QA Financial is pleased to announce that entry for our 2019 Global Software and App Awards is now open. The deadline for entries is July 31st 2019. Winners will be announced on October 21st 2019. The QA Financial Global Software and App Awards are the only awards dedicated to software quality assurance, testing, delivery and IT risk management at banks and other financial services firms. There is no limit on the number of Awards categories your firm can enter, but each entry must be distinct and relevant to the criteria set out in our descriptions of each award. For any queries or further guidance, email us at info@qa-financial.com.
What we’re looking for:
You can see our Awards citations for 2018 here. These will provide a guide to what we are looking for in entries. To summarise, the winners of our awards will have demonstrated:
- Innovation in response to customer demand and market opportunities, and in response to regulatory and compliance requirements.
- Innovation in the application of new technologies, such as automation, AI and machine learning.
- The expert execution of quality assurance in the delivery of apps, software development projects, software products or technology platforms.
How to enter:
The categories are listed below. We want to hear about projects completed over the past 12 months, so that their success can be verified. The entry process is simple. Just tell us about your project by July 31st 2019, in the forms provided in the links below. To encourage submissions, we do not ask for exhaustive detail of your project at this initial entry stage, so a 400-500 word description will be adequate. Please focus submissions on what you consider to be the key innovations and benchmarks for improved standards of quality assurance in the project(s) or product(s) in question. You can enter your firm for as many categories as you wish, free of charge, but please remember to complete one form per category entered. The Awards will be decided exclusively by our editorial panel. No third party companies will be involved in the decision process and there is no charge for entry. We will notify those companies that have been short-listed for an award after the deadline for entries. All information submitted will be treated in confidence. However, we will ask winners for on-the-record interviews and will be seeking independent verification and on-the-record comments from clients cited. Our awards winners will be announced on October 21st 2019 and all of our awards citations will be published at QA-Financial.com.
Categories:
Quality Assurance Technology Vendor of the Year
To be awarded to a QA vendor firm. QA Financial’s most prestigious award for 2019, which will be made in conjunction with one of the other, following awards. QA Financial covers more than 400 companies that offer software quality assurance services ranging from test automation, to performance and value stream management, to DevOps advisory and data management. In short, this award will recognise the best story of innovation and excellence in markets we cover. Click here to enter.
Automation for Continuous Delivery Vendor of the Year
To be awarded to QA vendor firm. Continuous delivery with quality is the CTO’s number one objective. Achieving substantially higher rates of automation is one key benchmark of progress, and we will be looking for evidence of consistent success with financial services clients in this respect. Vendors are encouraged to submit award entries that reference the effective implementation of technologies such as containerisation and virtualisation. But the other key criterion our judges will look for is how is the quality of software is established and benchmarked in this transition. Click here to enter.
Software Quality Engineering Management Platform of the Year
To be awarded to a QA vendor firm. This vendor award will reflect how Value Stream Management has become established as a critical strategic objective for financial firms, which often have multiple software development teams working in different divisions across the enterprise. How is best practice in software development and quality assurance measured? How are new tools most effectively engaged with legacy tools? What is the firm-wide RoI, and how can costs be reduced? Click here to enter.
DevOps for Continuous Delivery Advisory Company of the Year
To be awarded to an IT consultancy, services vendor or systems integrator. Systems integrators and consultancies are operating in an increasingly competitive environment in the financial services sector. On paper they all have access to vendor partners with cutting-edge development tools. But research shows that the impact they achieve with their customers — their success in managing their transition programmes — varies greatly. This award will reference a measurably successful project with a leading financial firm. Click here to enter.
The QA Financial Rising Star Award — Most Exciting New Business
To be awarded to a QA vendor firm. Our award for a young software quality assurance business — five years old or less — that is making an impact with financial sector clients. We are looking for an innovation that meets a clear market need. Customer feedback supporting the entry is nonetheless a requirement. Click here to enter.
The AI in Software Quality Assurance Award
To be awarded to a QA vendor firm. There is no question that AI is the topic of 2019. It’s the future; the doorway to cognitive computing. But there are currently only few real-world applications of AI beyond RPA, the automation of repeated tasks. This award will recognise the firm that is leading the way in AI for financial software development and quality assurance. Click here to enter.
The QA Financial Technology Leader of the Year (Financial Firm)
To be awarded to an individual. IT change is driven by two things: people and technology. This is an award that will recognise the achievements of a QA leader working at a financial firm; it could be a bank, insurer, exchange or asset manager. We are looking for an individual who has managed the investment in systems and staff required to complete a major transition project, completed in the past 12 months — in other words: someone with a great story to tell! Click here to enter.
The QA Financial Technology Leader of the Year (Vendor)
To be awarded to an individual. The technology landscape is shaped by entrepreneurs. We will recognise the leader of a company whose ideas and efforts have helped advance software quality assurance. Click here to enter.
Security Testing Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. There are three top priorities for financial firms when it comes to managing IT: security, security and… security. Of course, the success stories behind security and penetration testing upgrades are typically not in the public domain. However, we invite submissions from vendors who are prepared to shed some light on their success, particularly those who have proven success in launching a new product over the past 12 months. Click here to enter.
Performance and Load Testing Vendor of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. Performance testing is the single greatest challenge faced by financial firms; quite simply the hardest area of software development in which to dramatically increase rates of automation. And yet the challenges of performance testing only increases, in demand for online services. For this vendor award, we are inviting submissions from firms that can point to measurable success with a project completed in the past 12 months. Click here to enter.
