Recently TTC sponsored and attended the QA Financial Forum Chicago 2018. The QA Financial Forum adopts a different approach to most software conferences by focusing on a select group of senior leaders within the finance industry. This focus on quality assurance leadership within the finance industry aligned perfectly with some of TTC’s core strengths in implementing quality assurance solutions which accelerate digital transformation within organizations, and our focus on the financial services. TTC has extensive experience across banking, insurance, investment, stock exchanges, payment processing and more in America, Asia, Europe and the Pacific. Unsurprisingly, there was a heavy focus on digital transformation with all attendees that I spoke with discussed the transformations that they are leading and some of the challenges associated with these programs. The presentations and discussions confirmed for me that QA/testing has a crucial role to play within the transformation. Quality is more important than ever before, but QA is often still seen as a bottleneck. Organizations are looking to their IT & QA leadership to find innovative tools and approaches to change the status quo. There were many highlights of the day, but I most enjoyed the panel discussions and the openness of the panellists. Typically at conferences you only hear the positive view rather than drilling into all the challenges that are encountered. At the QA Financial Forum it was far more common to hear “we’ve come a long way in the last 12 months, but these are the challenges we’re going through”. Most appeared to agree that cultural change is key, automation of testing, test environments and test data is essential, and that scaling success across enterprises is much easier said than done. Finally, there was also an increased focus on technology trends and how they will impact the finance industry. The most prominent were:
- Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
- Blockchain & Smart Contracts
- Increased Cyber Security Challenges
- BI & Big Data
It was a great event, stay tuned for follow ups where we discuss how key technological changes are impacting QA in the finance industry. Originally published on www.testingconsultancy.com The next QA Financial Forum will be taking place in Frankfurt on June 13, at the Jumeirah Frankfurt. For more information, click here.
