The New Normal

Everyone has just been through massive changes in their way of working. Some of us still are. Here in Australia for example, many banks have only just recently allowed most staff to return to the office. However, soon we will all have to transition back to “the new normal”, which in most cases probably means some mix of working from home and the office. 

Challenges with remote testing 

If you are in the payment terminal testing space, or any other role involving hardware testing, the last two years must have been challenging. Going in and out of lockdowns meant that testers had to take home test terminals and other gear so they could continue to work. And hopefully everyone always had the correct test cards at home. Forgetting one of those could mean days of delays because not all test cases can be performed if test cards are missing. In addition to all this, tools, infrastructure and networks had to be adjusted to enable remote working. Hello good old VPN and Remote Desktop. 

And then there are also some test labs that, for security reasons, are completely disconnected from the internet which likely raised some interesting risk vs. cost and time to market discussions.  

How does this all work when we are splitting working from home and working at the office? Do all testers require duplicate equipment, one set at home, one for the office? Or do they move gear around all the time? Or are they simply forced to work at the office? 

How should a remote testing setup look like 

Does it really have to be this way? What is the ideal setup for terminal testing? 

Let me describe how I believe such a system should look. 

First, the ideal terminal testing system should be available from anywhere, at any time. You can write and execute tests from the office, from home or even on your way to work from public transport. 

Second, the system should allow you to test on both real hardware and if available also on virtual systems.  

At the same time, test terminals should be able to participate in this system wherever they are. At a testers home, or in a test lab, or anywhere else. Wherever the terminals are, cards can be inserted, screens can be recognized, and testing can occur as normal. 

In addition, manual and automated testing should be easily supported, including using real hardware. 

Finally, there should be a repository of test cards that is available virtually and physically at any place, whether you are at home or in the office. So, at any time and place, any given card can be chosen for a test case on any terminal. 

What does your ideal payment terminal test system look like?

If you would like to learn how Abrantix PaytestHub and the terminal testing robots can help enable your testing to keep up with the new normal, please contact us!