FinExpert: domain-specific test generation for FinTech systems

Abstract

To assure high quality of software systems, the comprehensiveness of the created test suite and efficiency of the adopted testing process are highly crucial, especially in the FinTech industry, due to a FinTech system’s complicated system logic, mission-critical nature, and large test suite. However, the state of the testing practice in the FinTech industry still heavily relies on manual efforts. Our recent research efforts contributed our previous approach as the first attempt to automate the testing process in China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) Information Technology Co. Ltd., a subsidiary of China’s Central Bank that provides China’s foreign exchange transactions, and revealed that automating test generation for such complex trading platform could help alleviate some of these manual efforts. In this paper, we investigate further the dilemmas faced in testing the CFETS trading platform, identify the importance of domain knowledge in its testing process, and propose a new approach of domain-specific test generation to further improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our previous approach in industrial settings. We also present findings of our empirical studies of conducting domain-specific testing on subsystems of the CFETS Trading Platform.