Article

Testing the limits: ATM simulation resets the standard

Manual testing can only take an ATM operator so far. A recent webinar demonstrated how much further one can go with an automated solution.

April 14, 2015 by Suzanne Cluckey — Owner, Suzanne Cluckey Communications

A major U.K. bank undertook an ATM refresh project. Within three years, the project team found itself an entire year behind schedule.

They determined that this was largely because their test environment was too changeable and not sufficiently robust.

"They'd be trying to do testing with a particular set of cards, and maybe somebody else wanted to use the cards on the same day, and maybe someone had configured the cards to give a different response from the mainframe system and that affects the other person's testing," said Clear2Pay senior ATM consultant Chris Milne, in a webinar last week.

"It's things like that that were causing problems at the bank. What I've found is that they weren't the only ones in that situation and some of these problematic scenarios are actually surprisingly common."

please note: though the webinar was scheduled
especially for APAC time zones, its content
applies to any large-scale ATM deployer.

Milne said that the bank — one of several major FIs he's worked with — took several steps to address the issues:

introducing simulators and test automation rather than relying on back-end systems;
integrating solutions to minimize user input and making it easier to switch between simulators at any given time;
creating and maintaining best practices documentation; and
realizing that physical ATM resources would be scarce — with a lot of testing to do and only a few physical units available. With this in mind, the FI chose to virtualize ATMs, which allowed ATM testers and switch developers to run them right from their desktop PCs.

By taking these steps the bank saved around 1 million pounds during the implementation of their ATM refresh project, and expects to save an additional million pounds each year during the project, Milne said. "Pretty big returns for putting in this type of thought up front."

During the one-hour webinar "ATMs in APAC and Australia: The value of testing," Milne, who has a decade-worth of experience working with FIs on major testing projects, offered a number of reasons why testing was essential, and often, it's not a matter of choice for the FI. (Note: Though the webinar was scheduled for APAC time zones, the content is applicable to any large-scale ATM deployer.)

Unavoidable, externally imposed changes — for example, operating system migration, EMV implementation, and events such as bank mergers and switch consolidation — could force an FI into a testing situation.

However, he added, unavoidable change could also be a strategic opportunity if carefully planned. It might allow an FI to introduce new types of transactions, or take advantage of powerful features available with the latest ATM software.

Whatever the case, he said, automated testing can allow the deployer to reduce the overall cost of implementing changes and upgrades. And these costs are only growing. For example, Milne said, EMV increases testing requirements by a factor of five, due to the need to test cases such as fallback testing, downgrade testing, and of course, the chip itself.

And ultimately, he said, it comes down to ensuring the quality of the customer experience.

"It's all about maintaining your reputation — making sure your ATMs are up on line all the time. And of course making sure that you never hit the front pages of the newspapers reporting any problems with your ATMs."

And manual testing can only take an operator so far, Milne said. Even today, manual test solutions only test messages, not production software. And many potential scenarios cannot be tested, except by using a physical ATM.

To solve this problem, Clear2Pay developed ATM TestLab, which simulates the XFS compliance ATM hardware, the multivendor standard for ATMs. It has the standard items — card reader, PIN pad, cash dispenser. But beyond that, Milne said, "[B]ehind the scenes here I have a whole other virtual machine that contains all of your live production ATM software, and that's connected up to our simulated hardware. That allows us to have a real true test of your ATM software's capabilities in exactly the same way as if it was running on a physical ATM."

Milne walked viewers through a demonstration of TestLab's extensive capabilities — all managed from an easily navigated interface. This demo — along with the slide presentation and Q&A — is now available for replay.

About Suzanne Cluckey

Suzanne’s editorial career has spanned three decades and encompassed all B2B and B2C communications formats. Her award-winning work has appeared in trade and consumer media in the United States and internationally.