5000 Transactions in a Row

The idea behind this test is simple, but powerful: If we stress the terminal continuously with regular transactions, we will discover bugs that we cannot discover even with the most elaborate test scripts.

Our partners at Abrantix have been writing terminal applications for years for their clients. Their experience has shown that some issues, especially in lower-level components (i.e., memory handling, driver crashes, file system, DB) are extremely hard to discover and therefore to solve. However, such issues have a detrimental effect on the overall quality of the terminal application. They can show up everywhere, at any time, and no one knows why. The outcome is a subpar user experience, dissatisfied clients, increased service calls, a tarnished reputation, and, most concerning, an unclear path to resolution.

Small step, big impact

Without automation, it is incredibly hard to stress terminals continuously. How many weeks will it take a human to perform 5000 test transactions in a row? How effective and accurate is a human after 100 test transactions, or worse, after 3 days of doing this? What happens over night, when humans sleep?

Only with automation is it possible to stress the terminal to the point where you will find underlying issues. In addition, it is crucial to use the actual terminal hardware for testing. To fully benefit from this, you need an end-to-end setup that includes all hardware, firmware, memory systems, and other components.

Enter test automation with robotics. With our robotic solution, this test case is very easy to implement. Most of our clients are up and running with a simple automated transaction in a few hours. Once you have this simple test case, you can loop it, and you're set. PaytestRobot will operate 24/7, providing faster and more accurate performance than humans, and can thoroughly stress your terminal. The results will astonish you.

?70 issues per terminal?!

PaytestRobot was created out of an internal need. The goal was to implement test automation for the terminal development team. Abrantix initially performed the ‘5000 transactions in a row’ test using our very first robot. Here is a summary of what they discovered:

The test was performed with 76 different terminal models and applications

• A test run took approx. 2 days
• None of the terminals passed the test on the first try
• They found an average of 70 bugs per terminal
• Over 50% were hardware and firmware bugs that had to be fixed by the terminal vendor

Abrantix anticipated uncovering some issues, but the overwhelming number of problems and the fact that none of the terminals passed the test was a significant revelation.

After fixing the bugs that were found, they saw a massive improvement in overall quality and much happier clients. All of this without complex test cases and test coverage, just by running the simplest test transactions.

?Do your terminals pass the test?

This simple test will improve your overall quality too. After all, a stable platform improves your application development. In fact, we recommend to all our clients to start with such simple cases first. "Low hanging fruit" means automation that requires minimal effort and expense while delivering significant benefits. Simple cases like this will give you a quick win and even justify the cost of a robot. And while you can reap the benefits of this test quickly, you can experiment with more complex test automations in parallel.

We would love to hear about your experience. How do you deal with suspected low-level issues? Have you ever completed 5000 transactions in a row??