The Importance of Regression Testing for the BFSI industry

Implementing regression testing in the BFSI industry will enable wholesome customer experiences.

With the evolution of technology, industries across sectors have been disrupted with innovations that have made servicing processes easy and convenient. As the markets have changed drastically, there has been a paradigm shift in the way businesses operate. Delivering the best quality software swiftly, and tapping into the growing needs of the customers digitally has become of utmost importance so as to adapt to the "new normal" and stay abreast of the latest developments. BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) is one such sector that has witnessed a notable transformation as it transited from offline banking to online.

According to a leading researcher, in 2021 itself, IT spending on enterprise software was expected to amount to around 483 billion U.S. dollars globally, a growth of 7.4% from the past year.The evolving digital gamut and varied customer demands have encouraged businesses to invest in software and update with new functions that may interfere with existing functions, affecting the overall performance of the product and eventually the brand. To avoid such a scenario, developers embrace top-notch Quality Assurance testing techniques and one of them is regression testing.

Implementation of regression testing

In a market disrupted by COVID-19, financial institutions such as banks are expected to deliver exciting new features for their services, be it through their apps or websites, without compromising their IT functionality and reliability. Regression testing can help these service providers to achieve goals that are outlined to deliver a great customer experience.Technically, regression testing verifies the new code in an existing system and ensures a seamless operation of the software so that changes do not affect the core software functionality.

Some goals of regression testing include:

• Identifying the defects and tech bugs
• Eliminating them in a routine manner
• Ensuring eliminated defects don't re-occur
• Maintaining good health of SDLC(software development life cycle)

Software methodology promotes the idea of regression testing as it relies on the concurrent and continuous iteration of development and testing throughout the SDLC, enabling rapid delivery and the best end-user experience. In a software development process, testers build a regression test suite to verify that the new code does not collide with older code and the existing codes are working as expected. It further assures that there are no technical glitches or bugs once software updates are implemented.This entire software update process makes regression testing imperative for the BFSI sector.

Benefits of regression testing

Regression testing offers manifold benefits when implemented in an agile environment.

• It supports the verification of end-to-end functionalities of the software to build a stable software/application, which further leads to more brand value and less customer complaints
• It helps in inspecting the technical glitches and correcting functionality issues and related code defects earlier in the Software Development Life Cycle,
• Automating the testing process releases manual bandwidth and helps the tester to complete the other essential testing activities
• Examination of frequent iterations deliver high-quality software with a great user experience

Financial institutions competing in this digital world aim to deliver the best quality software rapidly, with the objective to meet the growing needs of respective customers. Regression testing in an agile environment helps such businesses to engineer next-gen software while maintaining the stability of the product throughout the development phase.

Best practices of Regression testing

• Developing a regression strategy: The foundation stone is to develop a test strategy and include collating the test cases, inspecting the areas of developments, estimating the time to be taken for execution, and segregating them basis the test cases that can be automated and which out of them can be manually implemented. Executing these steps can lead to an effective testing outcome

• Save testing time with Smoke and Sanity test: While a testing strategy is the way forward, it is important to perform regular checks that help in saving quality time and efforts of the testers, such as smoke and sanity tests. Smoke checks run non-exhaustive tests to check the core software functions and the sanity test checks the minor changes in the code to ascertain that the errors have been fixed and no further issues are introduced

• Automate regression testing: According to a recent study, over 70 percent of businesses utilize automation in regression testing as it is a time and cost-effective manner to ensure that the added functionality does not break the entire software. Test automation is executed every time a new functionality/code is added to the software

• Regularly update regression packs: One of the essential practices that must not be ignored is to updating the regression packs on a regular basis. A new feature comes with a set of test cases such asa regression pack that is written and drafted with the help of a requirement specifications document and must be updated with the software update for effective test results

• Continuous testing is a smarter way to test: While DevOps encourage the idea of continuous integration and incessant delivery to accelerate software delivery, this shift led approach encourages testers to test and fail early, and improve faster, with rapid feedback ensuring quality software development, reducing costs and risks

As we move forward and touch upon more Fintech milestones, regression testing remains an excellent match for businesses in the BFSI sector and it could significantly improve organization's ability to push out regular updates, without damaging its reliability and stability – which is crucial for new-age banks that want to achieve and maintain competitiveness. It will hence become one of the fundamental tools for banks that want to improve their customer experience.

Author

Niraj Hutheesing, Founder and Managing Director, Cygnet Infotech.