Open Source Software Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. Many financial firms — large and small — believe that a strategy based on open-source tools offers them more control over their technology and enables them to better develop in-house skills. And it can be cheaper that way. But most still want advice and partnership on the open source route. This award will highlight a digital transformation project where development and QA is based (not necessarily elusively) on open source tools. Click here to enter.
Test Data Management Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. Ask a major financial firm to identify the single largest, individual investment decision that it has had to make over the past year and the chances are that the reply will be: test environment management. This is also the area in which new virtualisation and masking technologies are leading to the largest long-term cost efficiencies. Click here to enter.
Crowd Testing Project of the Year Award
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. The growing popularity of crowd testing a counter-point to the general trend of automation of software quality assurance. However, crowd testing is an option that IT risk managers may have concerns about, because by definition it involves a resource — testers — that lies outside the business. Click here to enter.
UX Testing Solution Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. Research shows that a bad app experience is more off-putting for bank customers and other financial services customers than zero access to an app. The expectations of retail financial services customers are rising all the time, and the better the app; the better the market share. But the UX challenge becomes ever-more complex: more devices to test, new requirements for accessibility testing, and more compliance issues to tackle. Click here to enter.
Investment Banking Software Quality Assurance Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. Investment banking has been the leading source innovation in financial software development over recent years, as firms have sought to produce apps that matched the complexity of securities and derivatives markets. Increasingly, regulatory and compliance requirement are driving business requirements. The Basel Committee’s Fundamental review of the Trading Book, for example, requires extensive upgrades to systems that connect trading desks to risk management functions. Our award will recognise a project that overcame the challenges of complexity and set a new standard in software excellence. Click here to enter.
Exchange and Trading Software Quality Assurance Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. The complexity of exchange and inter-dealer markets poses particular challenges. Low-latency, high volume trading with multiple — sometimes thousands — of counterparties makes performance testing the most demanding of all, especially given the constraints of market hours. No wonder exchanges are turning to the most advanced development technologies for solutions. Click here to enter.
Retail Banking Software Quality Assurance Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. The problems at the UK’s TSB in 2018 — a collapse of the bank’s online platform during a major attempted IT transition — highlighted the urgency and sensitivity of change that involves complex legacy systems and new technologies such as micro-services. IT leadership now requires understanding the technical demands of the architecture it has set out to achieve. This award will recognise how a retail bank, with its vendors partners, has met that challenge and completed a successful major transition project in the past 12 months. Click here to enter.
Insurance Company Software Quality Assurance Project
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. The insurance industry has been behind the curve of digital transition. But it is changing fast in two key areas: the automation of claims and other customer processing, and growing demand for customer-facing apps that generate new business with excellent UX. Insurance companies are also faced with the challenge — and opportunity — of massive data environments to manage. We want to hear your story! Click here to enter.
Asset Management and Wealth Software Quality Assurance Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. Asset management and wealth management firms are the number one new business target for software quality assurance service vendors right now. This is partly because the banking industry is a far more mature market, and partly because asset managers have been slow to adopt new technologies. This award will recognise change and innovation. The customer company involved does not have to be a major international name – we recognise that some of the most interesting stories are happening at niche financial firms. Click here to enter.
FinTech Software Quality Assurance Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. The FinTech customer company that features in our award citation can be a neo-bank, a credit platform, or crowd-funding business. We are happy to consider entries from FinTech hubs or platforms. What we are looking for is a great story about how a new business has embedded quality in its app development. Click here to enter.
RegTech and Compliance Software Quality Assurance Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. Massive recent fines for UBS and Goldman Sachs from the the UK regulator, the FCA, for their misreporting of trade data under MiFID rules have underlined the challenge in automating compliance processes and the challenges of the IT audit process. This award will go to the company, and its customer, that has successfully tested for regulatory compliance in digital change. Click here to enter.
Risk Management Software Quality Assurance Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. The demands of financial risk management are increasingly driving change in software systems at banks and investment firms. MIFiD compliance remains a priority. Meanwhile, Basel’s Fundamental Review of the Trading Book (FRTB) for example, will — over the next few years — require banks to completely transform the way they render their market risk positions to their risk engines. As In turn this is driving the adoption of Agile and DevOps at banks as they strive to overhaul those systems. Click here to enter.
Public Sector and Regulatory Software Quality Assurance Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. QA Financial recognises that public sector agencies — especially those involved in the supervision of financial firms — are facing some of the same challenging decisions in IT investment as those they supervise. And typically they have smaller budgets with which to address those challenges. Equally, there are opportunities in the automation of reporting and other compliance processes that have a compelling long-term logic. While inherently conservative institutions may move slowly, we know that some of the most interesting stories in central banking and market supervision are stories that involve the modernisation of software platforms. Click here to enter.
Mobile App Development Project of the Year
To be awarded jointly to a QA vendor firm and its client for the project. Mobile is the key battleground for market share. It’s a given in retail banking and increasingly true of asset management and insurance. The best app means more business, but equally customers are increasing impatient with poor quality, in design and functionality. This award will go to a financial app launched over the past 12 months that has combined quality with innovation to deliver incresaed revenues. Click here to enter.
QA Financial Vendor Website of the Year Award
To be awarded to a QA vendor firm. A technology business will automatically have a great website, correct? No. It’s surprising how often a website fails to describe clearly what is being sold, looks badly-designed or fails to engage and lead visitors to basic information and to value-added technical content. This award will go to the the firm that we believe has an industry leading website. An award for the marketing department to celebrate! But you have to be in it to win it. Click here to enter.
