How to Reduce Maintenance Costs for Automation Testing Scripts

Based on McKinsey’s reports, in the digital world, customer experience is king. 75% of the 50 largest global banks were publicly committing to initiating some forms of customer experience digital transformation. Banks’ customer experience boosts the lifetime profitability of satisfied customers. Digital banks need technologies, tools and processes that deliver a great customer experience, treat customers nicely, protect against fraud, and comply with laws and other regulations.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increasingly become a transformative force in the BFSI industry, revolutionizing the way institutions interact with their customers. By leveraging AI technologies, banks are able to provide personalized, efficient, and seamless services, ultimately enhancing the overall customer experience.

According to ABA (Australian Bank Association), banks were facing “customer-led digital transformation” harder, confirming that nearly 99% of customer interactions with Australian banks are via online or digital channels and AI is penetrating into the banking industry significantly. It does help enhance customer digital experience and loyalty.

Below, we will explore several ways in which AI capabilities are being utilized to enhance customer experience in Australian banks.

1. Use the Right Tool With a Robust Framework

Test automation tools are increasing in popularity, such as Selenium, Appium, Katalon, and Test Complete. Selecting the right tool is only partially about getting the tests right.

While free/open-source tools have no initial license cost compared to commercial tools, their cost during the maintenance phase is often overlooked. A new wave of automation is low-code or codeless automation tools. These tools involve a record and playback approach, simplifying the creation of test cases and eliminating the need for costly coding expertise.

Table 1: Comparison between popular low-code test automation tools

Besides, instead of wasting resources on tools that are not compatible with your digital banking system, it is essential to have a checklist for choosing automation testing tools. Banks and financial institutions should look for testing tools that your team members are proficient in and can meet your specific testing requirements.

To minimize the expense associated with maintaining automation testing scripts, it's advisable to avoid using too many tools or customizing them excessively.

2. Implement Version Control And Perform Regular Reviews

Treat test scripts as your production code and include them in your version control system with proper versioning control in place. The best practice here is implementing a change control process for your test scripts, test data, and configuration files. This will help reduce the maintenance cost by enabling banks to revert to previous versions systematically, resolve conflicts, and increase collaboration among software development team members.

Perform code reviews, peer reviews, and test reviews frequently to check the quality and the coverage of your test scripts. These reviews can help you identify and fix the issues before they become costly to maintain.

In the banking sector, where security is paramount, thorough reviews help identify vulnerabilities and potential threats in the codebase before they can be exploited by malicious actors. This proactive approach significantly reduces the risk of security breaches and costly maintenance efforts in the long run.

3. Optimize Test Execution

Focus on automating the right test cases. Test execution can consume significant time and resources, especially when you test a comprehensive banking system that requires a large amount of test cases. Therefore, the best practice to reduce the maintenance cost here is implementing test prioritization, test selection, and test data management techniques to run the most relevant and efficient test.

A random number of 70% or 80% test coverage is not an efficient approach for a banking app.

Moreover, the easiest test to maintain is the one you didn’t write.

For instance, in a mobile banking app, ensuring an intuitive UI is prioritized. However, running UI Automation is particularly hard. It’s slower to write than other tests, slower to run and requires more time for both development and execution compared to other types of tests. If you aim to minimize your maintenance expenses, it's essential to thoughtfully consider the purpose of your UI tests before writing them.

Focus your automation efforts on high-value features. Talk to your product owners and find out what keeps them awake at night. Writing your tests for the most demanded features will cut your maintenance costs dramatically.

4. Locators, Locators, and Locators

Developing a great locator strategy for your system will greatly reduce your maintenance costs for your automation suite. A well-defined locator strategy ensures that the automation scripts are based on stable and reliable identifiers. For instance, when the UI elements in the banking app change, scripts with solid locators are less likely to break, hence decreasing the need for frequent updates.

The best practice is to be best friends with your software development team. They will be able to work with you on the control IDs or control naming conventions. This is the biggest timesaver in maintenance costs.

Conclusion

Reducing test automation maintenance costs is a vital aspect of efficient software testing practices. By adopting the above strategies, banks and financial institutions can effectively minimize the resources and effort required for ongoing test maintenance.

Through KMS Solutions’ expertise and innovative approaches, we concentrate on best practices to help BFSI businesses not only save costs but also enhance the reliability, security, and overall quality of software apps. Schedule a consultation with our experts to learn more about how we have helped clients in optimizing their testing strategy.