use confidential data such as personal bank account numbers, phone numbers, addresses, etc. it is important to ensure its security. A banking app testing company has to ensure that all security points are checked thoroughly. This critical information cannot be exposed to the public, which means they need to have stringent regulatory requirements to protect crucial data. These requirements pose challenges for QA teams in obtaining data for production, whether it is an in-house team or have outsourced QA professionals.

This means that QA teams have to combine data masking and synthetic data creation. With data masking, the account-related information can be masked by automated scripts. This data is then inserted into the database for testing purposes. Synthetic test data is created in a controlled test environment once QA teams have understood the business information flow.

Controlled Vs. Real Environment

Test plans should clearly define the difference between a controlled and real environment. Any functional, technical, or data variations between production and test environments should be differentiated at the initial stages. For mobile app users, a delay in the transfer may lead to customer dissatisfaction since smartphone users expect a real-time response from apps. Thus, it is important for a banking app testing company to take into account all important factors and the risks in the test plans.

Utilization of Resources

Banking apps have to handle large volumes of data with only limited resources that a smartphone has to offer, thus it becomes a huge challenge for the QA teams. Even small operations come with huge data volumes that include log-in data, user location, and all the actions that a bank client makes while using an app. Banks require having enough resources to ensure that apps are running smoothly and provide an excellent user experience. Thus, focusing on app quality is extremely important.