The beauty of non-invasive testing for financial services
Providing a good customer experience is something all companies should aspire to do. However, when there are many moving parts, doing this can be a massive challenge. Financial institutions have a uniquely broad range of technologies that need to work together in harmony.
When you consider that data and workflows can span across technologies that were originally designed over half a century ago, end-to-end testing of these systems is particularly tricky. And because of the highly regulated nature of financial services, there is a great need to maintain strict privacy and security protocols throughout the entire system. To address these problems, banks and insurers are increasingly relying on non-invasive test automation for both customer-facing and internal systems.
Security meets satisfaction with non-invasive testing
As the name suggests, non-invasive test automation provides teams with a way to test software in a way that doesn’t require access to the underlying source code. Instead, by interacting with software at the interface level, anything that would be seen by a human operator can be tested. Using computer vision and intelligent testing algorithms, Eggplant can ‘drive’ an application in the same way that humans can.
This opens up a number of possibilities for financial services organizations. After all, you want to make sure that the testing environment is consistent with end user experience, whether those end users are customers or employees. Non-invasive testing is key to safeguarding the user experience without risk of compromising security or regulatory protocols.
Intelligent testing of mobile apps
The proliferation of mobile apps over the last decade has helped establish new consumer habits — and with those, higher expectations of digital products. Banking apps are no different, with users accustomed to the slick experience of scrolling their social feeds or ordering an Uber. However, the difficult part for banks is that their apps are merely the layer that customers are interacting with at that moment.
Behind the scenes, there are a number of interconnected systems that ultimately contribute to the end user experience. Therefore, providing a good user experience on a mobile app requires development and QA teams to test a wide range of endpoints and workflows.
Providing a good customer experience via a mobile app isn’t just a matter of ensuring that the app is responsive and functional. It also needs to correctly display critical data points, such as account balances or transaction data. Thankfully, because Eggplant can interact with mobile apps at a visual level, it’s possible to test both the functional elements of the user experience as well as the integrity of the data that supports it. Eggplant can also test multifactor authentication (MFA), a security requirement of many business and consumer apps these days.
Getting past the Citrix barrier
Understandably, financial services have strict rules and security for their IT systems. The problem is, with last year’s sudden shift to working from home, a new challenge was presented for securing the perimeter for banks. Desktop virtualization systems like Citrix suddenly became a primary access route for employees to get work done. However, this adds a layer of complexity to test automation efforts. As many frustrated QAs have found, Citrix often poses a problem for test automation, acting like a pane of glass that most automation software can’t see beyond.
Eggplant, on the other hand, doesn’t have this problem. Because Eggplant works by visually exploring an application or workflow, anything the user can see onscreen can be tested. Accessing systems via Citrix means that automation of all kinds, not just testing, is suddenly possible. This means that robotic process automation (RPA), where repetitive actions must be taken by software robots, is not deterred by Citrix. Performance and load testing can also be done via Citrix. This is critical for ensuring that key systems hold up to the demands of remote access. It also helps test and maintain performance standards so that systems don’t stutter when many users are simultaneously accessing them.
In short, being able to test systems via Citrix means that employee productivity won’t be negatively impacted when working remotely.
Weapon of choice
Because of its non-invasive approach that can test any software on any device, Eggplant is the test automation solution of choice for innovators across the financial services sector and beyond.
Whether it’s a trading platform, mobile app, or mainframe — or anything in between — Eggplant’s non-invasive test automation solution is uniquely suited for the job of ultimately delivering flawless user experiences for customers and employees alike.
See Eggplant in action
To learn more about the amazing experiences that teams across banking and insurance are using Keysight's Eggplant solution to help deliver, get in touch with our team today.
You can also try it for yourself with our cloud-hosted free trial.