Challenges, Methodologies, and Issues in Mobile Banking Testing Process.

Mobile banking is defined as using a mobile phone to access bank account, or any other financial account. Mobile banking can be done accessing a bank's web page through web browser on mobile phone, using text messaging, or by downloading a mobile bank application to mobile phone. A significant number of mobile phone users have already experienced mobile banking and surveys about use of mobile banking predict increasing number of mobile banking customers. High rate of adoption mobile banking and developing mobile technology enhance competitive pressure in mobile banking sector. As a result of that, consumers prefer mobile banking services which are reliable, secure, usable, etc. Customers use mobile banking services of the banks which they trust. Therefore, banks place importance of testing process of mobile banks to serve their customers with bug-free applications with customer oriented design and process. Software testing of financial applications developed for mobile devices is an emerging research area that encounters wide range of challenges in terms of unique features of mobile devices, limited bandwidth, unreliability of wireless networks, as well as the changing context (environmental factors). Additionally privacy of customer data, masking financial data and security are key concepts that should be considered in testing process of mobile banking applications. Traditional guidelines and methods used in testing of desktop applications may not be directly applicable to a mobile environment. Therefore, it is essential to develop and adopt appropriate testing methodologies that can evaluate the quality of mobile applications. This paper focuses on challenges that are faced in testing process of mobile banking applications considering testing methodologies. Connectivity, screen size, different display resolutions, data entry methods, inadequacy fields of testing tools in mobile testing are main challenging areas of mobile banking testing process. Additionally, the paper proposes a generic framework and provides detailed guidelines on how to conduct usability testing considering challenges. The paper also covers security issues in mobile banking and testing methods to minimize security risks. Moreover, real time example cases from development and testing process of mobile financial applications from a bank in Turkey are referenced in the paper. Finally, some remarking conclusions are addressed in the last part of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]